This is why I don’t go out to eat pasta!!!

On Saturday night I made a roasted leg of leg for dinner. I had a lot of leftover. I did use some the next day in a sandwich but the BF was working and I didn’t want to loose the meat. It’s all about using everything I had.

I took 1 onion, 1 carrot, 2 stalks of celery and chopped them up. I cooked them until soft with a bit of butter, I added some Herbes de Provence, minced garlic, 1 bay leaf, a glass of white wine and the lamb meat. Then, I added 1 cup of the lamb stock I made with the bone leftover, and 1 can of tomato peeled, crushing the tomatoes in my hands to break them apart. And then cover to simmer for 2 nights in the row. I put the pot on the back burner and cooked it for a total of maybe 8 hours. It came out one of the best Ragú I have ever made! The meat was falling apart in my mouth. You can see on the picture that it reduced about 1/2 of what I started with, look at the line on the pot.  The flavors were so concentrated, it was wonderful. I think the BF fell in love with all over again, just with that dish!

Then tonight, I decided to make some pasta. It’s so easy!!

2 cups of flour, 3 eggs, couple pinches of salt. Put the eggs in the center of your flour and break them with the fork. Start mixing with the fork until the dough comes together. Then start kneading the dough like you would with bread dough. It’s a harder dough but after a few minutes you’ll see it getting together. Once you have a nice smooth dough. Just let it rest for 15 to 20 minutes, cover with a kitchen towel or plastic wrap, you don’t want a crust to form!

Then you will have to stretch it. No, I do not have the expensive equipment, I grabbed a nice bottle of Cab and rolled it until the dough was thin enough I could see thru. Of course if you have a pasta maker it’s much easier, but hey I am not Italian for nothing, this is Mazzoni style!

Once your dough is nice and thin, just roll it onto itself and slice it to the thickness you would want your tagliatelle to be. I usually discard the end pieces. And with your hand un-roll the pasta. And there you have it!

I like mine to dry a bit before I cook them so, something everyone has at home: a hanger, just put your pasta on the hanger until you’re ready to cook them.

The cooking time for fresh pasta is about 2 minutes depending on its thickness.

This is so easy you will wonder why you ever bought pasta in a store before!! And like me it will be so good you will wonder why going to a restaurant and paying $17 for something that will not taste as fresh and good as this?

When my pasta were done cooking I topped them with the lamb ragú. Pasta alla Isabelle!

Buon Appetito