Ciao from Debbie!

I met Stephanie in Grand Rapids two years ago, a delightful student at Calvin College. Since then, Stephanie came to work as an RA at Black Forest Academy in Kandern, Germany. In December she wrote to ask if she could come visit us with a friend, Julie, over her Christmas break. And so last week, we enjoyed several days together, sightseeing in the Torino area and cooking in my kitchen.

Julie and Stephanie came to visit from Black Forest Academy

The evening they arrived, I offered to have them choose a menu from my cookbooks and we would make the meal together. They were delighted! After settling on a menu together, we headed off the next morning to Porta Palazzo, the largest outdoor market in Europe. The following evening, we made homemade pasta and pesto together, along with fresh bread, fennel salad, baked perch and Hot Fudge Pudding Cake. Larry took photos so you could enjoy the process...and hopefully try it yourself. Let's start with the pesto (recipe at the end of this blog):

Ingredients for pesto: fresh basil, olive oil, Parmesan cheese, garlic and nuts

Pesto is one of my favorite Italian foods! If you aren't familiar with it, it is a delightful, vibrant sauce used to coat pasta--and there's nothing quite like enjoying it on fresh pasta!

Pesto, which originated in Genoa, Italy, comes from the Italian word pestare that means to pound or to bruise. In Rhode Island I made quantities of pesto in September, when my basil plant in the garden was huge. I would freeze it in ice cube trays, and then popped them into a plastic bag. The wonderful aroma of crushed, fresh basil in the middle of winter is enough to bring back memories of a warm and pleasant summer day! So we purchased some fresh basil for our pesto, and removed all the leaves from the stems.

We lightly pressed the leaves into a measuring cup and gave them a quick wash in the salad spinner. Next, we used a microplane zester to grate some fresh Parmesan...though you can use the stuff in the green can if you prefer...

Many recipes for pesto call for pine nuts--but given the high cost of them, I'm happy to tell you that walnut taste exactly the same in pesto. Having harvested and shelled a few pine nuts last year, I understand why they're so costly--but just can't bring myself to spend the money on them in a recipe like this, where they're all ground up and the flavor is so similar to walnuts. But...I didn't even have any shelled walnuts in the house...so we ended up shelling the 1/4 C. necessary for the pesto:

Now, with everything ready, we put it all in the food processor. While originally pesto was made using a mortar and pestle, I've found it adequate to use a food processor. Instead of bruising the basil, it purees it, but the end product is so similar that most of you probably don't want to spend $99 at Williams-Sonoma to buy a marble set like this:

So pull out your food processor and toss in your ingredients:

The fresh basil leaves...

The grated Parmesan cheese...

The walnuts... or pine nuts if you prefer...

And that nearly-non-negotiable in every Italian recipe--garlic.

We processed everything together:

Notice that damp basil leaf that doesn't want to leave the side of the processor? As soon as I took the cover off, it tumbled into the other ingredients.

Isn't that a beautiful color of green? You can almost smell the basil, can't you? Next, I removed the feed-tube from the processor and we drizzled in a half cup of olive oil.

And here's the finished product, ready to coat our fresh pasta.

We used a rubber spatula to get all that goodness into a bowl...rinsed out the processor and began to make the dough...

And here's all you need to make fresh pasta: flour, eggs, and salt. The old-fashioned way to make pasta would be to knead it by hand...but for many years I've made it in a food processor and find it much easier and quicker. For over 20 years I made pasta using all-purpose flour. But last year, when we moved back to Italy, I began using semolina flour and find I prefer it. So if you can find Semolina where you live, try it. I find it makes the texture of the pasta delicate, yet not fragile.

Here's what Practically Edible (one of my favorite food websites) says about Semolina:

Semolina is made from the endosperm (the core or heart) of Durum Wheat, coarsely ground. It is then sifted. The coarser material becomes Semolina, the finer stuff becomes Durum Flour. The Durum Flour is the texture of other flours, whereas the Semolina is closer in texture to granulated white sugar or coarse cornmeal.

When making pasta, I usually calculate how much to make by counting one egg and 3/4 C. flour per adult. However, given the differences in the sizes of eggs--I've found L is not a uniform size around the world!--I usually add one less measurement of flour in the batch. So, with Stephanie, Julie, Larry and I, we needed a total of four eggs. However, I  only added three 3/4 C. measurements of flour...then, if the mixture seems too wet, I can always add more flour. (Of course if it's too dry, you can add a few drops of water.)

