Tag archive for pasta

For Christmas this year I received a new rolling-pin. It is no ordinary rolling-pin, it is a balyunONE rolling-pin designed by Canadian designer Tahir Mahmood. I had been coveting this handmade, european style rolling-pin for some time, so naturally I was beyond delighted when I found it under the tree on Christmas morning! I have since been trying to devise the perfect way to christen my rolling-pin. But inspiration eluded me, all I could come up with was cookies or pie. Delicious as they may, be neither was what I was looking for. I was bemoaning this fact to Ginger the other night and she struck gold when she suggested that I should make noodles. Noodles, what a spectacular idea! I had never made my own pasta before and it was a challenge that I was up for.

I turned to google, my trusty source for all things I don’t know and began reading about fresh pasta. This is where I ran into a little conflicting information. Who would have thought that I would find conflicting information on the internet! Some said “no” to hand rolled pasta, some said “yes, but it is a little tricky”. And finally I found a recipe from Jamie Oliver and he seemed to give hand rolled pasta a whole-hearted “yes”. I was in, if Jamie says it is ok, then I should be fine right?

The noodle dish that I wanted to make is a dish inspired by a udon noodle dish featured on the menu of one of my favourite neighbourhood Japanese restaurants. The original is a luxurious combination of noodles and wild mushrooms, dredged in a sauce of miso and butter. For my version, I decided to give the recipe a little italian flare, replacing the udon noodles with fresh pasta. Let’s get back to the making of the pasta, as it is a bit of a tragic tale that needs to be shared so that no one else makes the same mistakes as I. So pasta dough, simple right? A little flour, some salt and a few eggs. It was easy, it mixed up nicely and after a little kneading, turning into a lovely smooth dough. I slipped it into the fridge and prepped up my sauce ingredients. Here is the tricky part, some people think a machine is a necessity if you want to get the pasta to a nice thinness, others like Jamie say that all the old Italian grandmas never use pasta machines, so with a little extra elbow grease, it can be done. I forged on, rolling my pasta to what I thought was a lovely thinness, cutting into wide noodles, sprinkling with semolina and repeating. Easy peasy. Perhaps I should have realized that it was just a little too easy.

I started my pasta water to boil, sautéed my garlic and mushrooms, things were going along just tickety boo. Calamity struck when I dropped the noodles into boiling salted water and virtually immediately the noodles doubled in width and thickness! Seriously what the heck  is up with that. No one mentioned anything about the noodles “rising”! Be warned, the noodles rise. When all is said and done, I think that with a little more practice and finesse, hand rolled noodles aren’t that big of a stretch, they just take a little patience.

Handmade noodles with wild mushrooms & miso butter sauce
Serves 4

For the noodles:
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup semolina flour
3 eggs
1/4 teaspoon salt

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2 cloves garlic
8-12 oz wild mushrooms sliced (I used a blend of Chanterelle, Brown hon shimeji, white hon shimeji, baby blue oyster, hen of the woods, king erengi and nameko mushrooms)
3 tablespoons butter
3 green onions, sliced, whites and greens separated
3 tablespoons miso paste
1 1/2 tablespoons sake
1 1/2 tablespoons soya sauce
1 teaspoon oyster sauce
1 tablespoon toasted black sesame seeds for garnish

Preparing the pasta:
On a clean workspace, mix together the two flours and salt forming into a mound. Make a well in the centre of the mound and crack the three eggs into the well. Whisk the eggs lightly with a fork and then begin mixing the mixture together with your hands. Once the dough comes together, knead for 10 to 15 minutes until you have a nice smooth dough. Shape the kneaded dough into a dish, cover completely with plastic wrap and allow dough to rest in the fridge for at least 1 hour. *Most recipes don’t recommend letting it rest overnight as it can turn a grey colour.

