Fresh Pasta (by Hand) & Pasta Sauce from Scratch
The perception of fresh pasta, or rather, the perceived reputation of fresh pasta is that it must be complicated to create. Which it is not, at least when you look at the limited number of ingredients involved.
At the very least, pasta dough requires eggs and flour. I used three eggs, three cups of all purpose flour, some salt, and a little olive oil*. Some recipes even say you can skip the eggs and everything else, and use semolina flour with warm water.
I also opted to do everything by hand, without a pasta maker. As much as I want to try and do most cooking without machinery or appliances, I found it difficult to roll out the dough as thin as I needed to.
As good as the finished product still tasted, the pasta came out of the boiling water thicker than I wanted. I will say though, taste testing fresh pasta and thinking “wow, that tastes like pasta” is an incredible feeling. It also takes significantly less time to cook than dry, store bought pasta.
For the sauce, I started with a basic pasta sauce* base, then improvised. Over medium-low heat, sautéed a half cup of diced carrots and a half cup of diced white onion, then added two minced cloves of garlic with a healthy amount of salt and pepper. To that I then added three (drained) cans of low sodium diced tomatoes, and several good shakes of basil and oregano. Before bringing to a boil, and then reducing to a simmer, added one bay leaf.
After about 20 minutes of simmering and stirring occasionally, I added a small pinch of red pepper flakes, removed the bay leave, stirred, and lightly blended the sauce with a hand mixer. After I was happy with the consistency, I added 3–5 decent lines of honey, and a pad of butter. Mixed everything together until the butter melted, and let everything simmer at (nearly) the lowest heat setting for 15–20 more minutes.
Going forward, I’ll probably use a pasta maker to roll out the dough, but I don’t need to change a single thing about the sauce. Used diced/browned kielbasa as the meat, but I’ll try Italian sausage next.
Make your own:
•Fresh Pasta*
•Pasta Sauce*
Recipes used in the meal above accompanied by an asterisk *.