If you're serving fresh pasta as a side dish--as with an American meal--calculating one egg per adult will make far too much pasta. Also, if you're making a one-dish pasta meal, where meat and veggies are sautèed and stirred into the pasta, you should plan on making less pasta. If I were making Toni's Chicken Marsala with Fresh Pasta (p. 133 in O Taste & See Some More) or Pasta with Sautéed Vegetables (p. 62 in Around Our Table), I would only use 2-3 eggs for 4 people, since the other ingredients increase the overall amount.

Since we were serving the pasta and pesto as a first course (primo) we decided to use 4 eggs, and broke them into the food processor bowl:

I love how Larry captured this egg falling into the processor!

Our eggs in Italy are a nice, deep yellow... Next we added the flour and a pinch of salt.

I'm a stickler for spooning the flour into the measuring cup, instead of scooping it out. If you're a "scooper" you'll need to figure on adding a bit less flour since scooping packs the flour into the cup and you end up with more flour than you would with the spooning technique. This is a 3/4 C. measuring cup...and I added three of these to the four eggs. A pinch of salt is added and then we're ready to process it. At first the mixture will be quite crumbly...but as you continue to process it, the mixture will form a ball and roll around the edge of the bowl.

And here's the "view from the top" when it's ready:

Some people still roll the pasta by hand, with a rolling pin. But for 20 years I've used an Imperia pasta roller, which is a quicker and easier.

Cheaper ones are on the market, but if you decide to invest in one, I would recommend one that's heavy enough to stay attached to your countertop. With ours attached, next I adjusted the rollers to be as far apart as possible.

Now, we're ready to roll! The first step is to press the dough with the heel of your hand to flatten it.

Then it needs to be cut into managable-sized pieces. With 4 eggs, I cut it into 4pieces.

Each piece is then pressed even flatter onto a well-floured board before rolling it through the pasta roller. If it doesn't come through the rollers nice and smooth, we just keep folding the dough over, dusting it with flour and re-rolling it until the pieces are lusciously smooth.

We readjust the knob so that the rollers are set for the next to the thinnest setting...and roll everything again. As the pasta is pressed thinner, it also gets longer and needs to be cut to a length that's managable for eating.

Now we're ready for the fun part--we attach the cutter to the machine and cut the sheets of pasta into fettuccine, which literally means "little ribbons". In some parts of Italy these are called tagliatelle, which comes from the word "tagliare" or "to cut".

We toss the fettuccine in some flour to keep the cut edges from sticking together...

...and spread it out on the dish towel...

Meanwhile, we've heated a large pot of boiling, salted water. No need to lay out the pieces of fettuccine on a drying rack. I tried it once to see if there was an advantage but there really wasn't. I usually make the pasta just before we cook it...not too far in advance or I run the risk of it sticking together. The pasta is gently dropped into the boiling water...and after it comes to a boil, I test a small piece. It's usually done within one minute!

Once it's drained, I toss it back into the hot, empty pot and pour the sauce or pesto over it and gently coat the pasta with the pesto.

I'm a "stickler" for warm food and have pre-heated the pasta bowls in the warm oven.

We and the girls were definitely ready to sit down and enjoy our first course together...along with the crusty bread we made. But we'll save the bread making for our next blog!

Buon appetito! Thanks for the memories, Steph and Julie! 

Here are the recipes:

Basil Pesto (enough for 4-6 servings)

1 1/2 C. fresh basil leaves (pack lightly in measuring cup--or 3-4 handfuls)

2-3 cloves garlic

1/4 C. (50 g) pine nuts or walnuts

3/4 C. (60 g) Parmesan cheese

1/2 C. (125 ml) olive oil

pinch of salt

Put basil, garlic, nuts and cheese in food processor.  While processing, pour the olive oil through the feed tube.  Process until the consistency of creamed butter.  Pour over warm pasta, or cover and refrigerate or freeze for use later.

Fresh, Homemade Pasta (serves 4 adults as a first course) 

    4 eggs

    2 1/4 C. Semolina or all-purpose flour

    pinch of salt

    dash of water if needed

Combine eggs, flour and salt in food processor.  Process until mixture forms a ball.  If it stays crumbly, add a little water.   If you don’t have a food processor you can knead the ingredients together by hand.  

Divide the dough into four pieces and roll through a pasta roller on the widest setting.  Then roll through on the second thinnest setting.  Now the pasta is ready to cut and cook.  You can roll them with a rolling pin, of course, if you have time and strength!