Homemade Pasta - For the inner Italian in all of us

Homemade pasta - sounds like a lot of effort but it's not!  Similar to bread-making, the main thing you need is some extra time.  It's not the kind of thing you're likely to whip up midweek after work.  However, it's equally not something that requires slaving away - the hands-on time is altogether around 30-35 minutes.

Now, I know there are some fancier recipes out there, but this one is easy to remember and hasn't failed me yet:

Ingredients/Supplies:

Tipo 00 Flour

Eggs (the fresher the better)

Pasta Machine (for rolling out, shaping pasta)

Ratio of 100g flour to 1 egg.

Make 100g per person plus 1 extra ratio of 100g flour/1 egg.  So if you are serving 4, use 500g flour and 5 eggs.

In a bowl, pour in flour and then make a well in the middle.  Crack the eggs into the well.

With a fork, whisk the eggs so that the yolks and whites blend together - you can take in some of the flour as you do this.  Once the eggs are fully whisked, use your hands to mix the flour and eggs together.  It might be a little sticky to work with until all of the flour gets worked in.

Once you've formed it into a ball, place it on a lightly floured service and knead it.  

I recall one of Jamie Oliver's books saying 3 minutes would do the trick - maybe if you have the world's strongest hands to knead the dough... For anyone with just average strength, the kneading process is more likely to take 6-10 minutes.  If you've made pizza dough, you'll know how the dough eventually changes in texture to something more smooth and elastic... it's the same for pasta dough... keep kneading until you get to that smooth, elastic feeling.  When you're there, wrap the dough in plastic wrap and put in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

Now the fun begins!  I have an imperia pasta machine (around £60 from Amazon) - it makes the job of rolling out the pasta super easy and fun.  When my nieces and nephews come for a visit - they enjoy joining in on this part... So it's also a great way to include kids in the process.

Take the dough from the fridge.  You will be working with it in batches - dividing it into the same number of people you plan to serve.  Take one portion and leave the rest wrapped in plastic and in the fridge. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough to be roughly 1/2 inch thick with a width of roughly 4 inches.  

You will now knead this piece of dough using the machine.  You won't need the attachment which makes tagliatelle or spaghetti - just the main part of the machine is needed.  Put the machine on the widest setting and run the dough through it.  Fold the dough over itself (end to end) and run it through this setting again.  Then change the setting to 4 or 5 and run the dough through this setting.  Move back to the biggest setting, fold the dough over itself and run it through again.  [If you want, you can at this stage sprinkle some black pepper or dried herbs on the pasta before folding it over itself.]  Keep on going back and forth between the larger setting and the slightly more narrow setting - remembering to fold the dough back over itself before putting it through the larger setting.. Repeat this 6 times... by then the dough is very smooth.  The final step is to put the machine on setting 2 and run the dough through it.

Since I wanted to make papardelle, I next took the long, wide sheet of pasta over to the lightly floured cutting board... Lightly dust the pasta sheet and then widely fold the sheet like an accordion.  Now you can cut the pasta - roughly an inch wide or to your liking.  Lastly, hang each piece of papardelle on a drying rack until ready to use.  It's always best to use it immediately after making but is fine to dry out (If you leave it to dry for a long while, I put a moist paper towel on the drying rack or the pasta will break at the points where its hanging when you later try and remove it.)

Boil the pasta for a little over 2 minutes (3 minutes is overcooked in my opinion).
With homemade pasta, the sauce you make to accompany it doesn't need to take too much time or effort - as the pasta itself is the showstopper!  This past Friday night, I made pappardelle and cooked a simple chicken and gorgonzola cream sauce with chives to accompany it...  but I could have been just as happy having it with some nice olive oil and a bit of grated parmesan.

 No matter what kind of sauce it's served with, homemade pasta stands out - the freshness and the "bite" in it really make it well worth the extra time required.  And every time I make it, I think: why don't I make this more often!?

Bon Appetito!

Cheesterdam

Last month, my husband and I had a weekender in Amsterdam.  While we'd both been there before, we'd never been there together and thought it'd be a fun little getaway.  It was a really nice trip and we managed to take in lots of great sights, meandering among the beautiful canals and wandering through some museums...

