Happy Birthday Corkmaster - Pass the Pasta, Saucy!

I think I have an obsessive personality. No, I know I do. I woke up today with the idea in my head that I was going to have another crack at making fresh pasta. Last time I had this idea, I went for it, but sadly my little pipe cleaners of arms could not quite muscle the rolling pin to flatten the dough enough . The result was thick, tough, under-cooked pasta. Despite my enthusiasm and high hopes, my husband remarked my pasta raviolis looked like perogies. Tail between my legs, I knew he was right. The "perogy pasta" was not blogworthy and barely edible. So, today I visited one of my favourite new stores, Minimax, and grabbed the last pasta machine they had left. The Binford of Pasta Machines, straight from Italy, the Marcata Atlas 150. I was Tim Taylor proud. I still am. Maybe I always will be?

I started to make the dough, got completely stuck in, then was interrupted by a repairman who was here to fix the heating. No wonder I am making all this comfort food - we have no heat! And it is cold in Melbourne in Winter!!!! Bloody cold! He spent all of 5 minutes addressing the problem, only to say he would have to return next week with another guy for OH&S reasons. So, another weekend of cold, craving comfort food .... and we have our 10KM run on Sunday. We will most likely roll over the finish line. Running is hardly an option. The training has fallen off, the comfort food has taken over. The Corkmaster even decided to do the 10KM rather than the half marathon he was initially planning to run. It is going pear shaped really quickly in our digs!

Regardless, tonight's meal was a cracker. I will be getting the Binford Pasta Machine out again soon. I was really getting into the groove at the end, had quite a rhythm, and finally got the hang of it. Self teaching is full of hits and misses, learning from mistakes, but I think I actually found my straps in the end with the pasta machine. Cooking with gas, I say. Cooking with gas.

If you are embarking on this "mission" reserve the better part of a day, especially if you have never made your own pasta before. My advice: despite how keen or obsessive you are about making your own pasta, do not consider doing so unless you have a pasta machine. It is just not worth the time.

Ingredients & Preparation:

Pasta Dough:

4 cups Tippo "00" Flour (readily found in grocery stores)

6 eggs

Three Cheese Ravioli Filling:

250g (1 cup) marscapone cheese

375g (1 3/4 cup) ricotta cheese

150g (2/3 cup) parmesan cheese, freshly grated

Sea salt

Fresh black pepper

Sauce:

800g Italian tomatoes, diced (I used La Gina - 2 small tins)

4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

4-5 bullet chillies, sliced finely

1 clove garlic, crushed

1/4 cup white wine

1/4 cup vodka

1 small bunch basil, chopped

1/2 cup sour cream

1 tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp nutmeg

2 tbsp tomato paste

For the dough:

Place flour in pile on counter top or in a large bowl. Hollow out the middle of the flour pile, and crack eggs into this crevasse. Whisk the eggs with a fork until they form a paste. Slowly work more flour into the egg mixture. Begin to knead the dough. Vent your frustrations. There is a lot of kneading. Eventually, the dough will take on a velvety feel - it will neither be sticky or floury, but very malleable. Form about four balls of dough. Place in fridge for about thirty minutes.

Fire up the pasta machine, ensuring it is bolted to your counter. This is serious business. Start by flattening one of the balls of dough with a rolling pin, using flour to ensure the dough does not stick to the counter or rolling pin. When the dough is a few centimeters thick, it is ready to greet the pasta machine. Place one end of the dough in the pasta machine and begin to crank (in my machine, I start at the number 1, then work my way up). Crank the dough through the machine. Notch the machine up to number 2, repeat, and so on. Continue to roll the dough through the machine until you reach a desired thickness. Usually you will need to go up to at least 6, 7, or 8 if making ravioli. When you have reached desired thickness, place long layer of dough on a floured counter top.

For the three cheese filling:

Simply stir all ingredients together. When the pasta dough has been rolled out, drop teaspoon by teaspoon on to the dough, about 5 cm apart. Only drop the filling half way up the dough, brush around the filling with water, then fold the remaining dough over top. Cup the filling as you are draping the remaining dough over the top, ensuring that all of the air bubbles are removed. Gently seal each parcel, then cut with a pizza cutter, knife or serrated pasta cutter.

When you have finished rolling the dough and creating all of the ravioli parcels, place on a cookie sheet or individual plates, ensuring they are floured with Semolina flour so that the pasta does not stick to the plate or each other. Refrigerate until you are ready to cook. This should keep for up to four weeks in a fridge or freezer if you are unable to use this all on the day.

For the sauce:

Gently heat a saucepan. Add olive oil, chillies, and garlic. Sauté for a couple of minutes. Add diced tomatoes and remaining ingredients, reserving the sour cream. Simmer for twenty minutes at least, then add the sour cream towards the end.

