I got a gift, received a long-term loan, and spent a little money.
The long term loan is a pasta machine. Nothing fancy, pretty cheap actually.
I used to make my own pasta totally by hand, mixing it, kneading it and then very laboriously rolling it out.
I hate rolling it out.
The pasta machine makes that part a breeze, and so I don't care if anyone turns up their nose and says that I am cheating.
It makes fresh pasta easy; almost a daily event if I want it.
The gift was from my daughter and son-in-law: money to spend at Far West Fungi in San Francisco. I stood and stared, then sampled, and finally bought a jar of Black Truffle Carpaccio, and a small bottle of White Truffle Oil.
God bless them.
The money I spent was to buy a good cheese grater (thanks for the tip, Andrew) and a real ravioli mold, allowing me to make them ten at a time.
Simple black truffle fettuccine.
I made up the pasta dough using two cups of flour, one whole egg and a couple egg yolks (adjusting it to the right consistency).
Then I just cooked up the noodles, drained them and then tossed them with about three tablespoons of melted butter. I drizzled very small drops of the white truffle oil on it, along with a half spoon of the oil from the carpaccio.
To finish it I grated parmesan cheese on top, where it melted in.
I like to pair it with a good Cabernet.
Can it get any easier than this?
So far I have seven rave reviews from friends who have very different taste.
But, best of all: I love it.
Macaroni and Cheese.
I made up the dough, then after rolling it (on a thick setting, number two), ran it through the noodle cutter. I cut the noddles into one inch lengths and gave them a little twist.
Cook up the pasta, al dente.
In one pan I fried up two slices of thick-cut bacon from the butcher.
I removed the bacon, and dropped in two medium heat peppers, roasting them.
Chop up the peppers and bacon and set aside.
Fry up (brown) some Panko bread crumbs in the remaining bacon drippings.
In a pan I melted about one tablespoon of butter over medium low heat. Then I whisked in one tablespoon of flour and cooked it for about 5 minutes, stirring constantly to avoid sticking and burning.
Then I added a cup of white wine and brought it to a boil in the saucepan.
I kept stirring and added cubes of Rogue Creamery aged Cheddar Cheese, stirring until the cheese was melted.
I dumped in the bacon and pepper, then stirred in the pasta.
Serve it up on the plate, top with the browned bread crumbs.
No reviews on it yet, because I ate it all myself!
Update to the Mac and Cheese: My friend Richard, who occasionally blogs about food, said it was great on a cold evening in March, in the mountains by Arnold, CA. | This time I added a little sage, and after making the mac and cheese just dumped on the bread crumbs and shoved the whole pan under the broiler for three minutes. |
Meat ravioli topped with mushroom sauce.
I used the new ravioli mold to make this. I learned the hard way that you have to flour down the mold generously before placing the pasta on it, and that it helps to seal the ravioli edges with a fork even though it looks as if they are sealed by the mold itself.
Fork sealed edges kept the ravioli together 100% of the time. Just using the mold, I had about 25% of them breaking open.
Our local Safeway just started carrying some different mushrooms, and I bought a pack of Velvet Pioppini Mushrooms and sauteed them in butter.
Cook the ravioli, make a simple tomato sauce, dump on the mushrooms and cheese.
Delicious, served with a local wine, Dakaro Tempranillo.
Third iteration, I marinated the venison in leftover red wine. Same 50/50 bacon to ravioli ratio, same mushrooms and sauce.
Perfect paired with a St. Francis Cabernet Franc.
The pasta maker (roller) has taken all the work out of it for me. Pasta is easy now.
And so I am going to continue to mess around with this basic idea, and try switching to shrimps, crab or lobster for the stuffing.