Cut the disk of dough into 4 pieces, as it is easier to work with in smaller amounts. Lightly dust a work surface with semolina flour and begin to roll out the dough. Roll the dough out as thinly as possible, mine was about 3 mm thick and it would have been better if it had been about  1-2 mm thick. Use a knife to cut the pasta into your desired noodle shape. Set finished noodles aside and sprinkle with more semolina to avoid sticking. Continue rolling and cutting pasta. Cover the finished pasta with a damp towel to avoid drying.

Preparing the sauce:
Cook the noodles in boiling salted water until al dente. The cooking time will depend on the thickness of your noodles, so check for doneness often.

Heat a medium sauce pan over medium heat, once the pan is hot melt the butter. Add the garlic and the whites from the green onions to the pan and sauté for about 30 seconds until fragrant. Add the mushrooms to the pan and cook for 5 minutes, until the mushrooms are soft and just starting to turn golden on the edges. Add in the miso, soy sauce, sake and oyster sauce and stir until well mixed. Combined the noodles with the mushrooms and toss together until the noodles covered with sauce.

Garnish with the remaining green onions and black sesame seeds and serve!

Growing up mushrooms were a pretty big deal. Every fall the whole family would pile into the car and head up into the woods to gather up buckets full of their earthy goodness. I have to admit that for me the joy of mushroom season came from running around in the woods searching for hidden treasure. Forging through fallen damp leaves was significantly more pleasurable than sitting down to a plate of mushrooms. The imminent  fear of death by poisoning didn’t help much either. This is not to say that I dislike mushrooms, on the contrary, I am a mushroom fearing person but as a young person cultivated mushrooms were where it was at. Unfortunately this story isn’t about the wild mushrooms of my childhood, but instead the humble Cremini.

In case you notice any side effects not listed above, contact your doctor purchasing cialis or pharmacist. Men’s body goes into regular physical reaction due to pill then immediately talk to the doctor and he can analyze the progress report with lowest price for tadalafil . Just check with your doctor and purchase viagra online find out the best possible arrangement. These two herbal pills boost testosterone and ensure hormonal balance. viagra on sale cheapest This tale begins about two weeks ago when early one evening I received a text from Ginger. I believe it went a little like this “Are you going to Deb’s book signing”. I’m sure that some of you keeners know exactly what she was talking about. But me, not so much. I will interject the fact that I am really bad with names. After a little back and forth it became clear that Deb was “The Deb” from Smitten Kitchen and her book tour was stopping at my neighbourhood bookstore. Somehow I had missed this small detail. Truth be told Smitten Kitchen was really my first foray into cooking blogs. I have tackled many a recipe from the blog and was totally delighted by the notion of meeting “The Deb” in-person. Naturally I jumped at the opportunity to go to the book signing!

On the big night I some how I managed to coax Scott into coming along with me and we headed out to the store only to join about 150 other like-minded people who also wanted to meet Deb too. Unfortunately for me most of those 150 people had shown up early or at least earlier than me! After spending two hours waiting in line I had my signed book in hand and was rushing home to begin examining the pages and planning the next meal I was going to make. And then I found it: Mushroom bourguignon. I’m not going to share the recipe with you or give you my adapted version; I’m just going to suggest that you march right down to your neighbourhood bookstore and pickup a copy of The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook for yourself. So far I have made 3 or 4 recipes out of the book and nothing has disappointed. What I love most about this cookbook is that the recipes are totally approachable and you can tell that all the food was cooked in the Smitten Kitchen. No elaborate setup, just delicious food, charming words and lovely images. So glad I got to meet you Deb and thank you for the lovely cookbook!

