Making pasta!!
Pasta alla Charlotte and Simone
I am a little bit shocked to find out that it has been more then three weeks since I last wrote a post!! I must have been really busy to neglect my pour little blog so much. It’s not that I don’t want to write, it’s just that I hardly have time to cook, let alone blog about it. It’s sad but true…
And yes, visiting everyone’s blogs and commenting is even worse at the moment. It will get better at some point though. I can’t possibly keep this working schedule up or I will soon run into health problems… ( already have a slightly high blood pressure, so no need to make this any worse, no is there??)
And in the beginning there was....
Charlotte and I had been talking about making our own pasta for… well, almost for as long as we know each other, which is now a year. We met on our trip to Indonesia which is already a shocking year ago. Can’t believe how quickly the time is flying by! It wasn’t the first time that I attempted to make pasta either. My very first time was years ago during a cooking course for pasta at Oldenhof Cooking school and I hated it. Such a laborious process and the fact that we had 20 people or so in the class and only 4 or 5 pasta machines did not really help my perception of making pasta.
The second time was while we were at the kookstudio Amsterdam doing the last day where we had to prepare our own meals and funny enough when I asked Rob if he had pasta he gave me a bag of flour and eggs and I could go and make my own pasta. It was then that I realized that making your own pasta wasn’t really as hard as I had previously been let to believe, so it was about time that I gave it a serious other try. I can’t even remember if Charlotte began about the pasta or if I was the one who brought it up but either way, Charlotte was the one who owned the machine and had only used it once before herself.
We decided to have our pasta adventure on the friday and Tom was invited to taste the fruits of our labour at the end of the day… So you realize that we could not only make pasta but we had to make a starter as well. We already started out by chatting far too long so we suddenly realized it was late and we still had to start by grocery shopping… Ooops… 
Initially the plan was to make tomatoes filled with cucumbermousse. However… the cucumbermousse turned out more like cucumbersoup, so we decided to switch the menu around and make – no surprise – an amuse with cucumbersoup (which quite frankly was not the taste we wanted, but ok…) and fill the tomatoes with a mixture that we thought of ourselves. The tomatoes were actually quite tasty as we filled them with mascarpone, little bits of sausages, chives and mmm, can’t remember, I think we put in red pesto or whatever else was in Charlotte’s fridge… Talk about improvising!
The making of the pasta was actually quite simple. I mean it doesn’t really need much ingredients and it only takes some time to make the dough and ofcourse flatten it in the machine and then making it into tagliatelle, but all in all I thought it definitely was worth the trouble. The biggest amount of work was cleaning the machine afterwards!
Drying on a rack... How clever!
The pasta sauce was based on a recipe from Jamie, which was then completely changed as we had to use other ingredients. We made it with garlic, bacon, carrots (very thinly sliced into long layers), some passata and ofcourse, parmesan. So rather simple but very tasty! Ofcourse key to making fresh pasta is to make sure that the sauce is ready before you cook the pasta as that literally takes a few minutes to get al dente. I’m not sure how long it was exactly but really very short. The weather on that day was so warm that we had dinner outside in Charlotte’s lovely garden…. All in all absolutely something to repeat soon!
Appetizer
Asian
Bread
Breakfast
Desserts & other sweets
Healthy
I tried making my own pasta once and that was more than enough for me. : ) It was hard! Granted, it tasted great, but I’m afraid I’m just a buy-a-box-at-the-store kind of gal.
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Simone (junglefrog) — August 26th, 2010 at 15:06
O but I wasn’t too impressed the first time either. I thought it was a ridiculous amount of work for the result, but…. now that I have done it a couple of times it has become so much faster and easier that I would try it for sure!
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Welcome back!!!
The pasta looks gorgeous. I’ve made fresh pasta a few times, but my pasta rolling machine has been sitting idle for quite a while.
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Simone (junglefrog) — August 26th, 2010 at 15:05
You should really take it out again Olga… It’s so much fun!
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ah! I was just wondering, last nite, about why you had no updates on the blog!
good to see you back!
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Simone (junglefrog) — August 26th, 2010 at 15:04
Haha… yup.. still around!
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Oh I totally understand with the lack of time. That is a great pasta.
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I’ll try making my own pasta sometime…
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Great fun was had by all, I see!!! Well done on making the pasta and thereby changing your perceptions!!
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Well, we miss you already… so glad to see you are posting something again.. no worries, take your time no pressure..
This pasta making looks so much fun..
Sawadee from bangkok,
Kris
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Simone (junglefrog) — August 26th, 2010 at 15:04
I miss everyone too! Soooo behind in reading it’s not fun anymore!
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Fantastic meal cooked with a friend is the best thing in the world! Your perfect pasta make me want to make my own – made it a few times and love making it. Yum! The tomatoes sound delicious, too!
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Simone (junglefrog) — August 26th, 2010 at 15:04
Thanks Jamie… It was delicious! The only thing that wasn’t very tasty was the not so good cucumbermousse turned soup!
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Welcome back Simone! Don’t worry about blogging at the moment if your workload is prohibitive. Just enjoy your free time. Home made pasta is such great fun and so tasty. Worth every minute!
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Simone (junglefrog) — August 26th, 2010 at 15:03
I could not agree more… It’s funny though how my perception of making it has changed!
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What a coincidence! I made pasta this week as well – yours looks gorgeous – the strands look so nice and long compared to mine! Isn’t it so satisfying to make your own?! Well done…. and nice to see you back in action.
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Simone (junglefrog) — August 26th, 2010 at 15:03
I now only wish for a little more action than the last couple of weeks!! And yes, I love making my own pasta!
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Simone your pasta looks picture perfect. And, the more you do it, it will be as easy as buttered toast. I envy all your cooking experiences.
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Nice to see you back Simone. Pasta is something I have yet to make at home but you have made it sound so easy that I def want to try it now! Sounds like you guys had fun though! (and I always wondered about cleaning the machine afterwards…LOL!)
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I miss your posts Simone. Love the homemade pasta, I had tried to make my own pasta before with a small machine. But that was long time ago wonder my machine still works ;DD
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First of all… your photos win me over every time. So beautiful. So beautiful. They put me in a resting place. Now, I have not yet made my own pasta. I have made egg noodles. My grandma taught me that – and they are basically the same as what you are doing, I think… but MUCH more rustic. So, I will be back to this post when I take it on.
Great read.
Valerie
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It was so much fun!!!!!
Hope to do some cooking together soon!!!!
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So fun! Making pasta is a chore, so it is best to do it with someone you enjoy spending A LOT of time with! You ladies did a great job!
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I think a tasty sauce is more important than the pasta-great photos.
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There you are again, missed you!!
The pasta looks great. I also have a pasta machine, but until now I never just it to make pasta. I used it for the fondant to cover a cake…..
Maybe I must find the time to make it, but when I think about cleaning it….. pfffff
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Before I went gluten free , I loved making my own pasta with a pasta machine!! I also hang the pasta to dry on a rack like this!! It ie easy yet so satifiying making your own pasta!! Oooh,..yes!!
MMMMMMMM,…!!!
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Your pasta looks fantastic! The carrot ribbons in it sound great too. And, you’ve just inspired me to use up a last bit of mascarpone with some cherry tomatoes.
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Missed you! This looks like such fun! I actually have access to a pasta machine (if I ask nicely to borrow it), but I haven’t tried making fresh pasta yet. It’s on my list, though!
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homemade pasta is always the best simone! i made homemade ravioli this weekend – worth the time and energy! good to have you back!
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