Now that the weather has cooled down a bit, and because I have a lot of basil in the backyard, I decided it was time to pull out the pasta machine. Since I’m relatively new to making pasta – I winged it. I have to say that the pasta smelled divine! I wasn’t sure about what sauce to use, so I asked my friends and I got some great ideas – which I will be featuring down the road. I ended up going with Karen’s suggestion of olive oil, garlic, and locatelli – which was a perfect compliment to the pasta without overpowering it. Thanks Karen!
- 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 cup Semolina
- 4 eggs, room temperature
- 1/2 cup fresh basil, chopped
Flour, semolina, basil, and eggs.
1. Combine the ingredients in a food processor, let machine run until a ball is formed. Continue to run for an additional 60 seconds. Knead dough with the palm of your hand for several minutes.
The dough.
2. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and let it rest for an hour.
3. Cut the dough into 8 pieces and flatten into a rectangle. With the pasta machine set to the widest setting, pass the dough through, fold in half, and pass it through again. Turn the machine’s knob to the next narrowest setting, fold dough in half and pass through twice more. Repeat on the lower settings until you’ve reached your desired thickness. Cut the pasta sheets into fettucine and dust with semolina to keep it from sticking.
Basil flecked fettucine!
4. At this point, if you’re not going to cook it right away – freeze it. Fresh pasta cooks in about 3 to 5 minutes, depending on thickness – keep an eye on it to avoid overcooking.
5. While the pasta was cooking, I heated up some olive oil in a saute pan, added three cloves of minced garlic, stirring it to keep it from burning. When the pasta was cooked, I drained it, and tossed it in the pan with the garlic, added some toasted breadcrumbs, salt and freshly ground pepper. At the table, we grated locatelli cheese on top.
