Mangia! Going back to my roots with homemade pasta

This week has been a good week. We're getting close to the end of the quarter and classes are a little crazy, but things have been good otherwise. I'm wrapping up the project with the hospital, and I started training for my summer internship. I also got to spend the whole week with Paul, which is always a treat--it's funny to think that we won't be long distance for too much longer!

This week I also accomplished one of my culinary goals: making pasta from scratch. I sort of inherited my great-grandmother's pasta maker, and decided it was time to put it to use. If you've never seen one of these things (and I hadn't until I saw this one), they're pretty nifty:

Still in the original box. If you look closely, you'll see the
price: $19.95.

Unboxed. The first slot is for rolling and the other two are
for cutting different widths.

The unfortunate thing is that even though I have my great-grandmother's pasta maker, I don't have her recipe. My guess is that (like a lot of the things she made) she never needed one. The recipe you see below comes from Italian Cooking Made Easy and uses both semolina and all-purpose flour. Semolina is coarser than regular flour and makes the dough a little sturdier, which is good if you are using a pasta maker or making a stuffed pasta like ravioli or tortellini.

I've tried to show some of the technique through the pictures, but if you're really interested in trying this I highly recommend watching a few videos. This one by chefpaulm52 on YouTube is one of the best one around.

So after studying up on my pasta-making technique and finding an available photographer (Paul) for capturing action shots, I made some pasta!

Homemade Pasta
Serves 2 as a main dish, probably 4 as a side

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups unbleached flour
• 1/4 cup semolina flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 2 eggs

 Steps

1.  Combine the two flours and salt in a bowl. Pour onto a work surface like a wooden cutting board or a clean countertop. Mound the flour and form a well in the center. Beat the eggs and olive oil together, and then carefully pour them into the well.

Keep the egg contained in your flour volcano.

2.  Using a fork, carefully knock some flour into the egg a little at a time, stirring to combine. Keep the walls of your well intact as much as you can to corral the egg.

An action shot of the stirring process.

A close up of the flour going into the egg.

Eventually, you'll end up with a gooey flour mess that looks something like this:

You'll keep adding flour as you knead the dough.

3.  Gather the flour mess together and start to knead it, incorporating more flour as needed. My method was to form it into a log (lying vertically) and then fold up about a third from one end and press down with the heel of my hand, and then fold it up the rest of the way and press down again. Then I rolled it with both hands until it was a log again (now lying horizontally).

Add flour as needed to keep the dough from sticking.

4.  Keep kneading it and adding flour as necessary for at least ten minutes. Eventually, the dough will start to change. It won't feel so dry and will become easier to knead. It will become softer and smoother, and sort of tacky. It will start to feel...a lot like Play-Doh, actually.

See the difference?

Once this happens, ball it up in your hand and poke a finger in. If the dough bounces back all the way, you're done kneading.

The finger test.

Wrap the dough in some plastic wrap and let it rest for 30-60 minutes at room temperature.

The dough's tired--it needs a break.

5.  Now you're ready to roll! Cut the dough into small pieces, and keep them covered with the plastic wrap until you're ready to work with them. Take one piece of dough and flatten it with the floured heel of your hand. Run it through a wide setting on your pasta maker.

You don't have to go through each setting on the pasta
maker--the instructions for mine said to run the dough through
number 7 a few times, then number 4 once, and then
number 2 twice.

Fold the piece of dough in thirds (fold the ends in so you end up with a nice rectangle), flatten it, and run it through the wide setting two or three more times, folding after each rolling. This helps knead and stretch the dough a little more.

Run the dough through a medium setting, and then a thin setting once or twice (without the folding step). Then, switch over to the cutting blades! We used the wide noodle blade, which resulted in a fettuccine shape.

Cut noodles and dough waiting to be rolled.

Toss the cut noodles with a little flour to keep them from sticking together. At this point you can refrigerate or freeze the noodles, or lay them out to dry.


6.  To cook the fresh pasta immediately, boil a pot of salted water and add the noodles. Be sure to shake off the excess flour before you throw them in the pot.

Into the pot they go!

Cook the fresh pasta for only about 2 minutes! Then, drain it and serve as you normally would.

That's what I call a balanced meal.

This pasta was probably one of the best things I've ever made! It had a great texture and just the right amount of "bite." Two minutes was the perfect cooking time.

Another blurry action shot. Paul couldn't wait to dig in!

Yum!

I'll never know how my pasta compares with my great-grandmother's...but I'd like to think she'd be proud.  

Chocolate Pudding for One

One of the challenges of cooking for one is dealing with my favorite meal of the day: dessert.

I only really bake brownies or cookies when I've got someone to give them to (students and housemates are great for this, most of the time). Muffins and other baked goods only get made when I can claim some space and stash a few in the freezer.

That means that the solo dessert-eater is a bit limited in choices, especially if you don't live with other people who are willing to eat the rest of that two-tiered chocolate cake for you.

The mug cake/mug brownie craze is one option, and I'd have to say it's a pretty good one. Some other choices are ice cream and hot chocolate, also good. But sometimes I get sick of them, and sometimes I just want something different. When that happens, I turn to this recipe: chocolate pudding.

Mmmmm.. warm, homemade pudding.

I know what you're thinking: isn't that what they make pudding cups for? Yes, probably, but I never seem to think that far ahead when I grocery shop, plus who knows if I'll feel like pudding that week or not. Personally, I find it easier to just keep a lot of basic ingredients on hand, so that I can make whatever appeals to me when I want it.

