Homemade Pasta with Semolina

I bought the Charmaine Solomon Family Recipes at a garage sale for $1 which is an excellent investment. Here is her homemade pasta with my 'near enough is good enough' twists:

250 g plain flour (I used OO flour)
80 g fine semolina
1 teas salt
3 eggs
1 tablespoon oil
1 tablespoon water (without my glasses I read this as 1 tablespoon butter and used that instead).

I 'wazzed' this in a food processor for a few seconds but it was too crumbly. My eggs were rather small so I added another one. The moment it formed a ball, I took it out and cut it into four. I was a bit late for work so I put 2 of the 4 pieces of dough through the machine maybe 4 -6 times (not 8 as prescribed by Charmaine). I then wrapped the four bits in glad wrap, stuck it in the fridge and went to work.

That afternoon I got the already machined bits out, wrangled them through the machine a few more times, then turned them into linguine. The dough was dryer and stiffer than normal but not sticky - so very easy to work with - it didn't require extra flour.

The second two bits got put through the machine several times, and also turned into linguine with no apparent ill effects for not being worked the first time. I hung the bits over my clothes dryer until the next morning when I put them in a bag for future use.

The first lot was delicious and I'm hoping the second lot will be good too!

Home Made Pasta With Harry and Tom

Harry, Tom and I made some home made pasta yesterday. We sampled it tonight and it was absolutely delicious.

Take: 2 boys (best mates, no fighting allowed) and 1 nanny
3 bowls, 3 cups plain flour (ordinary), 3 eggs, 1-2 teas oil, 3 teas water (just to adjust consistency)

Make into playdoughish consistency. Knead, make dinosaurs, shapes, squish through pasta maker into monster's hair, throw into the air and try to catch a few times (what the heck, we'll be boiling it), roll back up into 3 balls, fight over whose ball is the biggest and put into the fridge for an hour or two. Go to park.

Return from park and help nanny feed it through the pasta machine, taking turns nicely. One boy helps feed pasta through the machine while the other one is in charge of keeping the dough nicely floured throughout the process.

Turn feral once mummy arrives and, in the mayhem, forget to take the pasta home.

Nanny, not sure how long it will keep or what it will be like, decides to use and replace.

Chicken breast fillet sliced small
3 slices bacon diced
1 onion, 2 cloves garlic, 1 chilli diced finely
1 can chopped tomatoes
1 handful sliced mushrooms
1 large tablespoon tomato paste
2 large tablespoons ricotta
fresh oregano, parsley

Fry chicken in batches in a little oil. Add mushrooms, bacon, onion, garlic, chilli and fry up. Add the tomato past, herbs, fry a little longer. Add fresh herbs and ricotta.

Throw the pasta into boiling, salted water for about 1 minute (longer if using dried pasta).

Toss the pasta into the sauce (or serve separately if you prefer). Toss lightly, add lots of pepper and serve with extra parsley and maybe some grated parmesan (optional).