Pasta

I think it was figuring out how to make my own pasta that really turned me on to making my own food. Doing something which was once common place but now feels almost artisanel helped me to understand how much we take processed food for granted. We hardly question what is in our foods and often assume that even the most basic are either too difficult to make or too time consuming. We have given up making our own food. Food where we know what goes into making it and we decided what it tastes like. Making your own pasta is like reclaiming something you lost in a supermarket freezer.

My 4 year old daughter loves making pasta with me. She mixes the dough, kneads , rolls, stretches, cuts and dries it herself. When making your own pasta, the only thing  you need to invest in is a pasta maker. Get a hand cranked one, as you will want to be able to control the speed with which the pasta goes through the machine. If you get serious, you may also want to invest in a pasta drying rack. In the mean time you can use a tray and layer the pasta in between towels or just hang it on your dish rack. I have this and this, both of which I enjoy using.

Pasta (serves 4)

1.       400 gram all purpose flour

2.       4 eggs

3.       A pinch of salt.

Make a mound of flour and the pinch of salt on your counter top and make a little crater in the middle. Break all four eggs into the crater and using your fingers start mixing the flour and eggs. Try not to break the sides of the crater for as long as you can so that the egg doesn’t run all over the counter. Once it is all mixed, knead the dough for about 5 minutes, as you would knead bread, coming from above with the palm of your hand and using the weight of your body, then give the dough a quarter turn, fold and repeat. Ideally you get a rhythm where you are rocking back and forth. After 5 minutes your should hae a shiny, elastic dough. If it’s brittle add a little water, if it’s sticky add a little flour.

Wrap the dough in cling wrap and let it rest in the fridge for an hour.

Cut the dough into4 equal parts, spread some flour on your counter and using a rolling pin start flattening the dough. Try to get it the width the same as your pasta machine.

Sprinkle some flour on your pasta machine and your rolled dough. The dough should not stick at all. Starting at the widest position, feed the dough through the machine, pulling slightly at the end coming out to stretch it. Continue until position 6 or 7. If the pasta becomes too long to handle, cut it in half. Now put the flattened pasta through the cutter. When it’s about half way through, stick the handle of a wooden spoon under the pasta that came out so that you can easily place it somewhere to dry and not turn into a tangled ball. Place it on a towel on a tray placing an additional towel in between each layer or hang it somewhere to dry.

Fresh pasta takes much less time to cook than dry pasta. 3-4 minutes aree usually enough. You’ll want to start checking after 3 minutes.

Baked Tomatoes

The more time I spend preparing (and eating ) Mediterranean food, the more I am struck by how well simplicity works. No need for elaborate preparation, complicated sauces, although that is often fun too. Sometimes it’s enough to put a tomato in the oven and delight over the result .

4 Plum tomatoes

extra virgin olive oil

balsamic vinegar

sea salt

2 cloves of garlic

a couple of basil leaves

1. Preheat the oven to 100 Celsius. Cut the tomatoes in half and with a tea spoon scoop out the seeds and liquid. Place on a oven tray skin side down and sprinkle generously with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

2. Leave in the oven for 2 hours then let cool for about 5 minutes.

3. In the mean time finely chop the garlic and chop the basil into very thin strips.

4. Sprinkle salt, garlic and then basil leaves on the tomatoes and serve at room temperature.

Fennel Soup

They say that smells make some of our strongest memories. Perhaps because this is our most primeval sense. Think about it, a certain scent is often enough to remind you not only of a certain situation but also how you where feeling, what it tasted like, even what you where thinking.

My mother makes a fennel soup that always make me think of lazy, luxurious summer evenings. I remember the feeling of the grass in between my toes as we sit outside in the late evening sun. I can remember feeling slightly cold while the days heat evaporates out of me and I clearly remember the rich, velvety smooth taste of her soup and for some reason a glass of white wine.

I ran past some fennel in the supermarket while thinking of making something different than the usual soup. When I called my mother and she gave me the recipe, surprised, from her perspective fennel is a summer vegetable.

Ingredients:
Half a stick of butter
2 large bulbs of Fennel
a small potato (my addition)
1 liter of vegetable stock
some heavy cream

1.Trim the fennel bulbs but keep some of the thin green fronds. Half each bulb and slice coarsely.

2. Heat butter in a pan and add the fennel, stirring occasionally. Cook over a low flame for 10-15 minutes, until the fennel has softened. In the mean time peel and quarter the potato and boil in water until softened.

3. Add to the fennel along with the vegetable stock. With a hand blender puree the fennel and potato into the stock (you can leave the potato out if you like, I use it to thicken the soup).

4. Add a little cream for color and garnish with the chopped green fronds from the fennel.

5. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Tortilla de Patatas

I first saw this beauty in a café in Madrid when I was about 10. I remember it sitting out on the counter all golden and fat, like a cheese. There is something in the simple pleasure of caramelized onions and potatoes enclosed in egg that makes for real soul pleasing food. This is one of the first dishes I learned to do well. I picked it up out of a thin volume on Spanish cooking my mother had given me when I left home. I really enjoyed the effect that the smell of the tortilla has on anyone in sniffing distance. The biggest challenge with Tortilla is to leave it alone long enough for it to cool as I think it tastes best at room temperature.

Ingredients:

1 large or 2 medium sized old(ish) potatoes

1 large or 2 medium sized onions

4 eggs

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

1. Peel and cut the potato into thin slices (I sometimes leave the skin on). Dice the onions roughly. In a heavy bottomed frying pan heat enough olive oil to cover the bottom of the pan and then some. Add the potatoes, moving them about so that they are all cover in oil. Fry and flip them until they brown slightly.

2. Now move them all to one side of the frying pan and add a layer of chopped onion in the exposed part, covering this with the potatoes, exposing more frying pan for more onion to be covered by potatoes. Do this until the entire pan has a layer of onion covered in potato.

3. Let the onion fry for a couple of minutes and then start mixing the potatoes and onions, working from the outside in. Continue cooking until the onions and potatoes are soft. Turn off the heat and add pepper and salt to taste. Let the mixture rest for 15 minutes.

4. In the mean time beat 4 eggs. Add the cooled potatoes and onions and mixed with the eggs.

5. Reheat the frying pan. It should still be oiled enough. If not add oil. Pour in the mixture and fry on a low flame for 10-15 minutes before flipping the tortilla using a plate. Another 5-10 minutes on the other side should do the trick.

6. Put on a plate to cool.

Tiramisu

Once you realise how easy this is to make you'll never agree to buy it off the shelf again.

Ingredients:
3 egg yolks
250 gr Mascerpone cheese
250 ml sour cream
1/3 cup white sugar
1 cup espresso
1 tbl spoon Amereto
1 packet of lady fingers

1. Seperate the egg yolks from the whites into a bowl and add the sugar. Stir with a wooden spoon until you get a smooth paste. Add the Mascerpone and stir until you get a smooth paste.

2. Pour the espesso in a shallow dish (wide enough to dip the lady fingers into) and add the Amereto. Laddle 2-3 tablespoons of the coffee into the egg and Mascerpone mix and stir until you get an even colour.

3. In a seperate bowl beat the sour cream until stiff. Fold into the Mascerpone mix.

4. Put a couple of spoonfulls of the mixture in a elongated dish and spread out to thinly cover the bottom. Briefly dip each lady finger in the coffee and place in the dish to form a single layer. Do not dip for too long or they will get too soggy. Add a layer of the Mascerpone mix and another layer of cookies followed by a final layer of Mascerpone.

5. Place in the fridge for at least 2 hours. Before serving lightly dust with cacao.