 

Tilting our heads at all the slanted buildings and interesting creative license used in architecture and street art...

 

And tasting the delicious cheeses the Dutch have to offer - YUM!  Bring on the aged Gouda!
We came across the mother of all cheese shops - De Kaaskamer van Amsterdam.
If I ever own a cheese-shop, this is the template!!

 Amsterdam is a lovely place for a relaxing weekend - until next time, Proost!!

 

How TO make Homemade Halloumi

Bliss - utter bliss!  I've conquered halloumi... finally!  Over the weekend, I gave halloumi yet another attempt - my fifth.  While a few other attempts looked pretty good and tasted nice - I wasn't going to call it success until I had the texture right - that well-known, squeaks in the mouth, stays solid on the grill, rubbery goodness that is halloumi.  Thankfully, this time I nailed it - phew.

What made the difference this time? - THE MILK!!!!  Previously, I'd been working with organic semi-skim milk + some double cream - but the milk I was using was homogenised.  This time, I bought pasteurised but unhomogenised milk, Jersey Gold Top.  I'll likely order some unpasteurised milk in coming weeks - but the best you can find in supermarkets is pasteurised/unhomogenised... still a major step up from homogenised milk.

So here's what worked for me:

Ingredients (easy enough to double it - I start small when it's a first-try.. or fifth):
1 litre Milk (unhomogenised)
8 drops or 1/8 tspn Rennet (I used generic liquid animal rennet)
Bottled water or boiled/cooled water (non-chlorinated water)
Salt (flake if you have it)
and Tenacity (in my case)

Supplies (all thoroughly clean):

Saucepan

Dairy thermometer

Strainer

Bowl for under strainer

Cheese cloth or butter muslin

Slowly heat milk to 90F (32C).  (Should take around 20 minutes.)
Dilute rennet (combine with 1/4 cup non-chlorinated water) and add to milk.
With slotted spoon, mix milk and rennet together with an up-and-down motion for 1 minute to make sure it's fully distributed.
Cover and maintain the 90F (32C) for the next 30-45 minutes... I covered saucepan with a towel which helped keep heat in.. and then had to turn the heat on and off throughout to make sure it stayed at this temperature.

Now cut the curds into 2cm pieces... likely the curds are longer than 2cm deep, so you can also run a spoon horizontally through the curds as well.
Let the curds stand for 5 minutes after cutting them.
Now, slowly bring heat up to 104F (40C) - takes about 15 minutes.

Maintain this temperature and slowly stir the curds.. They should firm up a bit and will turn into their own shapes.  Cook for a further 20 minutes at this temperature, continuing to lightly stir.

Time to strain - Place a strainer on top of a bowl to catch the whey.  Place a butter muslin or cheese cloth on top of the strainer.  With a slotted spoon, scoop up the curds and place them onto the cloth.  Reserve the whey in the saucepan as you'll need it in 2 hours.  Whey will continue to drain  from curds for 15 minutes.

Now place the tops of the cheese cloth over the cheese and place something heavy over the curds... You can place the weight on the curds as they sit in the strainer, or you can move the curds and cloth to a mold if you'd like to be a little fancy.  My recipe called for 8 pounds of weight - but I don't have a press, so just put a water-filled tupperware on top of the curds for 2 hours... worked fine!





Peel off the cheese cloth and now you have something resembling cheese!!
Next, slice the cheese into pieces - I cut mine into 4 segments (roughly 2 inches by 2 inches).

Slowly heat the whey to 190F (88C) - should take 20 minutes - basically heat it to just before it wants to boil, but try not to let it boil.

When the whey is 190F (88C), drop the cheese pieces into the whey and cook them, gently stirring from time to time.  While maintaining this temperature, cook the cheese for 35-45 minutes.  The cheese should eventually float to the top.

After 35 minutes, remove the cheese from the whey, sprinkle with some flake salt on each side (pat it down so it stays) and air-dry it for 45 minutes, flipping it once.



Eat straight away or store in a brine.  Great raw or grilled.

Make the brine with 50% whey, 50% non-chlorinated water (maybe 300-350ml of each) plus 1 T flake salt.

The halloumi will technically keep for at least a month (if not two)... but more literally, it will be gone in days... num.