Un po' piu di pasta

Here is a little mood music. In Big Night, one of three Italian food movies I watched this week, the two main characters plan a ‘big night,’ a party for the no-show Louis Prima.

What is it about Italians and food? I should know by now, considering that exactly one year ago I was on a plane, about to begin a semester in Siena. I think Italians are associated more with their food than any other group in the world (except maybe the French ). Whole books are dedicated to the subject. Whole movies are dedicated to the subject. Songs too. I’ve been thinking a ton about Italian food lately. I watched three related food movies in the last couple days: Big Night, Dinner Rush and Under the Tuscan Sun. Two are about Italian Americans with restaurants and one is about an American woman who recovers from her divorce in Tuscany. The latter may not really count as an ‘official’ food film (definition to come), because the main character is not really a chef and food is not the main subject of the movie. The main character is, however, a passionate cook, and someone who finds that as she recreates her life, and learns Tuscan cooking, she ends up with a family around her table.
I will return to discuss Big Night and Dinner Rush later, when I tackle the biggest dish in the first movie, Il Timpano. Tune in soon...

In honor of my personal Italian food film fest, I wanted to make fresh pasta. I haven’t made pasta in years, not since I was a little girl, when my mother, sister and I cranked the pasta machine in my childhood house. For this screen to table project, I wanted my recipe to be as authentic as possible. In one scene of Big Night, the two brothers, Primo and Secondo, make penne by hand. Researching handmade pasta, many recipes tell you to use a food processor and have a long list of ingredients. I wanted to make pasta the ‘real’ way, so I searched for the simplest recipe I could find. I went with Mark Bittman’s version from his The Best Recipes in the World. With so many egg yolks, this is very rich pasta. Making pasta by hand is a long process, so do it on a rainy day, when all you want is sanctuary time in the kitchen.

As I worked, I made my own food short. Take a peak, and try to figure out what’s going on.

Fresh Pasta
“You eat and then you go ‘ah.’ You kill yourself. You have to kill yourself.” (Big Night about Lasagna Bolognese)
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
3 egg yolks

1. Combine 1 ½ cups of the flour and the salt on a counter of large board. Make a well in the middle. Into this well, break the eggs and yolks. Beat the eggs with a fork, slowly and gradually incorporating a little of the flour at a time. When it becomes too hard to stir with the fork, use your hands. When all the flour has been mixed in, knead the dough, pushing it against the board and folding it repeatedly until it is not at all stick and is quite stiff. Sprinkle with a little of the reserved flour. Cover the dough with plastic wrap of a cloth and let it rest for about 30 minutes.

2. Clamp a pasta machine to the counter; sprinkle the work surface lightly with flour. Cut off about one third of the dough; wrap the rest in plastic or cloth. Roll the dough lightly in the flour and use your hands to flatten it into a rectangle about the width of the machine. Set the machine to its thickest setting and crank the dough through. If it sticks, dust with more flour. Repeat. Set the machine to its next-thinnest setting and repeat. For each setting, put the dough through the machine twice.

3. Continue to work your way through the numbers (thickness settings). Pass the dough through the thinnest setting only once. If the dough begins to tear badly, bunch it together and start again. (hint: if you are working alone, I find it easiest to cut the dough in half once the length becomes too difficult to manage, about two levels away from the thinnest setting)

4. Put the dough through your preferred pasta cutter (I made tagliatelle). Repeat the rolling and cutting process for the other dough parts. You can cook the noodles right away, or hang the strands to dry (I clean a broom handle well, and drape pasta slices individually). After drying for up to a couple hours, you can cover the pasta and refrigerate for up to 24 yours.
5. To cook the noodles, drop them into boiling salted water. They’ll be done when tender, in 2-3 minutes. Sauce immediately and serve.

As I waited for the first batch to rest, I decided if I was going to go to all the trouble to make pasta by hand, I mine as well make one more batch. I experimented. To spice up Bittman’s traditional recipe, I replaced one egg yolk with the oil from a can of sundried tomatoes. I diced a few sundried tomatoes, and threw in some basil. In Italy, I watched my host grandmom, Carla, make fresh pasta. She rolled and cut the pasta with her hands. With the pasta machine in front of me, I did not want to go to the trouble of hand rolling the dough, but I wanted to try cutting.

Leann’s Basil Sundried Tomato Hand-Cut Pappardelle
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
4 sundried tomatoes, diced
1-2 tablespoons sundried tomato oil (use from the jar)
1 tablespoon dried basil

Follow steps 1-3 above. In step one, add the last three ingredients with the eggs to the well in the flour mixture. The sundried tomato bits makes this pasta trickier to handle. You may not be able to reach the thinnest pasta rolling setting because of tearing. Just use the next-to-last setting.

Lay sheets of thin pasta on your lightly floured counter. Using a sharp knife, cut strips about 1 inch thick. Drape pasta over a broom handle to dry. Follow cooking steps above.
Since this pasta is so rich, and already has a tomato basil flavor, a light, simple sauce is all you need. I heated a few tablespoons of oil in a skillet with one clove of garlic, salt and pepper.

For the plain pasta, I adapted a bechamel sauce (from Giada’s Everyday Pastas) with prosciutto:
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
¼ cup all-purpose flour
1 ½ cups warm whole milk
salt and pepper to taste
3 slices prosciutto, diced

Melt the butter over medium heat in a small saucepan. Add the flour and whisk until smooth. Gradually add the warm milk, whisking constantly, until the sauce is thick, smooth and creamy, about 8 minutes (do not let the sauce boil). Add the prosciutto, and continue cooking as you stir for 2 more minutes. Remove from heat and stir in salt and pepper. Pour the sauce into your serving dish, then add pasta. Gently mix.

“Oh my god is right. To eat good food is to be close to god.” (Primo-Big Night)

There is a certain rhythm to handling the dough. To avoid tears, you have to cradle it, treat it with a little TLC. Give it a try, and watch Primo and Secondo bicker as you go.