Pasta Fanatics

Our house has definitely been bitten by the pasta bug. The homemade pasta bug. Tom made pasta from scratch early last week when he got home from work earlier than expected. What a fabulous surprise! It was delicate, flavorful, and the texture was to die for. I topped it with just a bit of butter and olive oil and a handful of fresh oregano from the garlic. SO. GOOD. The were leftovers, so we were able to enjoy them for a couple of days (well, I was able to enjoy them - I stole the tupperware of leftovers and brought it to
work).

So Weds. night we decided we wanted to eat a light dinner since we'd both had late lunches. I'd suggested pasta with the fresh sugar snap peas and young onions I'd picked up at the farmer's market that morning (there is a new farmer's market on weds. morning in the parking lot near my office - this is a deadly combination as I am a total fm addict and will easily spend a paycheck on fresh produce, but I digress). I'd had in mine something from a box since it's quick and easy, but Tom wanted to make pasta again with the whole family helping. After sampling the results, I'll never question is pasta choices again.

The two times we've made pasta, we've used a recipe from Jamie Oliver's show "Jamie At Home" that airs on Food Networwk. He calls for 100 grams of flour and one egg per person. We've found that a bit more egg is necessary, and generally do 400 grams of flour to 5 eggs and 1/2 tsp of salt. Mix it all up in the food processor until all the flour is incorporated (adding a bit more flour if it's too sticky), then knead on a floured surface a few times until you have a nice, dry mass. Proceed to roll through your pasta roller as directed. Our machine has settings to cut the pasta into linguine or spaghetti, but we prefer to hand-cut it into shorter, wide noodles since they're easier to eat with a fork.

It's been taking us about 45mins to prepare a batch. A little time consuming, but not out of the question for a weeknight if there's some spare time.

Before adding the pasta to the salted boiling water, I sautéed sliced, young red onions and garlic in some butter and olive oil until they just started to brown, then added fresh herbs from my garden. After these cooked through and flavored the fats, I added a couple cups of spinach from my garden and cooked it down. I adjusted the seasoning (ie, added salt, pepper, and about a tsp of sugar), and tossed in 2 pints of blanched sugar snap peas. I cooked these briefly, then added a couple tablespoons of white wine and a squirt of lemon juice to the sauce. Once the pasta cooked, I added a couple spoonfuls of the pasta water to loosen the sauce, then tossed everything together. It was an unbelievable party in my mouth.

Sorry I don't have any pictures of the finished product - it all went into mah belly before I even thought of the camera. I guess that just means I'll need to make it again, huh?