Making Pasta

My electric Imperia pasta roller and cutter just broke after 25 years of superlative service.  It had the decency not to break until I finished cutting my very last sheet of tajarill, a short 3-inch long fettuccine used in the province of Teramo in Abruzzo made of semolina and whole wheat flour.  I'm going to replace it with the pasta attachments KitchenAid sells for their stand mixers.

I've been making pasta a lot lately, partly because I'm writing a big book that requires everything to be homemade and partly because it just isn't that hard and it's head and shoulders above store bought, noticeably so.  My favorite pasta I cut by hand, the pappardelle which I love to make with a rich duck sauce. 

It's easy as I said.  Pour 3 cups of semolina flour on a work surface and make a well in the middle, like a volcanic crater.  Pour in 1 cup water, a teaspoon of salt and 1 or 2 tablespoons of olive oil.  Using your index finger stir and incorporate the flour on the walls of the crater and once it is absorbed form the dough into a ball and knead for 8 minutes, then let rest 1 hour.  Roll it out and use a pasta cutter roller or cut by hand.  It's up to you.  Lay the pasta on a table covered with a sheet, or in a 11 x 13 inch baking sheet sprinkled with flour so the pasta doesn't stick hopelessly together and let dry 4 hours to 2 days.

If you need more hand holding than that you'll find my detailed instructions here.

[photo: Clifford A. Wright

Summer Joy

When we were growing up in New York, calamari was as common and beloved a food as any. My jaw would drop in saddened amazement when Midwesterners, or for that matter anybody who didn't live on the East coast, would call them rubber bands. We knew that if their texture was like rubber bands they weren't cooked properly. One of my favorite dishes is spaghetti with fried calamari. This is a harbinger of summer even more than shoots poking out of the ground. It means a world of grilled seafood is on the horizon. Pasta is the perfect food to accompany calamari as in this recipe.


Linguine with Calamari

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
3 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
5 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley
1/4 teaspoon red chile flakes
6 to 8 cups olive oil for frying
1 pound cleaned squid bodies, cut into rings
1 cup all-purpose flour for dredging
Salt to taste
1/2 cup milk
3/4 pound linguine
1. In a small skillet, heat the olive oil, garlic, half the parsley, and red chile, over low heat. Turn off the heat before it starts sizzling.
2. In a deep fryer or an eight-inch diameter saucepan fitted with a wire fry basket preheat the oil to 360 degrees F. Preheat the oven to 150 degrees F or “warm.”
3. Meanwhile, dredge the squid in the flour and salt and shake off the excess flour in a strainer. Cook the squid in batches, by the handful, dipping them first in the milk rather quickly. Make sure you don’t crowd the fryer. Cook the squid until light golden, 3 to 4 minutes. Drain and place on a paper towel-lined platter and keep warm in the oven while you cook the pasta.
4. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a vigorous boil over high heat, salt abundantly, and add the pasta. Cook, stirring occasionally, until al dente and drain well without rinsing. Transfer the pasta to a serving bowl or platter. Sprinkle the fried squid on top, then sprinkle the remaining parsley on top, and serve.
Makes 4 servings