So, Saturday I decided to make pasta from scratch. The dish was a leftover meal from Christmas that I did not get to make due to not taking into account the ridiculous amount of leftovers we would already have and the lack of necessity for older people to eat three meals a day. (le sigh). I had all the ingredients and did not want anything to go waste, so Saturday it happened. Overall, the pasta portion of this meal took about 1.5 hours. I do not have a pasta roller or a fancy mixer, so this is all by hand. #armday
Making your own pasta is super easy. You can Google any recipe and you will be fine. To start, you need flour, eggs, salt, and oil* (necessary if you are hand rolling). I like the recipe from Tasty, so I used their measurements. I will note what I did differently from their recipe.
[side note: if you prep ALL of your ingredients ahead of time this goes much faster].
Pasta Ingredients:
2 c all-purpose flour *I used all-purpose Wheat flour, not White cause... health?
8 (room temperature) eggs: 2 eggs, 6 egg yolks. *DO NOT THROW AWAY THOSE EGG WHITES! #NOWASTE Put them to the side for meringue cookies.
pinch of salt (put it in the flour)
1 tbsp olive oil
It is important that your eggs are room temperature. If you forget, all is not lost. Put your eggs in a bowl of warm water and they will warm up in about 5 minutes.
So, you clean off an area on your counter. Take off your rings. Wear something you do not care about being ruined (or get an apron). Preheat your oven to 215 degrees. Then you may start.
Make your flour well, fill it with eggs and use a fork to start whisking eggs and incorporating flour little by little. When your mixture starts to look more like a dough and is not too sticky, start using your hands to incorporate the remaining flour.
Knead your dough for 10 minutes (set a timer).
When your dough is springy, STOP, do not over-knead your dough. Wrap it in plastic wrap and put it to the side to rest for 30 minutes.
Now, you can clean your station and start your alfredo sauce. This will take about 15 minutes if your ingredients already measured and put out, so you might also be able to start your meringue cookies.
Alfredo Sauce Ingredients:
1 1/2 c heavy whipping cream (I used organic, although I did find an oat-based version that I may try in the future).
1/2 c (8tbsp/one stick) of butter cubed
4 tbsp cream cheese *optional and best if room temp
2 tsp minced garlic (3 cloves)
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp pepper
1 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
1/2 c freshly grated parmesan cheese
Add butter and cream cheese to a small pot over medium-low heat until mostly melted. Next, add your seasonings and garlic until aromatic. Stirring to avoid burning. Then add your heavy whipping cream and turn heat up to medium, stir. After about 4-5 minutes (when it is getting a little bubbly) then add your cheese and continue to stir ensuring the cheese melts. After this bring the mixture down to medium-low and leave until ready to use. You could add a little bit of your pasta water, but I feel like it breaks down the creaminess of the alfredo and I'll show you a trick for how to do this in a bit. I like to do this and leave it on low because you give your sauce more time to build flavor. We all know pasta sauce tastes better on day 2, so if you can just let this rest for a bit it will be worth it.
OK. Depending on how long that took you can start your meringue or you can start your noodles. If it's only been 15 minutes, I would start the meringue. If you're coming up on your 30 minutes then go ahead and start your noodles. ALTERNATIVELY, you could do the meringue first before you do anything else because it will take 2.5 hours to cook. So, if you want to eat them in the same day I would suggest making them first.
Making your noodles. (start boiling unsalted water now).
Take your dough ball out of the cling wrap, cut into 6 pieces like a pie and work with one section at a time, keeping the remaining sections in the cling wrap to avoid it drying out.
You'll need to flour your counter and the piece of dough to keep it from sticking. In other videos/tutorials on rolling out pasta, they recommended folding the pasta over to get your rectangle shape while using your rolling pin. I personally do not like this method. I recommend using your hand to shape the dough to the rectangle shape first, then use the rolling pin to roll it out and expand your rectangle. You want to roll your pasta thinner than you think or it will be too thick when you put it into the boiling water (and that's going to suck and taste gross). You will want to rush and get your noodles done. Stop that. Take your time. You should be able to see your hand through the pasta, that's how thin it should be. Once it is thin enough, you want to cut the excess so your dough is in a perfect rectangle, but it is not that important and you don't want to waste dough.
Sprinkle a little flour on your dough so it does not stick. Roll up your dough and take a sharp knife to cut your dough burrito into narrow sections. I did mine a little too wide, so my noodles are more like Tagliatelle than Fettuccine, but whatever. Sprinkle a little bit more flour and separate your noodles by using a white girl attempting to play in black girls' hair hand motion. (Y'all know what I'm talking about).
One dough section serves 2 people (if you ask me). So keep rolling out sections to make as many noodles as you need. If you have leftover dough, you can roll it out make the shapes you want and put them on parchment paper to dry out for 18-24 hours. (For bow ties, cut the rectangle into smaller rectangles then pinch them in the middle). Then store in an airtight container.
Add a LOT of salt to your boiling water and put your noodles in, keeping them moving constantly and cook for 3-4 minutes. (When you think about it, you need more salt than you think because your noodles will only be in a salt bath for 3-4 minutes, so that's all it gets to take on flavor). Use tongs to take the noodles out of the pot of boiling water and put directly into the saucepot. Here's the trick: This is the way you still get some pasta water in your sauce and you don't have to pour your water into a colander (wasting time and kitchen tools).
Turn your saucepot up to medium, stir, and then serve. Add some freshly grated parmesan on top of your pasta if you want to be fancy.
Cool, that's it!
Now... the meringue cookies.
You need:
6 egg whites (how convenient that you already have them) [ONLY WHITES, no yolks in them whatsoever]
3/4 c (12 tbsp) white granulated sugar
1 tsp cream of tartar OR 1tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract (whatever extract flavor you want)
A fancy mixer with a whisk attachment/one really strong arm
Remember your oven should be on 215, these cook low and slow.
So, you are going to whisk your eggs whites until they are frothy and turning white. It should start to look a little soapy, for lack of a better word.
Now, add your cream of tartar/salt and continue to beat until you have soft peaks (i.e., it falls over when you whip it).
Now, you are going to continue to whisk adding one tablespoon of sugar at a time and not adding the next tablespoon until it has all dissolved. You are going to want to stop. You can't. Keep pushing, keep it moving, switch hands if you need to. Just keep whisking. (someone should put that on a shirt). Whisk until you have stiff peaks (i.e. it holds its shape).
You should be able to flip the bowl over your head like Dairy Queen and nothing would come out. *I tried it, it worked.* Once you have stiff peaks, STOP. Do not overbeat or it will be ruined!
It is tempting because it is soo cool, you accomplished a meringue. But it won't be a meringue anymore if you keep that up.
To add your flavors, FOLD (using a rubber spatula) in the flavors you want being careful not to deflate your meringue. Now, carefully scoop your meringue into a pastry bag to pipe onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. If you don't have a pastry bag, just use two spoons to strategically make your little cookies.
Put them in the oven in on the bottom rack. Set timer for 1.5 hours. When your timer goes off, turn the oven off and DO NOT OPEN IT. Let them completely cool for one hour inside the oven. When you are all done decorate, drizzle whatever you want (I made fresh caramel) and enjoy or store in an airtight container and you are all done!
Let me know what else you would like me to make and leave a comment with any ideas/suggestions to upgrade these recipes!