Pasta Dishes

Home Made Pasta - Green Mediterranean Pasta

Home made pasta is a delight to the palate. If you have never had the opportunity to ever taste home made pasta then this recipe will literally blow you away! В  Many people never even consider tackling home made pasta because they have a mistaken idea that it is difficult to make. Nothing could be further from the truth, in fact it is easy, it does however require some time - in no way can it be considered fast food. So without wasting any of your time, let"s take a step by step look at how to make this particular home made pasta. I call it "Mediterranean Pasta" as it is packed full of Mediterranean aromas, such as fresh basil, oregano and thyme. There is no doubt that this special dish comes from my Italian blood and distant memories of my mother hand making her pasta so many years ago. Bless her!В В  Ingredients: В  *Half a cup of fresh basil *Quarter cup of fresh thyme *Quarter cup of fresh oregano *1 pound of flour *2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil *Approximately quarter cup of fresh water *Pinch of salt *2 eggs (optional) В  *First of all for this green home made Mediterranean pasta you are going to have to remove the leaves from your aromas (basil, oregano and thyme). Please try to find fresh as it really will make an explosive difference. Discard any leaves that are turning brown. *Place the leaves together with the olive oil and the water in the blender and blend until you have a liquid sauce. Make sure the leaves have been completely blended with the liquids and no large pieces remain, even if this won"t cause any harm whatsoever. *Sift the flour on to a working top. It is much easier to work on a large working top than in a bowl. You will be using your hands here, no mixing machines please. *Make a well in the sifted flour and pour in the green sauce that you made with the blender and the optional eggs. The eggs will make the pasta more pliable and easier to work as well as to supply protein. However, if you don"t use eggs in your diet, cut them out from the recipe. *mix the eggs and sauce together with a fork then start mixing with the inner part of the flour. Once you have a less sticky mixture discard the fork and use your hands and mix all the flour with the sauce and work well until you have a dough. *Knead the dough for approximately 10 minutes. *Cover the dough with a clean cloth and cover and let it rest for about 30 minutes. After the home made pasta dough has rested for 30 minutes it is ready to be worked. For this you will need a pasta machine or a simple rolling pin. Cut the ball of dough into 4-6 equal pieces and keep one aside - cover the others with the cloth again. Sift a little flour on the work top and using your hands flatten the piece of pasta dough into a rectangle about 4 inches by 10 inches. Select the widest opening in the pasta machine, place one of the narrow ends in the machine and turn the handle until the entire rectangle has passed through the machine.В  Repeat this two more times, then select the next smallest opening on the machine and pass the dough another two-three times. On my machine I do this a total of four times until my pasta is just over a millimeter thick. If you are using a rolling pin, make sure you have enough flour on the pasta so as that the rolling pin doesn"t stick. Roll out the rectangle and then fold it over double and roll again. Carry out this operation three times and keep rolling until the pasta is totally even and about 1 to 1 and 1/2 millimeters thick. В  With a kitchen disc cutter or a knife cut the pasta into strips about half an inch wide and 4-6 inches long, or longer if you prefer. Then repeat the above with another piece of the pasta that is resting in the cloth. If you have the possibility to hang the pasta to dry somewhere under the sun do so. Otherwise, leave to dry on a wooden surface making sure that no piece of home made pasta is on top of another. Inside an hour should be sufficient, especially if you dusted with flour during the pressing phase. Outside in the sun, 30 minutes should be enough. В  How to cook your green Mediterranean home made pasta В  Bring a large saucepan of water to the boil and add salt (preferably large grain sea salt). Add the pasta to the boiling water and cook for no more than 5 minutes stirring occasionally. When cooked add directly to another pan containing the pasta sauce of your choice. The pasta should be enough for four servings. For my personal taste there is nothing better to serve this home made pasta with than a fresh tomato, basil and pine-nut sauce. Fast and simple to prepare and guaranteed to get you heaps of compliments, click over to our site now for the recipe with simple photos to follow.

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