PASTA

JUST A NOTE:

SOMETIMES YOU JUST NEED A BIG BOWL OF PASTA

INVEST IN A PASTA ROLLER IF YOU'RE GOING TO MAKE IT FRESH

ADD A BIT OF WATER, RESHAPE AND REROLL IF YOU MESS UP

TRADITIONAL PASTA

Serves a 4

4 cups of 00 flour

4 eggs

Pinch of salt

water/olive oil as needed

Place the flour on a large pastry board or on a work surface. Make a large well in the center and add all the eggs. Add a generous pinch of salt and stir to blend. Beat the eggs with a fork in order to combine them well. Begin mixing the flour with the eggs gathering the flour from the edge of the well with the fork. Keep on mixing the flour into the eggs until half the flour is mixed in. Start working the dough with your hands until you have a homogeneous dough. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and let it rest for about an hour.

When the dough is rested, cut into workable amounts depending on if you're hand rolling or using a stand mixer attachment. Work with one piece at a time and keeping the remaining pieces covered. Knead the dough for several minutes on the work surface using the technique in the photo until very smooth and elastic. If the dough is too dry, wet your hands under running water then knead. Now roll out the pasta dough on a lightly floured surface, beginning from the center (if rolling by hand) and continue rolling until you can see through the dough.

Cut into desired shape (tagliatelle, ravioli, lasagna sheets, etc.) and cover with flour and allow to dry before cooking or freezing. Frozen pasta will keep for up to 3 months.

CHEESE FILLING

1 1/2 cups whole milk ricotta

1/4 cup finely grate parmesan reggiano

salt + pepper (to taste)

1 egg lightly beaten

MEAT FILLING/MEATBALLS

1 cup breadcrumbs

1 lb ground meat - would recommend a mixture of beef and pork

2 eggs

1 tsp salt

2 tsp pepper

1 tsp garlic powder

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

1/2 cup of finely grated parmesan reggiano

RAVIOLI

To prepare either filling, place all ingredients into a large bowl or into a food processor and combine until mixed well. When done, refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Place the sheet of pasta on the counter, take spoonfuls of the filling and space them equally across half of the dough. Lightly wet your fingers with water and trace around the filling on the dough. Fold the other half of the dough sheet on top of the half with the filling, making sure to squeeze out excess air. Either using a sharp paring knife or a ravioli cutter, cut out the ravioli into individual pieces and place on a rack to dry.

When you're ready to cook - get a large pot of water to a rolling boil. Optional to add salt - I usually don't. Place a few ravioli in at a time - they may need anywhere from 2-3 minutes to cook depending on their size. Pro Tip: Put none in at first, and test the time needed to cook. Nothing is worse than undercooked meat filling in ravioli. They usually float to the top when they are done. When done, fish them out with a wire skimmer (or anything really) and serve with whatever sauce you'd like. I'd recommend Bab's Red Sauce in Sauces + Spreads.

LESSONS LEARNED

1. Buying pasta is a lot easier, but damn this s**t tastes so good.

2. It is expected you will fail the first, second or third time you try to make this. It takes practice to get the dough consistency just right.

3. You will need a pasta rolling attachment for your stand mixer or a countertop roller. Hand rolling - been there, done that, not worth the effort.

4. Do NOT overcook your pasta.

5. Cost savings - Flour is cheap, but better quality flour yields better quality pasta. King Arthur is good flour, and that's only $5/bag, so spend an extra $1 for the good stuff. As for the tools, as always, there's a bit of investment upfront - About $200 for the pasta rolling attachment for your stand mixer and $100 for the food processor if you don't already have one.

6. I usually make a double batch of the meat filling, using the extra to make 1 in. meatballs. Bake those at 350 for 20ish minutes or cook them in a large skillet. (Pictured)

MOTHER'S DAY PASTA

7-8 servings, about 1.5 lbs

PASTA

3 cups all purpose flour

4 eggs

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 tbsp olive oil

1 1/2 tbsp water

DOUGH

Add all of the ingredients to the bowl of a large food processor. Pulse to combine until the dough looks granular but comes together when you pinch it between your fingers. You may need to add more water to get the correct consistency, just be sure to not add too much.

