Pasta with Yams & Leeks

This dish is a go-to, busy weeknight meal for me. 

It cooks up well with just about any pasta, and I almost always have yams on hand. 

I have made this with penne, fettuccine, farfalle, tortellini, and in this instance, ravioli. 

Unfortunately, a quick week night meal does not include homemade pasta. 

I rarely have the foresight to plan that far ahead on my weekends. 

This time the pasta is store-bought.

 I started by slicing up 2 medium sized yams and few (2-3 depending on size) leeks. 

 I tossed the vegetables with 3-4 minced garlic cloves and 

sauteed them in a skillet with oil and butter. 

Here's a trick for deeper flavor in this dish: 

before tossing the vegetables together, dust the yams with a bit of nutmeg.

 While the veggies are cooking, get your pasta going.

 When everything is done, drain the pasta and add it to the skillet with the yams and leeks. 

Give everything a good toss, coating the pasta with the remaining oil and butter. 

Let the pasta have a chance to cook for just a few minutes in the pan. 

This adds to the flavor as well.

The pasta is now ready to be served. 

With a healthy dose of Parmesan cheese, of course. 

Homemade Pasta: A Labor of Love

For awhile now, I have been harboring a desire to make homemade pasta. Not just any homemade pasta, but ravioli. At first, I was intimidated by finding the ingredients I would need: 0% flour, semolina flour...but a recent inquiry at a local Italian restaurant set my mind at ease. Their chef uses all-purpose flour! 

I then set out to begin my endeavor. Internet research led me to a super simple pasta recipe thanks to The Pioneer Woman and a video of some guy's granny. My impression was that the dough would take tons of kneading and rolling, so I recruited. With family in town for the holidays, it wasn't difficult to find helpers--my mom and brother were more than willing. 

I headed to Mom's (and her bigger kitchen) with my mind a buzz with ideas for kneading, rolling, sealing, and cutting. Turns out, all my strategizing was for naught. Not only did my mother have a pasta maker, but a ravioli maker as well! Things were looking pretty good and actually it turned out be rather simple--but time* consuming. 

Here's how it went down.

"Rule of Thumb"

(according to The Pioneer Woman)

2 eggs per cup of flour

1 egg per person

So, 2 eggs and 1 cup of flour serves 2 people.

We were making ravioli for 6, so I wanted to make sure I had plenty.

I used 7 eggs and 3 1/2 cups of flour.

This was done in 2 initial batches of 4 eggs/2 cups and 3 eggs/1 1/2 cups.

Start by making a well in your flour and cracking the eggs into the well.

Using your hands, loosly mix the eggs and flour together.

I did this in a bowl and then turned the dough out onto the floured counter:

(The video of granny shows her doing everything on the countertop.)

 

Then begin kneading the dough until it is very smooth and elastic.

It took about 10-15 minutes of kneading:

Kneading:

Kneading some more:

Done!

Cover with a dish towl:

And a bowl:

(this keeps it from drying out)

Allow dough to rest for a minimum of 20 minutes.

Divide dough into manageable size for rolling:

Run each dough ball through the pasta maker, or roll out using a rolling pin. 

I started on setting 1 and moved up to setting 5.

The dough was folded and patted with flour between each run:

Each setting needs to make the dough smooth and even. 

This took several runs at each number. 

My brother taking a turn:

Cut the dough to fit the ravioli maker. 

This process took quite a while, 

so the dough strips were covered with a damp tea towel to prevent drying:

Next, the filling.

 My husband's uncle had caught and smoked his own Sturgeon and 

we were lucky enough to have him share a fillet with us. 

Ricotta and and egg would provide the rest of the filling:

Here it is combined:

The ravioli maker and filling, all ready to go:

Cranking out ravioli:

Separated and ready to be cooked:

We boiled the ravioli's for about 5 minutes and dressed them with olive oil, mixed dried herbs (from the summer's garden), and seasoned with salt and pepper to taste:

Some salad and steamed veggies to go with and dinner is served!

My initial plan (before I knew I'd have a pasta maker) was to show everyone the video of granny and follow her lead. Since then, I stumbled on Annie's Eats Homemade Pasta Tutorial and may follow her advice the next time around (who knows if I'll have mom's kitchen to raid).

The advantage of cooking with helpers: there's someone to take pictures of the action! Thanks Jenny Jo!

*A note on time frame: We began the pasta making at about 1:30, let the dough rise for about an hour and a half, and ate dinner around 6:30. This is an all day process, good for a rainy day or quality time together in the kitchen.

Pasta Primavera

"Real Pasta Primavera"

I think I mentioned I'm not very good at following recipes.  I often wonder how things would turned out differently (better?) if I had payed a bit more attention to the directions. Well, I did a before and after with the May/June issue of Cook's Illustrated recipe for "Real Pasta Primavera."

The first time I made this dish, I read over the recipe, put it away, and went to town. Half way through preparing it, I thought, "now what did it say about toasting the noodles and adding the wine," only to discover too late that I had done it completely wrong--no surprise there. The meal ended up tasting fine, and no one was the wiser about my recipe failings. But I knew I didn't get the results promised by the article.

Attempt #1: Not exactly failed, but a reason to try, try again.

This week, I decided to go a second round and see if I could get better results by actually following the recipe. What do you know, it worked. Duh. It was a creamy pasta revelation!

2nd attempt: Recipe followed. This time it's creamy & delicious!

But, heaven forbid I follow the instructions to the letter -
I didn't even have all of the necessary ingredients. 

Here's how it went down:

Fresh Farmers' Market Asparagus

Combine vegetable broth with veggie "trimmings" from asparagus, leeks (which I did not have) and 1 cup of peas. Simmer for 10 minutes while you...

 saute asparagus, another cup of peas, and garlic (if I'd had them, there'd be leeks in here too).

 "Toast" pasta in olive oil. 

The recipe calls for 1 pound of Campanelle. I have yet to find this in my grocery store. 

I used a box of whole wheat Rotini.

Add 1 cup white wine. 

I didn't have any. 

My hubby was making cocktails at the time, so I borrowed the bottle of vermouth.

(Note to self: buy cheap white wine for cooking! You always need it, and never have it!)

When all the wine is absorbed, add the (strained) broth, cook al dente.

Finally, toss the pasta with the veggies and a 1/2 cup of parmesan, minced chives & mint, and lemon zest. 

We always top ours with extra cheese!

See! I had the recipe out AND I followed it - except for a few minor variations...

Dessert: Strawberries drizzled with chocolate and cream. D-lish!