I’m really excited to share a little project Tina and I have been working on. It’s no surprise that we’re all about good food here—sometimes it’s fast and tasty, other times the recipes are better suited to a weekend meal. But never have we tackled a meal, a full range of dishes that you can pair together for a meal with family and friends, until now. That’s right, Tina and I got together and planned this meal to share with all of you. We prepped and cooked together, perhaps even danced around the kitchen a bit, despite an oven that blew up on us! We had some bites and bubbles in the garden, even using some of our bites to barter for oven space from a friend! Then we moved to the patio for a meal—warm in the late afternoon sun. And then we shared it all right here! I hope you will love what we’ve put together for you. Here is a little sample to get you started…

Simple and delicious, this meal comes together quickly, whether you prepare it in advance, or with a little help from friends on a leisurely afternoon. And with this handy PDF as a starting point, you could even share it around to friends as a shopping list for their contribution to the meal. However you put it together, I hope you’ll enjoy some good food with friends soon.
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Lately, I’ve had a little time on my hands. Watching the tour for a few hours every night has me sitting down, ready for any little task to keep busy with. And with the help of a few pounds of peas and a few more pounds of fava beans, I’ve already occupied a few evenings so far.

Both peas and favas have a very short season in the late spring and early summer. It always seems that just before I’ve had my fill of them, they are gone, not to return again for another year. Maybe there is some good in that—for all of its virtues, the asparagus season seems to last a little longer than my appetite for it and I’m left with a few wilty stalks tucked away in the back corner of my produce drawer. But that won’t be happening with the favas this year.

I found the favas at the market last weekend and quickly scooped up a few pounds. The peas in the garden have also been producing enough for some happy additions to our meals. So with a bag of pods, I got down to shelling. I know shelling is a tedious activity, but I like the quiet repetition of the task. And since I am not going to make anyone else join in, I think I can have my quirks on this one!

The tricky thing with favas is that they get shelled twice. I know, two rounds of shelling does sound a little arduous for a little bean, but I have devised a plan to make the effort worthwhile. This is one of those times when I go all out. I don’t just shell a few beans for one meal—I shell a few pounds. Yes, it takes a little while, but the beans keep nicely after their first shelling for a day or two. I tuck them away in a plastic bag in the fridge, let my fingers recover a little and start planning what I’ll make next.

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Once I have recovered my strength and decided what to eat, I usually blanche the favas for a few short minutes, then drain and cool them in an ice water bath. Then I get to shell them all over again, but since a day or so has pass, I don’t mind it so much. And the second shelling is usually a little easier. I’m still working on my technique, but it can be kind of tricky trying to get those little beans out of their shells while keeping them in one piece. But not to worry, over the course a few pounds of favas, there is plenty of time to get it figured out.

What remains is a lovely bowl of brilliant green beans, ready to be added into whatever is being cooked next. Toss the shelled favas into some boiling water with fresh peas and cook for a minute or two—delicious! Top a toasty piece of bread with a few mashed favas, seasoned as you wish, and enjoy. Or make a meal of it and throw the favas and peas into a pot of pasta that’s a minute or two from being cooked. Complete it with a poached egg, a little cheese and some fresh mint and it is a one-plate dinner. Quick—get shelling!

The night before the big run I started to feel sick. Later I got a fever, I couldn’t breath, I coughed a lot and at one or two points I was pretty sure I was going to die. Here we are 24 days later and I’m pretty much on the mend. I still have the occasional coughing fit and I’m just not the runner that I used to be, but I’m getting there and I have a renewed fondness for comfort food.

For me, pasta is about as good as it gets when I’m thinking about comfort food. Growing up, Sunday evenings were always pasta night and we almost always had spaghetti with tomato sauce and green peas. We would dish up in the kitchen and then converge around the TV to watch Walt Disney and The Littlest HoBo. Sometimes we would diverge from tradition a smiggen and make a carbonara style spaghetti but that was about it. One thing was certain, it wasn’t Sunday if there wasn’t pasta.

Over the years my recipes have diversified a little but a simple tomato sauce has always held a special spot in my heart. A few years back while perusing Smitten Kitchen I stumbled upon this recipe. When I realized that the sauce only consisted of three ingredients, canned tomatoes, onion and butter and all three of those ingredients were currently housed in my kitchen, I changed dinner plans just to make it. To be honest with you I think I may have had it two or three times in the last month alone. What can I say, I have been sick.