When your dough has reached the proper consistency, plop it onto a clean surface and work the dough until it forms a smooth ball. From there you'll want to portion out the dough into smaller balls - about the size of a baseball and wrap them individually in plastic or place all into a large ziplock bag. Let rest for 10-15 minutes. While waiting affix the pasta sheet roller to your machine and make sure it's on level 1 (and attached well - from experience, nothing is more terrifying than that thing falling off).

LET'S ROLL

Shape your first ball into a rectangle, with about a half inch thickness and pass it through the machine.

To get a more even sheet, fold that into thirds (like folding a piece of paper going into an envelope). Pass it through the machine again making sure that the shorter side is the side that is fed into the roller.

Pass it through the roller again, on the same level, Level 1. You'll notice that one side of the sheet is wider than the other. Make sure to feed the widest end into the roller first.

Move the setting up to Level 2 and pass the sheet through that roller setting two times.

Then move the setting up to Level 3, passing it through only 1 time. Repeat until the dough is thin enough where you can see your hand - usually Level 6 for me.

At this point, you have a perfect sheet to make Ravioli using the Ricotta Filling or the Meat Filling or you can swap out the pasta sheet roller attachment with the fettuccine attachment (pictured) or the spaghetti attachment. If opting for the fettuccini or spaghetti attachment, I would recommend cutting the sheet of pasta in half, so the pasta isn't unusually long and hard to handle. Feed the sheet of dough through the cutting attachment and hang to dry - making sure the pasta strands are decently separated - they will stick together. I have a pasta drying rack (pictured) but I've also used a BBQ rotisserie bar balanced on books in the kitchen to dry pasta in the past. Kitchen MacGyver-ing is always acceptable here.

Remember that if you mess up at any point, you can always reshape the dough and start the rolling process over again. I would just add a splash of water to add some moisture back to the dough before doing so.

When you're ready to cook - get a large pot of water to a rolling boil. Optional to add salt to the water, I personally believe you don't need it. Place the pasta in the water and allow to cook for 90 seconds and only 90 seconds. It's fresh pasta - it doesn't need to cook for long. After 90 seconds, pull the pasta out and allow to drain. Then serve with whatever sauce you'd like. My personal favorite is Bab's Red Sauce in Sauces + Spreads.

MAC & CHEESE

Serves a 6-8ish

1 box of noodles - I prefer mini shells

1 lb Sausage - cut into bite-sized pieces

1 lb of bacon - cooked and cut into small pieces

4 tbsp of butter plus some for the topping

4 tbsp of flour

1 cup milk

4 oz. of Sharp Cheddar (buy the block, not the bag)

4 oz. Monterrey Jack (buy the block again)

5-6 oz. Parmesan cheese (pre-grated is fine)

3/4 cup Panko bread crumbs

Cook the noodles to al dente as directed on the box, drain and set aside. L's Tip: I like to sear off the sausage after cooking the bacon, but that's strictly extra effort and not necessary.

Use a grater to shred the Cheddar and Monterrey Jack. Pre-measure the remaining ingredients and keep near the stove.

Melt the butter in a pot over medium heat. Once fully melted, whisk in the flour, until you can smell a "nutty" scent from the flour. Then slowly drizzle in the milk, whisking furiously until a smooth paste forms. Add all of the cheeses in, continuing to whisk until fully melted and combined. You may need to ad more milk if the mixture is too thick.

Once satisfied with the consistency, add in the bacon, sausage and noodles, mixing to combine thoroughly. Put into a 9x13 oven safe pan. In a separate bowl, melt 1-2 tbsp of butter and mix in the Panko. Sprinkle mixture over the top of the mac and cheese and place in the oven at 350 for 30 minutes or until the top of the crust is golden

L's Tip: To make it *slightly* healthier, you can substitute the noodles for 2 Cauliflower heads, cut into bite sized pieces and blanched (throw into a pot of boiling water for 5-7 minutes then drain).