Thursday 11 February 2010

Dough party

I didn't just make pancakes at the weekend. Actually, I went a bit flour mad. Flour-tastic as I like to say. You wanna know what I got up to? Well read on... I made something I'd never done before in my ENTIRE life.




Never.




Ever.




Before.




I made....




Wait for it.....




PASTA!!!!!!!!!!! (yes I know, what was that all about, I'm mental!!)


I followed the recipe in the River Cottage family cookbook and I must say it was amazing. Not the easiest thing to do, but then it was my first time. It got a wee bit messy, but I can live with that. I'm sure I'll cope better with the flour and egg mixing next time. But what I want to say is this. Yes it's more effort that just getting some dried pasta out of a bag. Yes it'll get your kitchen a little messy. But if you've ever done this yourself before you'll know what I'm talking about. It's oh so worth it. Honestly. And no I don't have shares in the egg and flour industry ;-) This is coming from my heart. And my belly ;-)


It was so good we had it for Sunday lunch. Forget the roast, bring on the pasta!!!! It couldn't have been any better: home made fresh egg pasta, home made tomato sauce (easy recipe using carrot and celery for a bit of veg goodness!) and grated parmesan cheese... YUM!!!!


But that wasn't all, that wasn't enough for my crazy little self. I had to go on to make some bread too, recipe from the same Hugh F-W book referenced above (easy white loaf). I've made bread before, but this one is particularly good. And even though it was made on Sunday, it was still fresh this morning. This may not seem very long to some, but I found homemade bread can sometimes go stale fairly quick, so this one was good all round!


One last thing though... my wrists are still recovering from all the kneading!! Happy Thursday all xx

13 comments:

Gina said...

I've never ever made pasta before either but yours looks so professional! Best is tasted amazing. Bread never lasts that long in my house!

The Girl said...

Oh my goodness that's amazing!! I don't think I have the patience to do anything that complicated. Mess?! Nooooooo not the mess!

Feel free to send me some of that bread though.

dragonfly said...

I've never made pasta either but feel quite inspired now to give it a go! I've got the book, just need to find the time!

Heather said...

Goodness me you have been busy! Your pasta looks AMAZING, yum yum yum x

The Curious Cat said...

Hey! Thanks for popping over to see me - just popped back to say thanks for your comment and to see you. I see you have been getting very experimentive in the kitchen. I tried to make pasta recently but was a bit too ambitious with first my project (ravioli)- it was ok but not great. Did you use a pasta machine for yours or did you just roll very thinly? I think next time I'll stick with pasta if I can't work out how to use the machine - I have to admit I needed someone to show me but there was no one to hand! xxx

Petit Filoux said...

Curious Cat, I did it all by hand! I do have a machine (a xmas present) but wanted to try it out on all my own for the first time. I'll try rolling out the dough using the machine next time. Hopefully it'll be fairly straightforward because rolling it out thin enough did take quite a bit of arm muscle!! I'd love to make ravioli one day, and I saw I can buy a "ravioli attachment" for my machine so you never know! xx

Unknown said...

Isn't it fun. So much better than the stuff in the box. I do this and throw mine in some Chicken {Noodle} soup. But, you pictures tell a better story.


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Sandra said...

I never made pasta myself but my brother does and we always ask for pasta when we are invited!

Maria♥ said...

I've never made my own pasta but it's definitely on my list of things to try. Your pasta turned out great!

You have an award waiting for you at my blog.

Maria
x

Petit Filoux said...

Oh whao thank you Maria!!!! Two awards in one week, not sure I can handle all this bloggy happiness!!
(there's me wishing I could dance at my desk without looking like a total weirdo!!) xx

Laura said...

Wow! You were busy on Sunday!! The pasta looks absolutely delicious. I also find that homemade bread goes stale within a day or two, so it's nice to know that it is possible to make homemade and that it will last a bit longer.

xxx

Jennifer said...

We love homemade pasts, though we don't have it nearly enough. We do use a pasta machine and the kids have lots of fun cranking it through. It goes surprisingly fast and it pretty easily rolled into nice thin sheets. Great job on the bread too. We love that cookbook, it's one of my favourites.

Diane said...

I love making pasta and you are right - it tastes amazing. James Martin does a great recipe with pasta and butternut squash (ravioli). xxx I slightly love James Martin.