Gifts and Some Pasta

For my Birthday last month I got a great big food processor from my mom. The very first time I used it, I put it to work pulverizing pistachios, sugar, flour, and butter into a struesel for inside an apple strudel I made for my grandmother for Christmas Eve. In the process of figuring out how to work this new piece of heavy machinery, my brother and I both ended up with sliced fingers and hands from the slick sharp new blades. We were in a rush to get the strudel into the oven so I worked one-handed while my little brother bandaged my fingers (and then carefully cut away small layers of dough where some blood may or may not have dripped... but no one was the wiser!).

The second time I (carefully) pulled out my sparkly new food processor was yesterday--when I endeavoured to make my own pasta from scratch with another new toy I got for Christmas: a pasta maker. I went into this thinking it would not only be difficult, but also time consuming and messy. So you can imagine my surprise when, less than 30 minutes later, I was sitting at the table eating my freshly cooked fresh pasta in an ozzy cheese sauce (courtesy of Jamie Oliver). However, the huge pile of dishes and the flour that ended up all over my kitchen meant that I was at least right about one thing. But I'll blame myself and not the pasta for that one.


As for the pasta, it tasted fantastic, so much better than the dried kind you get in a box at Safeway. It actually had nice salty flavor that could almost stand on its own. It cooked so quickly and had a lovely texture that didn't resemble over or undercooked pasta, but the perfect al dente. I liked the taste of the pasta on its own so much that I might try and make it with only melted butter, some sugar, and cinamon for a dessert. The creamy cheese sauce was good, but next time I would go for something a little less cheesy and a little more creamy, as the parmesean was a bit on the pungent side and made the whole house smell like vomit. However, I didn't mind the taste of the guyere and the creme fraiche was an interesting alternative to actual cream and gave the sauce a nice little zing of flavor. I'll also add that this meal was a bit... heavy. I didn't have to eat much at all to feel stuffed. This could either be due to the cheesy-creamy ratio or the fact that I didn't run the pasta through the rollers enough times, so it was a bit on the thick side. Either way, I am more than willing to try making my own pasta again in the near future.







Jamie Oliver's Pasta with Oozy Cheese Sauce
adapted from Jamie at Home

1. Crack 4 eggs into a food processor with 2 cups of flour. Process. The dough should be a bit crumbly looking, if it's sticky, add a bit more flour.
2. Dump pasta dough onto a floured work surface and press into a ball. Knead a few times to get it together well (this should be pretty easy). Divide the dough into four pieces.
3. Take a piece of dough and run it through your pasta machine on its widest setting. Jamie says to run it through a couple times on each setting until it's about the "width of a CD". I would say a little thinner than that because otherwise your pasta is going to be very thick after it's cooked.
4. Liberally flour both sides of your sheet of dough then fold it together and cut it into strips. Seperate the strips and add more flour to coat. Repeat with the remaining dough.
5. For the cheese sauce, you want to place a bowl over a pot of boiling water (the pot should be big enough to cook all your fresh pasta in when your sauce is done) and mix together 1 cup of creme fraiche, and about a handful of parmesean and guyere (although you can use any "good melting cheese"). When it's all melted, add salt and pepper to taste.
6. Throw your pasta into the pot of boiling water and cook for about 2-3 minutes. Drain and mix with the sauce. Voila!