Tuesday. 06/10/2015. 'Pappardelle with simple Mixed Cherry Tomato Sauce.'

This recipe comes from 'Gino's Veg Italia!' by Gino D'Acampo. Page 96 and 97.

Book Pic.

Finding Gino's recipe for homemade fresh pasta I was very keen to try it despite it not requiring my still unused pasta machine. Doing it all by hand and from scratch gives you the comprehension of the entire process of making pasta. It is not that complicated to do yet it is fairly demanding. Learning to make my own bowl of pasta, especially if it looks as good as the book pic, has been one of my plan/dream for ages. 

Pasta Dough Prep.

First it was a matter of making the pasta dough which was not difficult. The important bit is to do it with pasta flour of the '00' grade. This flour is not difficult to find, a trip to the supermarket is all it requires as making pasta is an embedded trend which made this product readily available on the shelves. 

It only takes flour 400g, 4 eggs, 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil and 1/2 tsp of salt to make the pasta dough, and a bit of elbow grease for the kneading once the ingredients are combined. 

Rolling the Dough flat.

After the dough resting (30 minutes in the fridge in a bowl covered by cling film) there is the shaping of the pasta by rolling the dough flat. I must say I was fairly crap at this part and I had slightly thick ribbons of pasta as a result. However I had helping hands which came uninvited along with amused eyes watching my first efforts at pasta making. 

Fatpardelle.

Once I had my 'Fatpardelle' sorted, I just needed to cook them along with that beautiful yet simple Cherry Tomato sauce. The preparation on the kitchen counter (2 garlic cloves, 10 cherry tomatoes halved, 10 red plum tomatoes quartered, 1tbsp of honey, 1 tin of cherry tomatoes, a few basil leaves) benefited of a couple of extra ingredients. 

Sauce Prep.

First, I must confess that a simple Tomato sauce would not have been able to hide any of my cocking up of the pasta big time: I had to have a fall back, kind of plan, like a making the sauce more 'Ragu' like to give it a meaty consistency in case we ended up eating just the sauce for dinner...  I had leftover minced beef  from the Jamie's Samosas' recipe to use up to which I added a chopped white onion. The 200g of mince meat worked as my big excuse and plan B. 

The Beefed up Sauce.

Second, I had a glut of green peppers in the garden which we harvested because the weather turned and the nights are too cold, so two of those babies made it into the sauce. Romanesco peppers that did not turn red on time, I do not think they disturbed the overall recipe as much as the minced beef did but whatever they did together gave a bit of substance to the sauce. 

Pasta in the Sauce.

Due to their thickness my home made pasta did took a little more to cook in the boiling water. Once done they are put in the sauce before being dished out.

the Result.

The dinner was very nice and very filling. It tasted Fantastico. The only downside was my fault which was the thickness of the pasta. But with practice I will get better at it, hopefully. The recipe got a five so it is a come again Home Made Pasta.