Cooking with Squirt

Squirt and I made homemade pasta Thursday night for supper.  It's almost the end of the month, so I'm cleaning out the pantry which means mish-mash for supper or leftovers. 

Homemade pasta sounds awfully intimidating but is incredibly easy.  Here's the recipe:

1 egg
1c flour + more for rolling
1t table salt
1T olive oil
2-3T water

Mix the flour and salt in large bowl or on countertop.  Make a well.  Add egg and wet ingredients, beginning with only 1T of water and adding more as necessary to make the dough come together.  Combine until smooth. 

Cover with damp cloth and let rise for at least 20 minutes but up to 2 hours.  This  is an important step so the gluten can relax and you will be able to roll it out without it springing back on you.

Divide dough into 3 equal portions.  Roll out on lightly floured surface as thin/thick as you like.  It's pretty much up to you from here on out.  I roll it out as thin as I can get it with my rolling pin, roll it up like a cigar, and slice into fettuccine with a serrated knife. 

Drop into boiling water for 3-5 minutes or until al dente.

See...incredibly easy.  Squirt loves making pasta with me.  She helps roll it out and then when it's cut, she unfurls all the little pieces, as seen here.  She is super proud of her work...especially the really long ones.


Instead of some complicated sauce or something like that, we just put some garlic and Italian herbs into some olive oil and let it simmer for a while so the flavors could meld together, sauteed up some chicken and basil and had a great supper.  One of my favorite meals. 

Next time we make pasta though, I'm making ravioli.  I've been craving some fried ravioli lately and we may just have to make some.