The Pasta Experiment

We'd thought about trying to make fresh pasta for years.  My sister got a pasta maker and making pasta turned into a family affair to judge by the pictures.  One of the factors against it for us was that I was in the Army and when you are moving weight matters.  Due to weight limits we'd get rid of things we hadn't used much in the past year or things that the weight to benefit wasn't high enough.  I had not seen anything about cutting noodles by hand at that time.

All that has changed.  I retired from the Army in 2011 and we don't plan to move again and the interest in fresh pasta grew.  Unfortunately, the only pasta makers we could find had plastic bodies and didn't seem very sturdy.  Then we took a trip for our 30th anniversary last year.  We were visiting Smokey Mountain Knife Works one day, an amazing store by the way, and in the basement with the kitchen items we found our pasta maker.  It is all metal and the price was equal to or better than some of the others we'd seen.  We now have a Fante's Great Aunt Gina's Pasta Machine.  It came with a cutter for spaghetti and fettuccine noodles.

We were blown away by the difference in taste and quality of fresh pasta over boxed.  Now comes the experimental part.  We used to get flavored pastas from a vendor at a market day in TX so we got to thinking about doing something like that.  We also though about different grains for the flour to get different flavor and texture profiles.  The result of the first experimental recipe was Spelt spaghetti.

My basic pasta recipe is:

2 cups flour
3 eggs
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp olive oil

Mix the dry ingredients.  Make a hole in the middle and add the eggs and olive oil.  Mix the eggs and slowly start incorporating the flour mixture.  Once it comes together knead it until it is smooth.  Shape it in a ball and wrap with plastic wrap.  Let it rest for 20 - 30 minutes.  Divide it into 4 parts and proceed to make pasta.

One thing I do different with my pasta, I use a bowl.  I know all the videos want you to make a mound of flour on your counter top but it is not necessary.

For the Spelt pasta I used 1 cup of Spelt flour and 1 cup of AP flour.  After cooking in well salted water the Spelt spaghetti was good enough to eat as it was.

The Spelt spaghetti was used to make a shrimp and mushroom dish for supper.

Ingredients for supper:

1 lb baby Bella mushrooms, sliced
1 lb shrimp
4 slices cooked pepper bacon, minced
salt
pepper
1 Tbs lemon juice
1/4 cup white wine

Heat some olive oil in a skillet and sautee' the mushrooms, season with a good pinch of salt and pepper.  Take out of the skillet while they still have a slight firmness.  Add about 1 Tbs of bacon grease to the olive oil remaining in the skillet.  Add the bacon and stir to warm and crisp then add the shrimp.  If you need to cook your bacon then mince it prior to cooking and put it in the olive oil and skip adding the bacon grease.  Season the shrimp with a good pinch of salt and pepper.  When the shrimp is just about done take it out of the skillet.  Start cooking the pasta.  When the pasta is almost done put the shrimp and mushrooms back in the skillet and start heating them up.  When the oil starts to sizzle add the lemon juice and the white wine and stir to coat all the ingredients.  When the pasta is done take it out of the water and add to the skillet.  Once all the pasta is in the skillet start turning it, tongs work best, to get the shrimp, mushrooms, pasta, and sauce all mixed together.  The pasta water will thicken the juices in the skillet into a nice light sauce.  Make sure to save some pasta water if you have to drain the pasta instead of using tongs to take it out of the pot.  Plate it up and enjoy.  We topped it with a blend of Italian cheeses.

I may up the amount of Spelt flour in the future to see how it does.  Feel free to make this recipe with the spaghetti noodle of your choice.  I think you'll be pleased.

Uncle T