Pastabilities. The master thread....

Pasta is arguably one of the most flexible things in the world to cook. Nothing is more satisfying than a well made bowl of pasta and especially one you put together yourself.
I myself have been having a blast with many different ingredients in the last few months; experimenting and trying new things and the results are certainly is not my mother’s Sunday pasta (Many of my creations can be found in this forum). I would love to start this one up and keep it going forward with your own entries/experiments and insights.

Some of my favorite items to have on hand are Cento Italian tomatoes (from the 35oz can only), organic guanciale (pig jowl), pancetta, speck (smoked prosciutto), super large and fresh basil, fresh ricotta, broccoli-rabe, different shellfish, assorted beans beans and a bevy of many different artisian pastas. I also love to go the fresh route, but save that for the weekends. I have a Imperia 150 pasta machine, an old cavatelli machine (which I LOVE), many ravioli plates and cutters and an extruder. My pasta usually has a variation of AP flour and semolina with eggs.


Last nights rendition was a smoked Italian sausage with basil sauce. I have no pics, but take my word— It was really good with a perfect balance of smoke/spice and freshness.

----------I sliced 2 smoked sausages into disks about ¼ inch thick. I started with 3 thick slices of guanciale and rendered them until I had about 2 tablespoons of oil in the pan. To that I added the sausage and sautéed until nicely browned. I then added about ½ cup of diced onions and cooked for about 6 minutes until translucent then added 2 cloves of chopped garlic. I raised the heat and moved the items in the pan to the sides while a nice brown sucs built up in the pan to which I deglazed with a splash of white wine. I added 7/8 fresh chopped plum tomatoes which I had boiled lightly and skinned earlier, 2 tablespoons of tomato paste, salt pepper and pinch or two of sugar (to help the fresh tomatoes). After 5 minutes I add about a half a cup of water to get the consistency I wanted and 15-20 large leaves of fresh basil. I brought it to high simmer and lowered heat and covered. Tasted and adjusted with salt and pepper.

Meanwhile I boiled a pound of Gamelli dried pasta until a dente and poured the sauce over the pasta. Added a generous dose of Parmigiano-Reggiano, splash of the pasta water and I was done.

Now get to it!

Sunday dinner: Tagliatelle with salmon in creamy dill sauce.

1 large salmon steak
1 pound tagliatelle
1/2 onion
splash white wine
2 tablespoons butter
about 1/4 cup of fresh dill, chopped
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup panna cream
Salt and pepper to taste

I bake the salmon in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes. Boil the water and start the sauce.
Place the butter into a saucepan and melt. All the onion (finely chopped) and cook for about 5 minutes until gone near translucent. Add the wine and raise the heat a bit to boil. 3 or four minutes I lower the heat and add the creams and dill. Simmer for 4 or 5 minutes and add the fish which I break up a bit. S&P to taste. Once the pasta is done a dente, I top with the sauce, some more dill for garnish and voila!

Very Nice Mike…

I love fresh herbs, but I always find I never use the whole container!!

You?

Agree. I have finally figured out how to use all that basil after the first 10 leaves have been used (an ongoing winter dilemma): I make sure i was it, dry and remove each leaf one at a time. Place on a long paper towel and blot dry again. Put another towel on top and roll loosely and place in freezer. Each leaf is perfectly frozen and if you use put them right into a sauce while still frozen, they stay green and don’t turn black. They thaw supe-quick— Works great. Dill? No usable plan yet.

I’ve started playing around with flavoring for my fresh pasta.

Last week was a saffron and black pepper pasta for my lasagne.

Damn, Mark. Are you making past for the 82nd Airborne? That looks like five pounds of flour and a dozen eggs.

Did you infuse the yolks with saffron, somehow ? or did you use a powder?

I’m not playing with ingredients as much as texture.

I had pici/pinci for the first time in Tuscany over the holidays. It’s thick, fresh pasta made from semolina, flour, and water. The texture and bite remind me of Japanese udon noodles.

My first attempt to make pici was the traditional approach. Take a ball of dough, roll it out to a ~1/4" rope by hand and cut into 4-6" lengths. Too much time for me. Last night I ran dough through a pasta machine with the rollers set to ~1/4" thick, put it on a board, and cut into ~1/4" strips with a knife. Then I rolled each strip by hand a bit and it was done. Much faster.

We’ve been eating it with duck ragu. I used an inexpensive nebbiolo in the ragu and mix in Parmasan and a bit of truffle salt when combining with the pici. Barolo and Barbaresco just dance with the stuff.

3 cups flour
3 eggs + 1 yolk

olive oil
salt
water

Roll it out to #6 on the Atlas machine and it does a standard 9x16 lasagne 4 layers of pasta 3 of filling.

The recipe called for 2 TBSP H²O. I just infused the saffron in the warm water.

I’ve been experimenting with primavera lately. Last night cut the florets off broccoli then skinned the stalks and put them in food processor with a couple cloves of garlic, added this to the pan with the linguini, evoo, pasta water, blanched broccoli florets. Topped with 2 TBSP whole milk, peppers and parmesan. Loverly!!

Sometimes, the things you make are right before your eyes!!

I made Potato gnocchi a few weeks ago ( they freeze well )… I think it was MIchael Chirello recipe. These I fried, usually i boil them, thanks Martin!!

Vodka sauce and Braised Majinola Beef cheeks to finish.

Nice job, Paul. Looks great!

Yum!

Are cheeks something that Majinola always carries? They’re typically hard to find at retail…

Ingredients: '00 flour, eggs, Italian plum tomatoes, Prosciutto, garlic, red pepper flakes, Salt, black pepper

Brett,

They are not in production at the moment, trust me I called [swearing.gif] . These things are the bomb. I just had some from the other night’s dinner. So basically this was a left -over dish.

I Made the gnocchi, but this time I pan fried them. It gives the dish a nice texture, with the braised cheeks.

I love these series photos you do - just lovely.

My simplest and best pasta meals at home often come from necessity: Look in refrigerator, see what is there, make do.

Recently: some gorgeous brussel sprouts sauteed in EVO, salt and pepper. Combined with some top quality dried pasta (I have been loving this “Marella” brand). Sprinkle with freshly grated parmesan. I kid you not - no garlic, onion, or anything else. Just delicious, seated by the fire, glass of Cabernet in hand.

With our long days, Carrie needs to keep it simple. On a regular basis, Carrie makes pasta using either spaghetti, rigatoni or mostacholi with fresh pressed garlic, sauteed in olive oil and a little bit of butter and topped with grated parmigiana cheese. Quick, simple and can handle big syrahs, zins and petite sirahs.

Pasta has to be the most versatile meal. [cheers.gif]

That’s one of my favorite pasta sauces!

Names, we need names… [cheers.gif]

We began eating pasta regularly in the mid-90s when Carollee’s blood pressure and cholesterol levels rose dramatically. We’ve eaten pasta a couple times a week since then. Here in Santa Fe (since 2003/2004) we’ve enjoyed Rustichella d’Abruzzo pastas, since I’m too lazy to make my own.