40 minute pasta dinner

making pretty decent pasta is actually incredibly easy

If we had known you could make your own pasta without a machine our whole lives we might have a serious pasta problem and, truth be told, after this week’s dinner, we’re about to have a pasta problem.

Lucky for us, this is a great problem to have, because we believe in good carbs made from good ingredients and pasta is truly one of those good carbs. We made this batch from Severson flour. To get it done in 40 minutes, the key is to make the dough, start the sauce, and while the sauce is simmering, and your pasta water is on the boil, shape the pasta.

DOUGH INGREDIENTS

4 cups Severson flour (this makes a nice hearty wheat noodle but any flour you like will do!)

4 eggs

1 teaspoon of salt

DOUGH INSTRUCTIONS

1. Mix salt and flour, make a whole for the eggs.

2. Crack the eggs into the dough.

3. Mix well until it’s a dough texture or put into a mixer.

4. Knead into a ball, wrap tightly in saran, put in the fridge for at least 30 minutes and up to 2 days before shaping.

SHAPE PASTA

So many ways to do this. For our first foray into a homemade noodle, we cut the dough ball into four manageable sections and rolled each one out as thin as we could make it, dusting with flour as we rolled to keep anything from sticking. Then we rolled the thin sheet of dough into a cannoli-like shape and cut in uniform slices, which left very cute and curly noodles.

PREPARE SHAPED PASTA

1. Boil some salted water.

2. Add pasta, cook for 3-5 minutes or until you can see that the bubbles have some starch in them.

3. Strain and keep a few tablespoons for your sauce.

CREAMY TOMATO SAUCE INGREDIENTS*

good fat or a few slices of bacon, chopped

whole roasted tomatoes

minced onion

peeled, chopped carrot

peeled, chopped garlic

some cream

salt and pepper, spices

SAUCE INSTRUCTIONS

1. Render the fat from the bacon or just melt down some butter or use some olive oil to sweat the onion.

2. Add additional veggies and salt, pepper, any spices you’re feeling.

3. Add a jar of whole roasted tomatoes, let everything simmer a while. Add a few tablespoons of the starchy pasta water. Let that cook down.

4. Add cream right before you’re going to serve.

*as you know, the possibilities are endless on sauce. Chris likes to dissolve an italian sausage in the sauce and let it simmer on low heat basically all day. take out tomatoes and add mushrooms and greens, just make a cacio e pepe, or just add a little bit of olive oil, salt, pepper, and parmesan and you’ve got a super nourishing meal.