helllloooo! I'm on holiday break, but wanted to check in with you guys...did you have a nice Christmas? mine was full of family-time, lots of driving, TONS of amazing food, and more bottles of wine than I can count. super fun all around, but I am very happy to be back in my little apartment.
I've been talking about learning how to make pasta for months, so you can imagine how psyched I was when my boyfriend's parents gave me a pasta maker!! so my first night back home, I busted it out and made a meal that I think I could eat every day. it was so easy!
with the pasta maker, I also received Mario Batali's
Molto Gusto and had plans to make sauce by actually following a recipe for once. I'm a pretty good cook, if I do say so myself, but I can't tell you the last time I made anything step-by-step from a book. I usually just make it all up as I go....anyway, I had plans to do it right, but ended up inventing something. oh well! but hey, maybe y'all can follow my recipe and make this meal in your little apartment!
MLA's Fresh Linguine with Arrabbiata
& Brussels Sprout "Meatballs"
Fresh Linguine
2 cups all-purpose flour
3 eggs
2 t sea salt
I did use a recipe for this, here's how I did it:
make a little mountain out of the flour and create a crater in the middle / crack the eggs in the middle, add the salt, and whisk together using a fork without disturbing the flour (this is not easy, I ended up scraping the whole thing into a bowl) / slowly incorporate the flour until you have a big ole' ball of dough / knead the dough and then separate into 3 equal balls / place balls on a clean surface and cover with a cloth or bowl for 15 minutes / flatten a ball until it resembles naan / feed it into your pasta machine and work it though all the settings / then feed it through the cutter and voila!
you can drop your pasta directly into a pot of salted boiling water or hang it to dry and use it when your sauce is done. I let mine dry a bit and it took about 3 minutes to cook in boiling water. here's a tip: don't put olive oil in your boiling water, it really doesn't do anything but go down the drain when you dump your pasta. instead, after you you shake all the water off your pasta, drizzle on olive oil and toss your pasta around to make it all yummy and slippery.
MLA's Arrabbiata
1 32oz. can crushed tomatoes (not seasoned)
1-2 T fresh, crushed garlic
2 bay leaves
1-2 T dried basil
1 T dried rosemary
1 T dried tarragon
1.5 t dried chili flakes
5 grinds of fresh pepper
2-3 pinches sugar
1 cup red wine
3 T capers w/brine
2 T nutritional yeast
1-ish oz parmesean rind
I basically dumped all of this (except the nutritional yeast and the rind) into a heavy sauce pan and cooked it down on super low heat for about an hour. I didn't measure anything, so all of the amounts above are guesstimated. I do know that I used a lot of garlic, but that's your call.
I added the nutritional yeast about 30 minutes into it, to round out the flavor and add a bit of thickness. if you've never used nutritional yeast, I hiiiiiighly recommend that you get some (usually sold in bulk at natural food stores or Whole Foods). I always use it in of acid-based sauces and soups and it's soooo goooood on popcorn.
finally, I sliced up about half of a parmesean rind I had in the fridge (never throw away your cheese rinds, they are amazing sauce/soup flavorers!) and added that about 45 minutes in. YUM!
Brussels Sprouts "Meatballs"
1 package/container/bag fresh baby brussels sprouts
sea salt
fresh minced garlic
olive oil
I knew I wanted to include a veggie and honestly, I picked brussels sprouts because there was a sad container of them in my fridge that either needed to be used or pitched. they were already tiny, and when I cut the stems off the wilted outer leaves fell off, leaving them even teenier. I soaked them in bowl of cold water for about 5 minutes to freshen 'em up (I don't know why or if that did anything, it just seemed logical for some reason) and then drained them, dumped them in a bowl, covered 'em with olive oil, sprinkled on the sea salt, and dumped in a ton of garlic. then I mixed it all up, transferred into a clear pyrex dish, and put that into a 350 degree oven for liiiiiike, 40 minutes?
you may not like them as dark, but when I took my sprouts out, they looked like meatballs!! they were deliciously charred on the outside, but when you bit into one, it was almost creamy in the middle. holy moly.
To Plate
a little pasta in a low bowl
4 T of sauce in the middle
scatter with "meatballs"
top with some freshly grated parmesean cheese and torn parsley
sorry, there's no photo of the final product, but it's DEEEEELISH! lemme know if ya make it! better yet, invite me over! I'll bring wine and Settlers of Catan.
