Making Pasta with My Boy

I recently purchased a hand-crank pasta machine for Ethan's birthday. We have one that helps us make flat noodles. The new one makes all kinds of fun noodles like Macaroni (two sides); fat, ribbed Rigatoni; thin, tubular Bucatini (like a spaghetti tube); Maccherincini and delicate, twisty Fusilli.



After doing a little research, we decided to try using bread flour instead of all-purpose flour. I am not sure that we noticed a difference, but we did have a lot of fun.

The kneading was tough, so we simply cranked it through the machine twice. Interestingly, it heated up as it came out. We kneaded it a bit more and made pasta for dinner.



We promptly cooked up most of it and had it with Alfredo sauce mixed with Italian sausage and black olives. I think there was a wee bit of Canadian Bacon, too.

I love cooking with my boy.

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I've also cooked up a bunch of stuff including two batches of Kevin's Awesome Cookies and Big Sky Chicken Salad.

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Handmade Pasta Dough
from About.com

7/8 pound (400 g, or 3 1/3 cups) fine white flour (grade 00 if you wish to use Italian flour, or American bread flour, which has slightly more gluten and is thus better because it will make for somewhat firmer pasta)
4 eggs (you can also increase the number of yolks while decreasing the volume of whites proportionally to make richer pasta)
A healthy pinch of salt

Make mound with the flour on your work surface and scoop out a well in the middle. Pour the eggs into the hole, add the salt, and work the eggs and the flour together till you have a smooth dough, adding just a drop of water if necessary, and no more. Knead the dough for ten to fifteen minutes, until it is smooth, firm, and quite elastic. Don't skimp on the kneading or the dough will tear while you're rolling it out.

You are now ready for the hard part: separate the dough into two pieces. Flour your work surface (the marble counter tops in Italian kitchens are ideal for this, though wood or Formica work as well -- a pastry cloth gets in the way) and start to roll out the dough, rolling from the middle, flipping it occasionally, and flouring it as necessary to keep it from sticking. To keep the sheet from breaking, once it has reached a certain size, roll it up around the rolling pin and then invert the rolling pin; you can, as you are unrolling the sheet, gently stretch it by holding the unrolled part firm and pulling gently away with the rolling pin. Keep on flipping and rolling till you have a sheet that's almost transparent -- as thin as a dime, or thinner, if you can manage it (the pasta will almost double in thickness while cooking). The Emilians, acknowledged masters of home-made pasta, say your backside should work up a sweat as you're rolling out the sheet.

Once you've rolled out the sheet, either use it to make stuffed pasta such as ravioli or tortellini, for lasagna, or cut it into strips. If you choose the latter course the easiest thing to do is roll the sheet of dough up into a tube, then slice the tube into rounds of the desired width and shake the skeet out with your hands to free the strands; set them to dry on a rack or between two chair backs, supported by a towel (you often see this in the country). Roll out the second piece and cut it as you did the first.

Cook the pasta in salted, boiling water. Since it's fresh, it will cook in three to five minutes. Do not let it overcook! Soft wheat flour has much less gluten than the durum wheat used in commercially prepared dry pastas, and will consequently become flabby if it overcooks.

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Kathy's Baked Beans

3 cans (16 oz) Baked Beans, drained (we use VandeCamp brand)
1 med. Onion chopped finely (or 1 envelope of Lipton Onion Soup Mix)
1/2 cup Ketchup
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
1/2 cup Dark Corn Syrup
1 tea. Paprika
1 tea. Basil
1# Bacon, cut into pieces

Place everything in a crock pot. Stir to mix. Cook on low for 6-8 hours (or overnight). If you are in a rush you can do the crock pot on high for 3-4 hours.

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Big Sky Chicken-Salad Sanwiches
from Taste of South magazine, June/July 2009 issue

1/2 c slivered almonds
1/2 c chopped pecans
1/2 c pineapple tidbits, drained
1/2 c cranberries
1/2 c mandarin orange segments, drained
1/2 c mayonnaise
1/2 c honey mustard
1/4 c apricot preserves
2 c chopped cooked chicken

Combine nuts and fruit in a large bowl and set aside. In a small bowl, combine mayonnaise, mustard, and preserves, whisking until combined. Add sauce mixture to fruit mixture, along with chopped chicken, tossing gently until combined. Spread mixture onto bread slices to make sandwiches. Serves 6.