Oodles of Noodles!
Happy New Year, Cozy Community! I hope your new years' are started off well! I've decided to do a theme for each month of posts, so this month will be all about food & my favorite recipes! Ryan and I are trying to start cooking at home more and building a menu & sticking to it, so that's where the idea came up for starting the theme off with food! I'm going to kick us off with one of my favorite things to make: homemade pasta! (Bonus recipe for my homemade sauce, too!)
Back story: I always thought homemade pasta would be a complete pain to make, especially because I thought the only way to make it was using one of those hand-cranked pasta machines. But no! I learned from my aunt (I call her TuTu & have for as long as I can remember) how to make it using a stand mixer and a pasta-specific attachment & it was a game changer. Since then, I've been making pasta on my own, and each time I make it I'm reminded of that fun day in TuTu's kitchen & how much I enjoy making pasta.
Ingredients:
*2 cups flour
*3 eggs, room temperature
*2 tablespoons olive oil
*1 teaspoon salt
*2 tablespoons water, or as needed (you'll need *at least* 2)
Beat the flour, eggs, olive oil & salt together in a bowl
Add water one tablespoon at a time to the flour mixture until the dough becomes thick
Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead for 5 or so minutes.
Let the dough rest for about 20 minutes (this is when I start to clean up!)
After the dough has rested, start getting your large pot of lightly salted water boiling
Split the dough into a few chunks (I like to split as I go) and feed it through the pasta attachment/pasta cutting machine
Hang the pasta pieces on a pasta rack (or lay it on a baking sheet w/ parchment paper if you don't have a pasta rack) until you're done cutting it]
Place in the boiling water and cook for 4-6 minutes; then you have yourself some easy and tasty homemade pasta!!
Side note: you will make a complete mess! But that's the fun of cooking, right?!
Ryan & I like to make carbonara with the homemade pasta, but if that's not your speed, a classic red sauce is always the perfect pasta companion.
Ingredients:
*2 28 ounce cans of crushed tomatoes
*1 tablespoon olive oil
*4 garlic cloves, minced or finely chopped (I use already minced garlic to save time)
*2 bay leaves
*1 tablespoon tomato paste
*salt & pepper to taste
*1 lb. ground beef (if you like meat in your sauce!)*
1. Cook the ground beef until it's fully cooked through; drain the liquid
2. Mix everything together in a large pot; simmer on medium-low for about 20 minutes!
If you've made it to this point, you just made yourself some pasta & sauce! Plate up & enjoy! See you all next week for another one of my favorite recipes! Until then, stay safe, healthy, and cozy!