Tomato Sauce with Butter and Onions
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen | Serves 4 as a main course; (unless you have a sauce junkie in your house)

28 ounces whole peeled tomatoes from a can
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 medium-sized yellow onion, peeled and halved
Salt & pepper to taste

Combine canned tomatoes, onion halves and butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Once the sauce has reached a simmer reduce heat and maintain a slow simmer for 45 minutes, or until the fat begins to separate and float to the surface. I stir my sauce minimally as it is easier to see when the fat is begining to separate. Remove the sauce from heat, using a potato masher (this is the quickest method I have found) break tomatoes up to desired texture. I usually leave mine a little lumpy. Add salt and pepper to taste. Return sauce to low heat while you prepare your pasta.

Serve over spaghetti with a salad of course.

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Sometimes you just have to buckle down and force yourself into action in order to get out of a rut. For the last few weeks I have been in a bit of a creativity rut. I get home from work feeling like my brain power is spent and I have no interest in starting a new project or finishing anything for that matter. I hate to admit it but, I have a few half finished projects lazing around the house just waiting for me to get my act together.

Today I decided it was time to power through my creativity block and complete a project. There was one project that I have been dying to do for the last couple of months, a DIY Chevron Necklace! Back in January when I was on my statement necklace craze, I stumbled upon this tutorial and have been slowly collecting the bits that I needed to complete the project. Production of the necklace involves the perfect balance of mess and creativity and ends in an amazingly fun finished product. Perfect for breaking out of a creativity rut!

After work I took stock of all the supplies that I had and the ones that I still needed, I had everything except the penne. Easily remedied. With pasta, rope (I didn’t feel like ripping up a t-shirt so, I bought some rope instead), a glue gun, paint and a few scrapes of fabric in hand I was ready to get busy. But first dinner.
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After dinner I set to work, first painting the pasta and then measuring the cord. Once the paint had dried I strung the pasta on the cord and finally glued everything together! Visit Design Sponge for detailed instructions.

ps. What’s with the current Dutch Baby craze? They seem to be popping up everywhere.
I’m pretty sure I started it.

Spaghetti with Chorizo and Almonds is one of my go-to recipes. It is fast, easy and delicious. And for about 4 years now I have been obediently following the directions. Suddenly, out of the blue last week it stuck me, “Why have I not adapted this recipe!”.  It is the perfect recipe for adapting. So last Thursday I did.

Spaghetti with Farmers Sausage, Cannellini Beans & Spinach
Adapted from Gourmet’s Spaghetti with Chorizo and Almonds

yield: makes 4 servings | active time: 30 minutes | total time: 35 minutes

2 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 1/2 cups water
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 or 3 garlic cloves, diced
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2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 medium onion, finely chopped
12 ounces fideos (dried coiled vermicelli noodles) or angel-hair pasta broken into 2-inch lengths
1 bunch of baby spinach, trimmed
1 (14- to 19-ounce) can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
Parmesan for topping

Directions: Bring broth, water, and 1/2 teaspoon salt to a boil in a small saucepan, then reduce heat and keep at a bare simmer.

Heat oil in a 5- to 6-quart heavy pot over medium-high heat until it shimmers, then sauté garlic until pale golden, about 30 seconds. Transfer with a slotted spoon to paper towels to drain. Add farmers sausage and sauté until golden brown, about 3 minutes. Transfer with slotted spoon to paper towels with garlic. Add butter to pot and sauté onion until golden, about 5 minutes, then add pasta and sauté, breaking up fideos with a wooden spoon, until golden, about 4 minutes. Add broth mixture and cook, covered, for about 4 minutes. Quickly add spinach to the pasta mixture and continue cooking until all liquid is absorbed, about 2 minutes. Stir in cannellini beans, farmers sausage, garlic, parsley, and salt and pepper to taste.

Serve pasta with a sprinkle of parmesan cheese.