Melts in Your Mouth Pasta

So I think I've decided to make this food blog a little more helpful and informative rather than a narrative of my cooking/baking experiences. That might be entertaining, but what's the point of a food blog if you can't get any good recipes out of it?

I'm going to admit: there's only a few things that I can make really, really well. And if you're like me (aka. not a professional chef) these things only get to be great because of repetition. 'Over and over and over and over.... like a monkey with a miniature symbol.' Seriously, there are nuances in a recipe that you only come to recognize once you're beyond worrying about whether you put all the ingredients in.

So here's a variation on one thing that I'm really really good at - making fettucini from scratch. You might ask yourself, "isn't she worried that she is giving away the secret of something really valuable, so that she won't be special anymore because now many other people can make bomb diggity fettucini?"

Well, I thought about this, and the answer is "no". 1.) That would be egotistical and selfish. It would make me happy if you could make fettucini too 2.) We live in the age of transparency. Your facebook account just told me you liked Sasha's 'single' status, and that you became friends with my high school boyfriend, and that you were drunk on Friday night... so I'm going to tell you how I make pasta. About a zillion other people are doing the same. 3.) My grandma has been giving us her pasta sauce recipe for years, and it still never tastes as good as when she makes it. She says she makes it with 'a lot of love. That's all.' Obviously reason 3 is the only reason why I'm posting this recipe.

Anyway, making pasta requires one special thing. A pasta maker. You can get this as an attachment to a Kitchen Aid, or you can use an old school pasta maker that you turn by hand. In either version, there are rollers that flatten the dough into successively thinner sheets. There are also rollers that cut the pasta into whatever shape you desire. I understand that finding a Kitchen aid and pasta attachment on command is not something many of us can do. I also understand that if you have this tool, you probably already know how to make pasta. BUT, seeing how it is spring, and people are having garage sales, you should know that hand-cranked pasta machines are likely suspects in an old lady's garage sale.

Oh also, I need to say some stuff about flour: For this recipe I used half white half whole wheat. However, you can modify by using all white or all wheat. But you are warned! You may have to adjust water or flour additions while kneading to make sure your dough ball is the right consistency. For example, a whole wheat flour will absorb more liquid than a traditional semolina flour so you may need to add more water while kneading. My concoction equaled about 1.5 cups flour total, but I specifically use weight when measuring for pasta, because each different kind of flour has a different weight, and there's many different ways to pack a measuring cup. ALL THAT BEING SAID.... don't be afraid to experiment! It's better to make something your way and have it be a little under par than to not make it at all because you can't replicate the instructions exactly.

Alright, with that lightyear digression out of the way, here's what you need for the dough:

• 400 g of flour (200 wheat, 200 white... or about 0.75 cups each)
• 5 oz chopped spinach. I used fresh and cooked it, but you can use thawed frozen chopped spinach as well. Squeeze most of the water out of the spinach after cooked/thawed
• 2 eggs
• healthy pinch of salt

So that's it. Flour, spinach, eggs, and salt. Normally pasta calls for some water, but there's enough water in the spinach for our purposes.

Here's the long, informative version (scroll down for short version):

• Puree the spinach and egg together. Ideally I'd like it to be a perfectly smooth green liquid, but cheapo food processor just can't take it up to that notch.
• Add the salt
• Sift flour together in a large bowl, and make a little crater.
• Pour in some of the spinach mix into the crater.
• Mix with a spatula or spoon. Doing this part on a table, and with your hands is tempting. Believe me, I've probably done this a dozen times that way. It feels super authentic, but honestly, you spend most of your time trying to get the resultant dough gloves off your hands and back into the dough ball.
• Add the spinach mixture a little at a time, mixing with each addition. I'd say 4 additions for the whole shabang is appropriate.
• Mix with the spatula until most of your material is sticking to itself in one way or another. If you still have some crumblies that don't want to incorporate, wet your fingertips and make like you're spritzing someone in the face with freshly washed (and not dried) hands. Then continue to mix everything together
• At this point, you should have a cohesive mass, but it might be lumpy (see the picture)
• Now turn this dough ball out on a lightly floured surface. You need to knead it for about 10 minutes. I can't teach you how to knead over the internet. You just need to work it, fold it, smush it, punch it... perhaps to a Daft Punk record.
• The secret to good pasta is in this step. When I lived in Florence, I took a cooking class. So there we were, about 13 young girls with biceps the size of Red Bull cans, trying to knead this dough. It was like watching a 2 year old hit a punching bag. The chef dudes kept genially harassing us to knead harder... and we tried... in vain. When they felt that we could improve the dough no further, they took over. With arms like impact drivers and hands like bear claws, they owned the dough. Well, let me tell you... I might not have impact driver arms, but my guns are much bigger than they used to be. You want to knead the dough until it becomes smooth and springy. If you push your finger into it, the dough should pop back out at least halfway. If it's too dry and stiff, add more water by putting water on your hands while kneading. If it's too sticky and soft, add more flour on the outside of the ball and work it in. What you're doing is mechanically linking gliadin and glutenin proteins. These linked molecules form gluten, which creates the molecular structure for what we know as chewy dough.
• After you've given the kneading step a shot, let this dough ball rest for about 30 minutes. You're letting the gluten proteins relax enough to make the dough workable.
• Now, at this point you need to break out your pasta making machine.Cut chunks of dough off in about 1/5" thick slices. Roll out the dough a bit so it will fit into the machine with the rollers on the lowest setting (1). Roll through setting 1 twice, and successive settings only once. I usually go up to 4. This gives the fettucini some weight, but doesn't make it chewy.
• Now replace the roller attachment with the fettucini cutting attachment. This is when the magic happens. It's mesmerizing, really. Don't wait too long between when you roll out the dough to when you cut the dough. Your sheets of pasta will oxidize and start to turn brittle in as little as 30 minutes. When it turns brittle, the pasta will crack as it goes through the cutting attachment, and you'll end up with pasta pieces instead of noodles.
• Take your cut fettucini and hang to dry. I've used everything from a clothing rack to strings tied around chairs to do this. This time, I cleared and cleaned off my wire shelving of all my pots and pans. Make sure you separate any noodles sticking together. I think this is the worst part about making fettucini.
• Let the noodles dry for a bit before cooking them or storing them in some airtight container. I usually don't refrigerate them, but some people are addicted to the idea of preservation, so do whatever you like with them.

And... the abbreviated version:

• puree spinach, eggs, salt
• gradually mix this into flour
• mix until you form a mass that sticks together
• knead on a floured surface for 10 minutes, or until smooth and springy (add water and flour as kneeded, hardy har)
• rest for 30 minutes
• put sections of dough through machine twice through 1, once through 2, 3, and 4
• cut pasta sheets with fettucini attachment
• hang to dry
• cook 3-4 minutes in salted, boiling water

So that's it! You only need to cook these noodles for about 3-4 minutes instead of the usual 9-10 for whole wheat pasta. Pasta dried in an industrial sense requires a longer cooking time, and usually has a stiffer texture. Freshly made pasta is cooked very quickly, and has the 'melt in your mouth' affect.

Ps. If you don't have a pasta machine, but still want to try this: make lasagne or ravioli. All you have to do is roll the dough out in sheets until it's pretty thin (think the thinness of a tortilla). Then either use in lasagne, or make into ravioli. (ugh, I'm tired of typing... just google 'how to make ravioli)