To cook the pasta:

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook for at least 6 minutes, but probably longer (remember you have 2 layers of pasta squeezed together). I ended up cooking my pasta for at least 11 minutes, as I learned from the last time I attempted my own home made pasta that under cooked pasta is blasphemy. As the pasta floats due to the ravioli contents, I even used a vegetable steamer which evidently fits in my pasta pot, to hold down the pasta in the water, ensuring it cooked evenly. I have to admit, I was doing everything I could to avoid the "perogy pasta" and also wanted this meal to be extra special to celebrate my husband's birthday of thirty three years!

When the pasta is done cooking, drain, rinse and return to the large pot. Spoon sauce over the pasta sauce and gently stir, trying not to disturb the raviolis. After all that work, you do not want to break them!

Plate the ravioli gently, garish with chives, freshly ground black pepper if desired and freshly grated parmesan cheese.

The fact that this worked out a thousand times better than my last pasta experience has me very happy. In fact, I haven't stopped smiling all night. I spent $110 on the machine, and in my mind, this was a wise investment! Stay tuned for more of my humble pasta creations.

Divine.

Bon appetit!

Happy Birthday sweetie, aka Corkmaster!

Absolut Divine Vodka Pasta with a Blokey Twist

This signature recipe was inspired by a cooking segment on the Oprah show, although I don't admit that very often. My DNA is definitely a Bree Van De Camp / Gabrielle Solis mutation. If you've been living under a rock, I am referring to two characters on Desperate Housewives. This post is all about the hidden housewife within - watching daytime TV and sneaking in downloads of the US Feeds of all my favorite series, mixed in with a lot of flicking through cookbooks, Gourmet Traveller, delicious magazine, Donna Hay magazine, Vogue. Whilst I was inspired by the cooking segment on Oprah, I have never been able to find the Vodka Pasta recipe, so decided to invent my own, drawing inspiration from my favorite chefs. This is how I go about a lot of my cooking, making it up as I go, combining 2-3 recipes to create my own version. That aside, this is one of the best pasta recipes. It is so easy and the flavours together are so powerful. The vodka really seems to draw out the various flavours, and the crème fraîche softens all of the ingredients, creating a rich and rustic tomato sauce. The crisp baby spinach really packs a punch too, and adds wonderful texture to this dish.

In tonight's rendition of this recipe, I decided to add meat balls, created from good quality sausages, an idea I borrowed from Jamie Oliver. We had a roaring fire burning all weekend in our fireplace, which had me thinking back to many a sausage sizzle over an open fire. While we were tempted to roast sausages in the fireplace for a good old bangers and mash dinner, we opted for something a touch more civilised! This made for a very 'blokey' pasta, but I knew that sausages had to feature in some shape or form tonight. The vegetarian version of this recipe is what I will stick to most but the sausages did add a splendid twist, and importantly fulfilled a craving! Having over-indulged in dinner, I will be running the gauntlet tomorrow - all 8.5 KMs of it.

Ingredients & Preparation:

4 good quality lamb or beef sausages

6-10 bullet chillies, chopped

8-10 cloves of garlic, crushed

Extra virgin olive oil

Fresh flat leaf parsley, chopped

Fresh basil, chopped

Fresh cracked black pepper

Sea salt

3/4 cup vodka (such as Absolut Vodka)

Large jar of good quality pasta sauce (such as Five Brothers)

1 cup crème fraîche

Baby Spinach

Capellini

Freshly Grated Parmesan

Heat a non-stick pan to medium heat, and add a generous pour of extra virgin olive oil. Add chillies and garlic, and cook for about one minute, stirring throughout. Add one half of the pasta sauce and the vodka. Let the vodka simmer off, then add the rest of the pasta sauce. To finish the sauce, stir through the crème fraîche, fresh parsley and fresh basil, and let this simmer. This will create a nice rosé sauce. Season with fresh cracked pepper and sea salt.

To create the meat balls, simply squeeze the sausages to form little meat parcels. You should get about 3 meat parcels per sausage. Do not worry if they are not perfectly round. The more rustic, the better. Fry until golden brown. When the sausages are done cooking, add to the pasta sauce and stir through. Continue to simmer the sauce.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, and add the Capellini (or other preferred pasta) once the water is boiling. Cook until al dente. Drain, rinse with hot water. Combine the pasta and the sauce in a large pot, and toss together, ensuring the pasta is evenly coated in the sauce.

Plate the pasta, and garnish with fresh baby spinach, basil leaves and additional parsley. Flavour with freshly grated Parmesan cheese, and more cracked pepper if desired. Try to use the best quality parmesan cheese possible, and grate it just prior to serving.

Bon Appetit!