She Made Pasta January 14,2009

Eggs and flour.  That's it.  Crazy.  I had no idea pasta was that easy.  Joe, Deb and I got together for a fun cooking day.  We were considering a more authentic brioche, but after chatting, reading recipes and looking at the clock, realized that might be better done another day, so today, we'd explore pasta.  Joe and Deb have both cooked pasta, but had a couple things they wanted to experiment with, and I was along for the ride, as I had no experience, meaning anything I could learn would be great.  We started by making the dough.  Joe showed us his method (by "his" I mean the method he enjoys using), which was a different method for Deb.  After kneading the dough for about 13 minutes we let it rest. 

We wanted to try ravioli, so we needed a filling.  I brought some sausage from Popper's Kitchen, his Fig and Brandy, which was fabulous.  So we sauteed some onions (from Joe's garden), added the sausage, which we did by removing it from the casings to cook it up as scrambled meat.  Deb had the lovely suggestion of using a potato masher to break up the sausage.  That worked fabulously.  Then we added very finely diced cabbage (Brookford Farm) and cooked it all down.

We made Ravioli stuffed with the above mixutre, Tortellini with the same filling. There were a couple other formats, one was like Manicotti, but instead of ricotta, we used the same filling...yes, we did start to get tired of that filling...we also used it to make an experimental lasagna of the filling and a white sauce (made with Brookford Milk).  We made up gnocci, which was simply riced potatoes (Purcell Farm) and flour mixed to form a dough. Wow!  We made little bits of each thing, just enough for all of us to get a good taste for it and a chance to try our hand at the preparation, but still, it was a lot of eating!

The Ravioli were probably the most "successful" of the trials.  The filling was very nice, and since it was the first item made with the filling, it was new, exciting and interesting...that sensation waned as the day went on!  We spooned melted butter (Cabot), and topped with salt (Maine Salt) and cracked pepper.  A simple serving preparation was all the flavorful dish needed.

Our Manicotti like items were baked in a simple marinara sauce (tomato sauce not local, but the basil was from the kitchen!), and while tasty enough, we under filled them, making the dough too much of flavor.  We should have stuffed them with more filling, and the filling should have been paired with ricotta, as it was noticeably absent.

The lasagna experiment yielded a yummy springboard.  We didn't love the finished product, but felt it was because it was a good start, and needed more fleshing out.  We just used a white sauce, the filling and lasagna sheets, but felt the addition of herbs, some wine in the white sauce, cheese, both ricotta and mozzarella would bring this dish to the level it should be...and also maybe use an Italian sausage, instead of the sweet fig and brandy...that was, did I mention, in almost every dish we did!

The Tortellini were on the large side to be real Torellini, and as a result the mouthful contained more of the pasta dough than would be most appropriate, but it gave us a good chance to practice the shaping, and gave us an opportunity to experiment with how thick the pasta should be for the wrapper.  We decided a 6 on the pasta machine was a nice thickness.

The gnocci was a great experiment too.  We made some that were very pasty and not lovely, but then we added more flour and did much more kneading and the consistency improved 10 fold, as did the flavor.  It was interesting that the first batch had an unpleasant flour flavor, but adding more flour and kneading it a lot more, made the flour flavor more subtle.  The kneading seems to be the key with pasta.  Shaping the gnocci was fun.  We used a fork, for the simple no frills option, as every kitchen has a fork, but we all agree the gnocci board, with its lovely ridges is far more fun to use and creates a much prettier gnocci.

Making Pasta is so simple, and when done with friends is so much fun!  I'm going to take some time to make up a bunch of ravioli and freeze them.  One of the hardest thing about eating local is the lack of "fast food" options, for the nights that you don't feel like cooking, or when the day gets away from you and to make a slow food meal will have you eating at 8pm...Yes, frozen pasta, made at home with our own eggs will be a nice simple meal.

During our tasting moments, we joined together in Joe's sitting room and decompressed.  We talked about the components that were working in each experiment and those that could be tweaked.  We did some brainstorming of what other components could be used to change up flavors.  Lots of chatting about how to use what the local markets currently have to offer, in these dishes.  Here are some of the ideas we threw around:

• Any ground meat could have been used instead of the sausage.
• Grated parsnips could have been used instead of the cabbage in the stuffing
• The gnocci could have been made with a dry squash like the Kuri, instead of the potatoes, or maybe in addition to the potatoes.
• The tortellini would be great in soups.

One of the things I'm trying to take away from my cooking experiences, both at home and with these little days of kitchen adventures, is a better understanding of preparations.  The specific ingredients are far less important than the process.  If I can learn basic preparations, and then work with the different local veggies enough to get a sense for which can substitute for which, then I will be able to cook much more intuitively, which is a far better way to cook when cooking locally, than to be tied to a recipe.  Recipes are great, but if you can use that recipe as a springboard it opens a whole new world to you. Then you can make some quick substitutions and now all the ingredients can come from the local fare, or maybe that same dish now has a new flavor, keeping meals from becoming repetitive and mundane, while still being familiar and easy to prepare.  I'm excited about my new relationship with food, and the cooking thereof, and look forward to more experimenting, alone in my kitchen and with friends!

Locavore Note:  The flour was from Vermont, as was the butter, and the Pepper was from far away, as was the tomato sauce for the marinara, but otherwise all our ingredients were local!

Comments

[Andrea]

I have made gnocci a few times. I actually use leftover mashed ptatoes with a little four mixed in. Comes out great!
Also, there is a great little Italian Market in Kittery, the name escapes me right now ~ but they have some really nice flours for pasta making. They are actually from Italy so you will definitely lose points on your eating local challenge shoud you choose to purchase them ;)
So glad you are embracing cooking. Sounds like you have a very fun group to experiment with :)
~A

[Christine Anderson]

We must be on the same page. I also just made pasta for the first time, and it was amazing. I'll never buy it again.

Also,where did you get the plate that your ravioli are pictured on? I just picked up an exact replica of it at the thrift store and it is my FAVORITE plate.

[Amy Ouellette]

The cool bowls were Joe's, not mine. They are great though, aren't they. I'm not sure if I'll make my own spaghetti, but I will definitely be having lots of fun with my own ravioli. I am in the market for a pasta machine!!