THE SIMPLE ART OF MAKING FRESH PASTA

I once thought making fresh pasta was what a short, pleasingly-plump Mama Rosa did in the mountains of rural Italy. 

I recently learned that isn't true. It's a simple, fun process. And DELICIOUS! Oh, my word, the difference in taste is amazing. Fresh pasta is delicate and rich, far removed from its dry cousin in a box.

My sister-in-law, June Willis, (more 'sister' than 'in-law') came to New Orleans this week with her friend, Tiya House.  I told her I planned on making fresh pasta, and she wanted to learn how to do it. 

So, we had a little lesson when they arrived.

The ingredients are deceptively simple (and inexpensive).

 For one batch, which serves 6-8, ,I use 3 to 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, 

4 large eggs at room temp and 1 teaspoon kosher salt.

S

 Mix the flour and salt on a hard surface. I use

my counter top. 

 Make a well in the middle with your fingers.

 Pour the eggs (room-temp) into the center of the flour.

Using a fork, whip the eggs and begin to incorporate

 the flour from the inside of the well working out.

This beautiful lady is Tiya House. She and her husband are 

missionaries to her native country, Malawi, South Africa.

She is stirring the eggs into the flour.

 Once the mixture gets thick,  set aside the fork and
 go in with your hands.You'll want to form the dough into a ball
incorporating the extra flour. If it feels too dry, add one or two teaspoons

of flour. When it's just right, it will feel like a shaggy mess. :) 

Tiya's helping me again. Start to knead the ball. You know it's
 right when it doesn't stick to the hard surface. If it's too wet and
 sticks, add a bit more flour. Knead for about 8-9 minutes to
 develop the gluten, using the palms of your hands as above.
You will feel the ball becoming silky and smooth.

 Cut the dough into two pieces and wrap in plastic 

wrap. Let it rest for twenty minutes or so.

 Once it has rested, press the dough flat with your hands. 

You can roll it out with a rolling pin to the desired thickness, 

or you can use a pasta roller (which is much easier and quicker.)
I bought my first one on Amazon for less than $20 to see if I liked the process.
I indeed loved it and upgraded to this one for about $60. It's an Atlas, from 

Italy. It has the flat roller, plus a fettuccine and angel hair cutter. 

 Back to the pasta. Insert the flattened dough into the

widest setting of the pasta roller, #0. 

Fold the flattened dough into thirds and run it back

through the roller three times. This, again, is to 

develop the gluten.

Move the dial to #1 and roll the dough through the pasta roller.

Continue to increase the increments on the roller and run the 

pasta through until you get it to the desired thickness. It will

become thinner and longer with each dial upward.

Once you have it the desired thickness, you can use
knife and cut it into lasagna noodles, or run it through the  other side
of the cutter for angel hair or fettuccine. Above is the latter. 

For the most delicate pastas, like angel hair,you will want to make it quite thin. 

For lasagna, I stop at #6 on my pasta roller, or about 1/16th" thick if you're rolling by hand. 

An interesting thing about authentic, Italian pasta is that it is much thinner than the dried pasta we find at the grocery store. They would never dream of using those fat slabs of pasta. The typical American lasagna has three layers of pasta. The Italian version may very well have 6-8 very thin layers. 

Making fresh pasta puts you in supreme control, not to mention, it costs pennies on the dollar of the purchased version. Literally.

The first time I made fresh pasta, Mical was watching his beloved Texas Rangers. He gasped after he sat down to eat, and I thought either they had made a great play or flubbed it. The he said, "That's delicious."

Made my night.

Have you tried making fresh pasta? I'd love to hear your story. Were you as surprised as I was at how quick and delicious it was?

THE ABSOLUTE BEST ROAST CHICKEN EVER!

My daughter Amy is an avid fitness expert and also a great cook. Her conversation is peppered with words like good fats, metabolize, gluten and the like. I just let her talk and hope she doesn't notice when I butter my bread. Anyway, she's always up for a good roast chicken and asked me to share this one.

Over the years, I've cooked a lot of chicken. It' a staple of life, right? I've stuffed, brined, fried, grilled, smoked, steamed-well, you get the idea, with a wide range of mixed results, from pretty good to straight-to-the-stock-pot.

I recently came across Chef John's Salted Roast Chicken recipe. If you haven't seen any of his videos, you should. He is delightful to watch and a fabulous chef.

This is, by far, the best roast chicken recipe I have ever tried, and perhaps the easiest.

Best and Easiest don't usually go in the same sentence, but this is the exception.

It is deceptively simple. Really. For the chicken, all you need is kosher salt. Thant's it! 

Imagine enjoying this beautiful dish on a weeknight, with only 20 minutes active work time. The oven does the rest.

The secret is the high cooking temp. You will roast the chicken at 450 degrees for about 50 minutes depending on the size. The high heat and kosher salt lock the juices in and makes the skin dry and crispy. 

Roasted on this high temp, it will ALWAYS be juicy and the skin will be crisp. Guaranteed.

(Well, that's assuming you don't over cook it, but I'm sure you wont.)

Interested? Let's get to work. 

Start with a chicken and kosher salt.

My grocery recently had a sale on chickens. 39 cents a pound. 

I wasn't sure if you'd believe it or not, so I took a pic of the label.

I bought 18. If we didn't have chicken once a week before the sale,

we do now.

 Dry the skin thoroughly with paper towels. This helps 

the skin to brown.

Tie the legs together with butcher's twine and tuck the wings

 under.Tying the legs keeps them closer to the body and they 

won't dry out as bad. Sprinkle about 3 T of Kosher salt all 

over the chicken, including the cavity. It will be more than 

you think you need, but trust me this time. A word of warning, 

do this on your cutting board. You don't want extra salt on 

the bottom of your pan, since we're going to make a pan sauce.

That's all the prep. Now, pop it in a 450 degree oven for about

50 minutes until it reaches 165 degrees internal temp.

I use an enameled cast iron pan so I can make the pan sauce

over the top burners. 

This isn't in Chef John's recipe, but I always throw roast 

vegetables with my chicken. It's a complete meal and since the 

oven's on anyway, I might as well use it. I use whatever vegetables 

I have on hand. In the winter, I sometimes add turnips and other 

root vegetables. 

Chop the veggies, toss with salt, pepper and a little 

olive oil. I love a sprinkle of Herbs de Provence. It's 

a mixture of herbs from the south of France. As it cooks, 

it gives off an amazing, earthy aroma. Now, put them

in the oven with the chicken.

 While the chicken is cooking, gather the ingredients

for a quick pan sauce. You will need a handful of fresh thyme, one lemon,

2 T of butter and 1/3 cup of chicken broth.

 Remove the thyme stems and discard. You should

have about 1-2 T of leaves. I'm sure you could use 

dried thyme if you don't have fresh. Just reduce the amount

by 1/2 to 2/3.

 Once the chicken is done, remove it to a platter

and tent foil over it. Put the pan over a burner and scrape up

browned bits. 

 Pour the chicken broth and lemon juice in and reduce by half. 

Since I had to juice the lemon, I slice it very thinly and add it to

the sauce. It's pretty and delicious.

 Once the sauce is reduced, remove it from heat and add 

2 T of butter cut into small chunks, and whisk. 

The sauce will thicken slightly. Check for seasonings. 

 Arrange the chicken on a platter surrounded by the vegetables

and pour that amazing thyme-butter sauce over the top. 

(I hope Amy notices it's only 2 T of butter for the whole dish.)

JUICY, DELICIOUS, AMAZING!