Noodle Ramblings

My first pasta machine I had to give it away because I could not hook it up to anything after we bought a new dining room table...I made some pretty great pasta/noodles with this baby.




How I've had to dry pasta noodles lol

I love love love love looooooove to make handmade pasta. I remember the first time I saw a homemade pasta recipe in my Taste of Home magazine and just took off and tried the recipe immediately. I watched a few videos about how to make pasta and went to work. No machine, no fancy attachment, just my hands. I used the recipe for a simple pesto recipe and it tasted ok. It had a doughy flavor that I didn't care much for but I was certainly proud of the effort.



Later on the next couple tries I've made pasta, it still tasted a bit doughy, but less and less. I never gave up on it I was obsessed with making my pasta taste perfect. From all my attempts, I learned something and each time it tasted better. I made homemade ravioli and it made sure I rolled the dough almost paper thin. Whilst the dough definitely didn't taste doughy, some raviolis nearly disintegrated once they hit the boiling pot.

Brown Butter Hokkaido Squash Ravioli

 I finally figured it out- don't make the dough too thin or too thick- which I will explain in a later post. I also was on a quest to find double zero flour, though all-purpose flour is fine, double zero is what the nonnas use and I am a grandma in a young woman's body :-) . I also found a few staple recipes from Thomas Keller, Emeril Lagasse, and Michael Ruhlman and even recipes I've concoted from experience. In fact I think I made a pretty darn amazing Whole Wheat Noodles recipe tonight which I am excited to share hopefully in the near future. I used the noodles for the BEST chicken soup recipe ever, Fine Cooking Magazine's Lemon-Ginger Chicken Soup (I added noodles as the original recipe in the magazine has noodles in the recipe)

Recipe here: http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/asian-style-ginger-chicken-soup.aspx

Making Pasta/Noodles is such a fun relaxing activity for me. My kids love to join in my daughter loves working with dough and my son loves to eat raw dough


Baby boy cranking out pasta sheets



Mt Tagliatelle


For Christmas, my husband bought me a pasta attachment for my mixer and it really brought a great light into me. I hadn't made handmade pasta in over a year. I kind of stopped eating noodles as much since then, because homemade is always the best to me. Though again, it's not necessary. If you don't want to go through the trouble don't. But if you're like me and is obsessed with perfecting your "craft" then go on. Tell me about it in the comments below if you'd like. If we ever get a sunny day in Germany I will definitely share some recipes I've tried because I've been cooking like crazy, but I don't have any fancy lighting equipment so my food looks really good. But shoot if I have to, I will use my camera phone for the photography for my blog, no blog critics care about my blog and I don't care if they do. So let me know if you'd like to see a recipe in the future. I'd love to give a shout out to Linda Nicholson of Salty Seattle (www.saltyseattle.com)  for helping light my pasta/noodle fire. I bought Thomas Keller's book because of her. She buys the best ingredients, cooks everything from scratch, beautifully, artistically, and scrumptiously. So cool to have her and many other bloggers in the food blogging world to inspire me!

Chicken-Broccoli Penne Alfredo

While annoyed with my USA soccer team my impatient ass decided to make dinner during the game rather than after. An angry Sommer in the kitchen will not produce yummy food. So instead of waiting I cooked after halftime because couldn't take it anymore.

I planned this meal while out with my kids, with of course, my lil ones in mind.  My son doesn't like red sauces and a friend out of the blue recently asked me if I was any good at making fettuccine alfredo. So I just had to make this- again! This is my very own recipe so I didn't measure anything- just winged it. You can use beef or shrimp instead of chicken and any veggie instead of broccoli.

Note: They won!!!!
Chicken-Broccoli Penne Alfredo

Serves 4

Ingredients
2 tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
3 boneless skinless chicken breasts
5 tablespoons of unsalted butter
2 medium shallots- minced
3 cloves of garlic - minced
1/3 cup of dry white wine
1-1/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese
4 cups of dry penne pasta
1-1/2 cups of frozen or fresh broccoli florets
Course salt and freshly ground pepper

Directions
1) Season Chicken breasts with salt and pepper. Heat a large skillet to medium-high then add olive oil. Once oil is hot, add chicken. Cook 12-15 minutes turning once. Once cooked, leave to rest for 5 minutes, then slice.

2) Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add penne stirring occasionally. Cook to box directions. During the last 5 minutes, add broccoli. Now drain through a colander.

3) Meanwhile, heat another large skillet to medium heat; add butter. Once butter is melted, add shallots. Cook about 4 minutes then add garlic. Cook another minute then add wine. Cook until wine reduces by half, about 4 or 5 minutes- eye it. Now lower burner to low heat. Add cream stirring occasionally until thickened about 3 to 4 minutes. Take skillet of the hob, then add cheese.  Stir until melted.   Add chicken, broccoli and pasta to skillet. Stir until combined then season with salt and LOTS of pepper! Be prepared for some yumminess!!

Note: If you don't have a bunch of large skillets, just roast the some chicken breasts for about 30 minutes on 350 degrees. Allow to rest and follow recipe. I prefer bone-in skin-on breast for ultimate juiciness and flavor after roasting. Just de-skin and de-bone chicken. Put the bones and skin in a ziplock bag and save for stock. Or just eat the yummy crispy chicken skin (that's just me). But if you're after quick, stick with skinless-boneless.

Penne with Roasted Tomatoes, Garlic, and White Beans

I love me some Ellie Krieger. She's not only gorgeous and can cook, but she's also intelligent. She has a show on Food Network called Healthy Appetite, and it's absolutely the bees knees. She cooks healthy, flavorful food which will make you wonder why in the hell you used so much salt and butter in cooking. I have both of her cookbooks, and have cooked many excellent dishes from them. This one in particular is a favorite in our home. It's quick, frugal and flavorful. This season is the perfect time for this dish, so give it a try.


Here's the recipe from the website: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ellie-krieger/penne-with-roasted-tomatoes-garlic-and-white-beans-recipe/index.html

I made a few changes, but do whatever you want. I've added chicken also in the past, but this dish is really filling and yummy on its own. You can also add some red chiles for a bit of a kick. My kids don't do spicy, so I just add a lil red pepper flakes for a lil spicy kick.


Cook Time:50 min
Yield: 4 (1 1/2 cup) servings

Ingredients
3 large tomatoes, cut into wedges
4 cloves garlic, unpeeled
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons of lemon juice
1(15 ounce) can cannellini beans
1/2 pound penne pasta
1/4 cup fresh basil leaves, torn
2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan
Directions
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.

Slice each tomato into 8 wedges and discard the seeds. Put the tomato wedges and garlic into a 9 by 13-inch roasting pan. Drizzle with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and sprinkle with salt and a few turns of pepper. Roast in the oven, uncovered, for 40 minutes.

Drain the beans into a large colander in the sink. Cook the pasta according to the directions on the package. Drain the pasta into the colander containing the beans, so the hot pasta water will warm the beans. Return drained pasta and beans to the pasta pot.

When the tomatoes are done, pick out the garlic cloves, squeeze the garlic out of the skin into a small bowl and mash with a fork, add 1 tablespoon on oil, 2 tablespoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice, salt and pepper Pour the roasted tomatoes into the pasta pot, add the garlic mixture, the remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil, the basil and additional salt and pepper, to taste. Toss to combine. Serve topped with the Parmesan.