Homemade pasta + homemade sauce + homemade bread = Delicious!
The pasta recipe is from
Tide and Thyme. Once you find a recipe that works for you stick with it. I love this recipe. I have tried others but this is still my favorite.
Homemade Pasta-
Ingredients-
1½ cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surfaces
1½ cups semolina flour
½ teaspoon salt
4 large eggs
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoon water, plus more as needed
Method-
Combine the flours and salt in a bowl or on a work surface, creating a well in the center. Crack the eggs into the well. Using a mixer or by hand, slowly mix, incorporating the flour into the egg mixture a little bit at a time. Once you have a dry, shaggy dough, mix in the olive oil and water and knead by hand until the dough is fairly smooth and homogeneous. Divide the dough into four portions and cover with a damp towel. Let rest for 20 minutes. At this point, proceed with thinning and cutting as desired, depending on equipment available.
To cook, cook noodles in a large pot of boiling water for 3-5 minutes or until al dente. Drain well and serve immediately.
The sauce, well do you have to ask?
Marcella Hazan's Tomato, Onion, and Butter Sauce. I sauteed some chopped up Chorizo Sausage and added it to the sauce after I blended the sauce. I hate the idea of throwing out the onions. The sauce was perfect. Just enough spice to make you want one more bite.
Marcella Hazan's Tomato Sauce with Onion and Butter-
Ingredients-
2 pounds fresh, ripe tomatoes, prepared as described below, or 2 cups canned imported Italian tomatoes, cut up, with their juice
5 tablespoons butter
1 medium onion, peeled and cut in half
Salt to taste
Method-Put either the prepared fresh tomatoes or the canned in a saucepan, add the butter, onion, and salt, and cook uncovered at a very slow, but steady simmer for about 45 minutes, or until it is thickened to your liking and the fat floats free from the tomato.
Stir from time to time, mashing up any large pieces of tomato with the back of a wooden spoon.
Taste and correct for salt. Before tossing with pasta, you may remove the onion (as Hazan recommended) and save for another use, but many opt to leave it in. Serve with freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese for the table.
The bread was in the freezer from my Monday vacation day when we had a little snow and I baked four loaves of bread. Okay, I really like carbs! The recipe is from
Noshtalgia. I have not made this recipe in a while, not sure why. It is a perfect bread, the no-knead variety.
No Knead French Bread
Ingredients-
1 pkg. dry yeast
1 1/2 c. warm water
1 tbsp. sugar
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. soft shortening
4 c. sifted all purpose flour
Method-Measure flour into a bowl, add water, then yeast. Let yeast dissolve thoroughly. Add remaining ingredients and mix well. Let set 10 minutes, then cut through dough with a wooden spoon. Do this 5 times at 10-minute intervals. Turn dough out onto a floured board and divide in half. Let rest for 10 minutes, then roll each ball into a loaf. Make several diagonal slashes across each loaf. Let rise double. Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes.
