things to try: January 2009 Archives

Last night I got the pasta machine out and was determined to turn out a successful batch of fettucini. All I hear is that it's so easy to make, so it was bugging me that my only pasta-making attempt was a failure.

Well, it turns out that it really is easy. All you need is some patience and a bowl of extra flour handy.

I used the pasta recipe from my Better Homes & Gardens cookbook (substituting whole wheat flour), which is different than the other recipes I've seen because in addition to eggs the wet ingredients include water and olive oil. I misread the recipe though, and used the full amount of flour in the dough, instead of saving 1/3 cup of it to sprinkle the work surface with. My dough ended up being very dry, but I just added a little more water and it seemed to turn out just fine.

Next time I make pasta for just the two of us, I'll make 1/2 a recipe. There is so much leftover. I'll also try it with white whole wheat flour.

For the sauce I cooked up an eggplant marinara, because I had half of a huge eggplant sitting in the fridge, waiting to be used for something.

Served with a crunchy green salad, and a lovely Francis Coppola Rosso Shiraz, it all ended up being a very tasty, meatless Sunday dinner.


» Recipe for Fresh Whole Wheat Pasta with Eggplant Marinara

This meal was very similar to this one, with brined pork and a butternut squash risotto. Instead of doing a brine I made a dry rub with salt and brown sugar. It had pretty much the same effect and resulted in perfectly juicy meat.

Including apples in the meal was a given - apples and pork go so well together. I had some parsnips in the fridge so I decided to include them too. The risotto was ok. I'm not sure I'm a risotto fan. I think it would have been so much better if I had just made some rice or israeli couscous, then roasted the parsnips and apples with a rosemary balsamic dressing.


» Recipe for Pork with Parsnip & Apple Risotto