This recipe actually derives from a hot cocoa recipe on the Eating Well site. I found it when I was in a hot chocolate mood, and the short list of ingredients appealed to me. As I read through the comments, I was intrigued by one reviewer's observation that simply adding more cornstarch to the recipe resulted in something more pudding-like. I took the idea and ran with it.

The recipe you see below makes enough pudding for one chocoholic, or probably two regular people. The full serving is about 170 calories if you use skim milk. (I haven't tried it with nondairy or any other type of milk.) If you want to make hot cocoa instead, reduce the amount of cornstarch to about 1 1/2 teaspoons. Or, if you get tired of waiting for your pudding to thicken I suppose you could just drink it instead.

Chocolate Pudding
Serves one, but is enough to share!

Only four basic ingredients! And you probably have them!

Ingredients

1 cup milk
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp cornstarch
1 tbsp cocoa powder

Dash of vanilla, optional
Dash of salt, optional

Steps

1.  Heat milk in a saucepan over the lowest heat setting.

I've found that this funny looking flat spoon is the best
stirring utensil for this. You can use a whisk in the beginning,
but switch to a spoon for the best pan-scraping ability.

2.  Stir in sugar, cornstarch, and cocoa. Add a dash of vanilla and/or a pinch of salt, if desired. Whisk or stir vigorously with a wooden spoon until combined.

It looks messy at first.

But it will come together!

3.  Heat, stirring frequently. Scrap the sides and bottom of the pan with the spoon often.

If you're bored at this point, you could probably just stop
and have hot chocolate.

4.  The mixture will eventually begin to thicken. When it comes to a simmer (slow bubbles every few seconds), stir constantly.

Look for the slow bubbles.

5.  Cook and stir until the mixture reaches a thin pudding consistency. (It will thicken some as it stands.) Pour into a bowl or container.

At this point, if you've planned ahead, you can refrigerate your pudding to eat later. Press a piece of plastic wrap into the pudding surface if you want to avoid the pudding skin, or just cover it loosely if you happen to like the skin.

I, however, seldom realize that I want pudding until I really want it right then. So I just pour it into a bowl and let it cool a bit while I wash the dishes, and then eat it while it's still warm.

Top it with strawberries or banana slices!

Ricotta Gnocchi

I have a problem: I love pasta.

I know it's not the best thing for me and all that, but I can't help it. It's delicious.

I especially love stuffed pastas--ravioli, and tortellini, and their friends. I only order them at restaurants though, because if you've ever looked at those little refrigerated packets of Buitoni at the supermarket...well, they're expensive. Extra delicious and extra tasty compared to dried pasta, but expensive.

Fortunately, I've found an alternative. Without the time and/or resources to go about making my own ravioli or other flour-based pasta, I've finally discovered a fresh pasta I can make with minimal time, effort, and special equipment: Ricotta Gnocchi. And did I mention it's cheap? Literally the only ingredient I had to buy was the ricotta cheese ($2.99 at Kroger); everything else I already had!

The original recipe comes from The Kitchn; the version I am posting contains just a couple of adjustments.

Strained ricotta, Parmesan, flour, egg, and salt.

Ingredients

1 15-oz container of part-skim ricotta cheese
1 large egg
1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup all-purpose flour, plus more as needed

Your favorite pasta sauce

Steps

1.  Drain the ricotta. Line a strainer with several coffee filters and place over a bowl; put the ricotta in the strainer and place the whole thing in the fridge for at least half an hour. (Not much drained out of my cheese--this step would be more important if you were using the whole-milk ricotta called for in the original recipe.)
2. Combine the strained ricotta, egg, Parmesan, salt, and 3/4 cup of flour. Cover and refrigerate for 15 minutes.



Gnocchi dough should be soft and tacky.

3. Test a piece of dough by rolling it between your fingers. It should be tacky, but not sticky. If necessary, add more flour one tablespoon at a time until you get the right consistency. (I didn't need to add any--perhaps because I had an ounce less cheese than the original recipe calls for.) Refrigerate again for 15 minutes.



Roll a piece of dough between your fingers to see if it sticks.

4. Flour your hands and work surface. Break off pieces of dough and roll them into 3/4" logs. Cut into lengths of 3/4". I found that it was easiest to roll out two or three logs at a time and cut them together.



Special guests: fork and santoku knife.

5. If desired, make ridges by rolling the gnocchi off the back of a fork. This is something I didn't really understand until I watched several people do it on YouTube, so look for a tutorial.



Look at those beautiful ridges!

6. Place gnocchi on a floured baking sheet until ready to use.
7. Boil a pot of water and add the gnocchi in batches. Wait for them to float to the top then let them cook another minute or two before removing them to a strainer. 
8. Put gnocchi in a bowl, add sauce, and serve!

Dinner!

A few observations...

It's been a long time since I've had potato gnocchi, so I'm not sure how this compares. But, they are tasty and delicious and very filling.

Rolled vs. unrolled gnocchi? I made some of each and they were both good. The rolled gnocchi tended to cook more evenly, since you sort of press them down to a uniform thickness on the fork. The unrolled gnocchi were sort of soft and fluffy on the insides, which I kind of liked. Both are good.

The recipe is supposed to serve 4. It made about 60 gnocchi. Because I was very hungry, I ate about 20 of them and then froze the others in two batches. (To freeze, place your floured baking sheet of gnocchi in the freezer until they harden, then put them in freezer bags).

Overall, an easy homemade recipe that I'll get three meals out of after spending about three dollars!