Brielle's Avalon

A few months ago I had an abundance of tomatoes in the garden, all sizes and colours. There were enough for me to use in salads and still give some to the chickens daily. It was only fair to share with the chickens, since they planted some of them! I finally had so many I had to use part of a day off to harvest and make spaghetti sauce. I had enough to make spaghetti, lasagna, a few pizzas and freeze the rest.

I’ve been meaning to try to make. Whether my great grandmother’s egg noodles or Italian style pastas, Next time I’ll try wide egg noodles for chicken soup or other configurations, but I’ve lately seen a few show do pasta and finally gave in. I’m off work for an extended period and finally feel up to fitting this into my busy day of recovering from ankle surgery. If I can make edible pasta on my 1st unsupervised attempt (OK, there was the cat), then so can you.

3 c flour

3 eggs

2-3 Tbsp olive oil

Put the flour in a mound on the table and make it into a volcano.

Add 3 eggs and oil. I only added 2 here. just wait.

Start mixing the eggs gently with the flour from the walls of the volcano. Realize you should have added the 3rd egg.

Make a well of the remaining flour, add the 3rd egg that you should have added before and mix that egg with the flour, too.

Knead it all together as best you can, leaving the flour that wouldn’t work in to the sides.

Let it rest for 20-30 min while you mix up or check the spaghetti sauce you’ve been making. Covering it with plastic wrap or a slightly damp towel. Also, wash your hands, butter some bread for garlic toast, make some tea, pour a glass of wine…that sort of thing while you wait.

Start rolling it out.

Cut in 1/2 when you realize it’s getting a bit large.

Cut that 1/2 in 1/2 when it gets too large. keep rolling until you think you finally have it thin enough. hint: it won’t be thin enough!

Use any available cutting implement to cut into wide-ish noodles. Set them aside.

Roll out another 1/4 of the batch. Roll up to more evenly and efficiently cut more noodles.

Shake them out and set them aside, too. Do another 1/2 in boring straight noodles, try stacking them. Decide there’s got to be better ways.

Decide to make another kind of pasta, decide on gnocchi. Don’t roll this last 1/4 any thinner. Cut into thumb-wide strips and then into knobs. Roll/squish into balls and form with a fork.

Press the fork into the ball.

Draw toward you to make ridges and curl into a small dumpling.

Allow the feline overlord to inspect your work.

Don’t let her walk through it. She may be miffed but a scritch behind the ears and a quick cuddle will fix that.

Put the gnocchi on a plate so you can clean the table while the water boils. Salt the water. Put the garlic toast in. Don’t answer the phone. No! I told you not to answer the phone! Now the water’s boiling and the toast is burnt! Well, at least you know when the plumber’s coming. Toss the burnt toast to the chickens when they cool.

Pour into the boiling water and cook for 5-10 minutes, depending on how thick they are, until they are fully cooked and tender.

Melt herbed garlic butter on them and maybe sprinkle with truffle oil or parmesan. Nosh on this while waiting for the rest of the pasta to cook.

Put the other pasta in the water. Cook until they’re soft and tender, 5 minutes or so. If you realize it’s not quite done when you start putting it into the sauce, take it out and let it boil a bit longer. Yes, it’ll make the water funny red, don’t worry, it’s all going in the same place.

Put in the spaghetti sauce pan, mix well and dish out as needed. Top with parmesan cheese. Serve with a nice red wine, garlic toast and maybe a green salad. If there’s any left over divvy it into single-serving containers and freeze for later lunches or dinners.

Next time roll thinner and plan to get a pasta machine.