I have been very busy the last two months. I'm at the end of the marathon of cooking with ingredients from the garden, not just mine, but others as well. I have made more Biscuits in the past two months than I have in the the last 20 years and started to make pasta again as well. Today is the first day I have had a chance to post on my creations, rather than creating them.I have posted previously on making pasta and adding new flavours to the dough by using vegetables. One of the reasons many people do enjoy my cooking is I'm a big lover of vegetables and spices I am very familiar with what flavours go well together. At the end of this post I'll comment on some ideas for Pasta recipe ideas and filling ingredients for you to experiment with.
It is very cost effective to make your own pasta and fresh fillings. You don't wind up paying for plastic packaging or shipping costs, additionally, you know you aren't eating preservatives if you make your own. I think that is important in this day of mass produced food. Knowing what I am actually eating.
I made a sun-dried tomato dough recently for use as flat sheets or strands. You can check out my link for instructions on making pasta here. Pasta from Scratch. You don't need to be a professional Chef to make it, but your guests and family will think you are.
This version of Pasta dough, I re-hydrated 5 Sun-dried Tomatoes in water overnight, 1/2 cup. I blended them down the next morning in the blender and added it to the dough as I kneaded it in. Nice and simple, and very flavourful as an end result.
Recipe1 1/2 cups Durum Wheat - 1/4 cup kept aside for kneading
1 egg
1 TBSP Olive Oil
1/8 TSP Salt
1/2 Cup Blended Sun-dried Tomato Puree
The instructions for making this type of pasta dough are the same as the Red Pepper Pasta, excluding the addition of spices and the skinning of the peppers.
Roasted Red Pepper Pasta
Once you have the dough made up, portion it out and place it in your freezer as I do, or let it set 20 minutes in the fridge, then you can go onto to creating a WIDE variety of dishes.
Here are links to other handcrafted pasta dishes I have made:
Ravioli with Spinach Pasta
Spinach Ricotta Cannelloni
Lazy Lasagnas
Spiced Pork Meatballs and Butternut Squash Fettuccine
There are an endless amount of dishes you can make with Handcrafted Pasta, and it is not very hard. If you know your spices, you can play with flavours and keep things interesting.
A few of flavour ideas for fillings or as a main meal are as follows:
Turkey, Basil, Garlic with Sun-dried Tomato Pasta
Chicken, Mushroom, Tarragon, Garlic with Spinach Pasta
Ground Pork with Basil, Oregano, Green and Red Peppers with
Onion and Garlic, Red Pepper Pasta
Duck, Chicken, Ham filling with Butternut Squash Pasta
Salmon, Lemon, Garlic, Dill - Spinach Pasta
The pictures in this post are of Turkey Tomato Herb filling with Spinach Pasta. As I was making three types of Pasta Dough, my husband was making Ravioli with some of it and using the Turkey leftovers we had from a recent roast I did.
Just by adjusting spices and ingredients to the filling, you can make a Pasta Dish which is fresh and light, hearty and earthy or traditionally Italian. When you use your imagination, the variety of meals you can plan and plate are infinite.
Please enjoy!
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