Adventures in Pastamaking

It's the end of the month and we are down to next-to-nothing in our cupboards, but I was still craving something special for dinner tonight (more special than "random vegetables with rice" or "fend-for-yourself"). I craved a certain something... carb-y, delicious... pasta! I wanted to make my own since I have never done it, and I was worried I would be a little inhibited without a pasta making press. Fortunately, I tried out this recipe and it worked great! The noodles turned out kind of funky-shaped, but I'll explain that more along the way.

Homemade Noodles (Yield: 4-6 servings)
4 eggs
1/2 c. durum or semolina flour
2 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt

First, I put the eggs in my trusty Cuisinart food processor and whipped them up until they were completely blended.


Then, in a bowl, I combined the dry ingredients and mixed them well and added them, 1 cup at a time, to the egg mixture and pulsed with the food processor until I had a thick, non-sticky dough.



I tranferred it to my well-floured counter to knead it for about 5 minutes. Look at the cute dough blob:


After I kneaded it, the ball sat for about 10 minutes under a rag before I started to roll it out. And let me tell you... if you don't have a pasta machine, this is where your arms get involved. Like, really involved. It took me a long time to roll these suckers out. Below you can see yours truly huffing and puffing away while desperately trying to get the dough as flat and thin as possible:


Finally, I decided to cut the dough into two pieces and work on each one separately to try and get them thin. Here's a cross- section to show you the dough-y goodness:


Cutting it in half made it much easier to get the dough fairly thin. I first rolled it out into a long sheet like this:


Then I rolled it up like a big jelly roll and used a sharp knife to cut thin ribbons out of the jelly roll (you just need to cut slices and they unroll into noodles!)


Then I wound up with a bowl full of mutant-shaped noodles like this. Actually I prefer the term unique and beautiful, or atleast rustic.


The cut noodles need to be kept under a cloth since they dry out quickly, and should either be prepared immediately or dried and stored. Before I could cook the noodles I had to make some kind of a sauce to put with them, so I threw this little baby together:

Caroline's Lentil-y Tomato Sauce (Yield: 4-6 servings)
2 tsp. olive oil
4 cloves garlic
6 mushrooms
1/2 c. red lentils
3/4 c. water
1/2 tsp. each: basil, oregano and rosemary
dash cayenne (or more if you want it hot!)
dash curry powder
salt to taste
Can of tomatoes
1 tbsp. tomato paste
1 tbsp. balsamic vinegar

Basically, I heated the oil over medium heat in a medium-sized sauce pan, sauteed the garlic and mushrooms, tossed the lentils around in the oil, then added the water and spices. Bring it all to a boil and then cover and simmer for 10-12 minutes, or until the lentils are soft. Once they are soft, add the can of tomatoes, tomato paste, and vinegar and stir it all up. Toss it with the noodles!

Cooking the noodles was super easy, just bring a large pot of water to a rapid boil and drop the noodles in for 3 minutes, until they are al dente. Here are the noodles in their hot bath:

And finally, here is Eric's plate: steamed asparagus, a big spinach salad, and the noodle/sauce combination topped with parmesan and some pine nuts. YUM!


Now I can happily digest for a while and make room for another one of Meggie's kickass truffles...
(Mad props to Stephen for being the main pornographer here as I cooked... your camera kicks ass)

Welcome!

Welcome to Cast Iron Maiden, a simple blog about some friends on the culinary adventure that is life.

Caroline and I recently decided it was time for us to begin recording our great food successes (and occasional disasters) so that they might be shared with the masses. My hope is that this blog will give us the opportunity to share a little bit of our daily lives with family and friends, as well as provide us with a chance to discuss one of everyone's favorite topics: food!

While this will technically be a food blog, don't be surprised if you find a dash of personal ranting and a pinch of funny youtube videos mixed in with the recipes and food porn. We might even throw in some crafting for good measure. After all, we are people of many talents and our blog should definitely reflect that!