Fresh egg pasta + 2 delicious pasta recipe.

 

Hello everyone! So this post is going to be a bit long cause I'll be doing 3 different recipes at once. I'm just too lazy to make this 3 separate posts, since they're all done with the same ingredients. But cope with me, cause I'll be revealing the ultimate secret to kneading a pasta dough to make it perfect. I've heard it a couple of times from TV, but never really know how to apply this secret.

Here goes...


Fresh Pasta Recipe.

Yields: two servings of pasta noodle.

INGREDIENTS:

• 100g Pasta Tip "oo" flour
• 1 egg

(The formula is 1 egg for every 100g of flour).

METHOD:

Make a "well" in the middle of the flour and crack an egg into it. Whisk the egg with a fork for a few sec then use your finger to incorporate the flour to the egg a little at a time, then bring everything into a ball. 

At first, it might look lumpy and as if they're not coming together smoothly. But Jamie Oliver said that with a bit of work and some LOVE, it will be one smooth elastic dough. I heard the same thing from Gordon Ramsay on TV, but I didn't quite understand what giving some "love" while kneading the dough means. So...

This is the ultimate secret...

I turned on some love songs and sang it to the dough while I was kneading. HAHA. Weird, I know. But it weirdly worked well. I made fresh pasta before, but this time the pasta dough was actually much smoother. So I gave some love to the dough successfully.

This was the dough after a few minutes of kneading and few love songs sung. It was smooth, not lumpy at all and very easy to work with.

Put it in the fridge to rest for about 30 minutes. Wrap it tightly with cling wrap. Meanwhile, you can prepare the ingredients for your pasta dish...

Prepare your pasta machine on your bench, setting it to the thickest setting at first and working down your way to the thinnest setting. 

If you don't have a pasta machine, don't freak out, just use a rolling pin to roll it to the thinnest possible. 

History said that this was what Italian mamas used back in the olden days...

This was the pasta dough after I used the thinnest setting.
You know your pasta has the right thickness when you hold it up and able to see your hand through the pasta.
You can do a puppet show behind those pasta sheets.

Remember to flour every layer if you stack the pasta sheet so it doesn't stick. 

I made some fettuccine from one half...

And I also did a pappardelle by cutting a stacked pasta sheet.

Cook the fresh pasta in salted boiling water only for exactly 2 minutes for al dente...

Pasta, done.

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Fettuccine with Garlic and Chili Prawn

Ingredients: 

• 75g of fresh fettuccine
• 4 red bird eye chilies (lose the chili if you can't handle spicy food)
• 5 tbs of olive oil
• 5 banana prawns or king prawns (can replace with bacon pieces)
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 2 white mushrooms
• Pinch of salt
• Pinch of dried parsley

 

Mise en place.

Fry the mushroom slices with the olive oil until all the liquid evaporates then add the garlic. 

Add the prawn, while still stirring the garlic to prevent it from browning. 

Once the prawns are cooked, add the chopped chillies. 

Lastly, add the cooked fettuccine and dried parsley.

Toss it in the olive oil.

Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Done.

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Pappardelle with Marinara Sauce base and Garlic Prawn

Ingredients:

• 2 banana prawns (cooked the same way as above)
• 75g of pappardelle pasta
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 100g of diced tomatoes in a can
• Pinch of cumin
• Pinch of sweet paprika
• Pinch of dried basil leaves
• Salt and pepper to taste

First of all, toss the pappardelle with olive oil and dried parsley.

Cook the sauce by sautéing the garlic, add the diced tomatoes, cumin, sweet paprika and basil. Use the same pan you used to cook the prawn, it will be rich in flavor. Add salt and pepper to taste. Let the water of the tomato reduce a bit. Marinara sauce, done.

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Both of these dishes may not be a fancy pasta dish, but the fact that I used fresh pasta and not dried packaged ones really made a difference. When everything's cooked with love, how can it not be delicious? <3 teehee.

Okay, time for bed.