FEAST on fresh, homemade pasta

I finally hit a wall and went into work on Saturday to say I was taking (most of) Sunday off.  Just knowing I was going to have a day free to do whatever was a big relief.  Saturdays at the distillery, the girls and I have gotten in the habit of closing up shop and sitting down to enjoy a cocktail or two before we venture out to our respective evenings.  This week, we all donned an assortment of plaid and went to the New Deal Yelp After Party for Feast week.

An assortment of New Deal cocktails of all varieties, bites of fabulous food, ice cream with booze in it… I was in heaven.  Wait, I’m not sure they allow plaid in heaven.  I have never seen so much plaid!  I really do not own anything plaid and was going to go sans plaid, but one of the girls came to my rescue and I wore a bright plaid polyester number.  I was quite fetching.  and NO, there are no photos!

Sunday, a little hungover and excited for my leisure day, I woke way too early and made a pot of water.  I couldn’t quite put my finger on what was off until I looked over and saw the coffee beans still sitting in the grinder.  Good thing I had time for a do-over.  While the “real” pot brewed, I gave Coe a bath.  I’m not sure where this burst of productivity came from.

I had been gifted tomatoes fresh from the garden, so in honor of my free time, I made fresh pasta.  I’ve been wanting to make it for some time.  I had really forgotten how easy it was to make.  Years ago, I took a ravioli class and I went back to the recipe that had served me so well.  But, I had to tweak it a little bit.

This past week was FEAST (see above after-party).  A week of food events “celebrating Oregon’s bounty”.  Tickets for most events were outrageous, but I could not pass up Mark Bittman.  I’ve mentioned before how much I like him.  He makes you think about your food… where it’s from, what’s in it, and how to make it better.  And that’s just what he talked about.  For anyone who follows him regularly, he didn’t talk about anything new or startling, but just reinforced all the things he writes so passionately about.

I’ve had a recipe of his bookmarked for about a year.  Now with this free time on Sunday, I sort of put it in action.  Bittman’s recipe is for an egg pasta rolled into handkerchiefs with fresh pesto.  I used my tried and true dough recipe but did his technique.

Into the cuisinart:
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 semolina
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
Pulse cuisinart a few times, then add
2 tablespoons olive oil
drizzle 2 tablespoons water, if needed to bring it all together.

 This whole process should take about a minute. Dust with just a little flour if it feels a little sticky as you pull your dough ball out of the food processor. Knead a couple of times into a disc and wrap in plastic wrap to rest on the counter for 30 minutes (or in the fridge for a day).

While the dough rested, I chopped up a few tomatoes, chiffonade some fresh basil and sprinkled with a pinch of kosher salt. Water at a gentle boil, I began to roll my dough. I have a pasta machine, but you can just as easily do this with a rolling pin. Starting on the largest setting, I worked my way to the thinnest setting. I ended up with long, wide ribbons of pasta that were done to perfection in about a minute. I tossed the pasta handkerchiefs with my tomatoes and dusted with fresh parmesan.  You can shape this recipe into whatever type of pasta you prefer.

Summer’s beautiful bounty!  Enjoy!