Scratch, Glorious Scratch

I wasn't sure I still had the touch, but yesterday I dragged out the old pasta machine, and with Tai-chan's now semi-professional help, churned out some ravioli and fettucine. Brigitte was understandably skeptical because I've never made pasta from scratch since I've known her, and I was a bit nervous, but luckily all the old memory cells kicked into gear and I went to it.

I decided to just make cheese filling for the raviolis, as meat takes a lot more prep and this was a spur-of-the-moment thingy.

Most recipes cause for some ricotta-type filling but I opted for Pecorino Romano and some great French hard cheese similar to gouda (Maréchal de lait cru) mixed with par-cooked shallots and garlic. That made a great filling.

I ran out of filling way before I ran out of dough, which, by the way I infused with basil and garlic, so it was crunch time, as I know that if i freeze the rest I'll never use it.

But what I did was is extremely easy -- I just ran all the dough through to the last setting on the machine (the thinnest) and then, using LOTS of flour to prevent sticking -- you can NOT overdo the flour -- I folded the sheets over maybe six or seven times and then simply cut the fettucine with my chef's knife. Then I shook them out of their folded state and voilà -- fettucine. If you're going to freeze it, as I did, dust with LOTS of flour and put it on wax paper in a plastic container.

Brigitte made the tomato sauce, and I'm very proud to say that out of maybe 20 raviolis only one broke in the water and Brigitte was mucho impressed -- she told me that she finally believed me after all the hype I'd fed her over the years that my homemade pasta was better than a restaurant's.

The cleanup, unfortunately, is a bit annoying and flour goes everywhere no matter how much you try to contain it.

Sorry, no pics this time but I'll photograph the fettucine when we have it -- maybe carbonara-style.

Meanwhile, you can check out one of my most elaborate preparations I did a few years back (do NOT try this at home) for an idea of the process.