Homemade pasta Archives - Proud Italian Cook

Artisinal Pasta Tools, and a Day of Pasta Making with Friends

March 9, 2011 by Marie 51 Comments

I’ve been yearning for a corzetti stamp for a long time, practically begging relatives of mine to search out one for me on their recent trip to Italy, which by the way they never could find. Little did I know back then that I could have gotten one right here in this country, specifically from California!

Fast forward about a month later when Terry Mirri, the owner of a company named,

Fatto in America – Artisanal Pasta Tools, contacted me to try out two of his handcrafted artisinal pasta tools, a corzetti stamp and a garganelli board. Their mission is for home chefs to explore food preparation with tools rarely seen by the American consumer. After receiving them and actually seeing the fine craftsmanship that went into each design, the beautiful woods they used, I was in awe!

Corzetti are a highly decorative pasta, but at the same time it’s also functional because the embossed pattern helps to hold oily sauces such as different types of pestos.

Just one look at this garganelli board and you will be amazed to see all the work that was put into making this. Fifty six individually cut slats of wood anchored in place with natural jute, all done by hand, oh, and you can also make gnocchi on this too!

Garganelli pasta are thin ridged tubes that are shaped by wrapping ( 2 inch) squares of egg pasta diagonally around a wooden dowel, then rolling it over the slats, ( or combs) to give it it’s signature ridges.
Needless to say, I couldn’t wait to start making pasta with both of these beautiful tools!

But because it’s really not fun to make pasta all by yourself I asked my three good friends, Jean, Joanne and Mary-Alice to join me. Joanne (middle) graciously offered her beautiful newly remodeled kitchen for all of us to work in.

We arrived early in the morning with our aprons and ingredients in hand to the smell of monkey bread baking in the oven, a delicious egg and sausage breakfast ring loaded with all sorts of veggies and cheese, fresh fruit and coffee brewing, not a bad way to start the day off, hey?

After our fulfilling breakfast it was time to get started, we made all the dough first, the eggs were cracked, the flour measured and with a little tweaking with the measurements, into the food processor it went, as each recipe was completed we wrapped the dough in plastic and let it rest for about 30 minutes.

Time to crank out the pasta sheets! Just look at the texture of the dough, nice and smooth. Nice job girls!

I couldn’t wait to try this, here’s what you do, you cut out the circles with one end of the stamp, ( like a cookie cutter) then you flip the stamp over and place the circle of dough over the embossed side, then take the other section which has the knob handle on it, stamp down over the circle. The underside of the handle, which you can’t see in the picture also has the imprint, so when completed both sides will have the beautiful design on it.

Look how easy the dough peels off! Perfection! On a side note I did a comparison with a corzetti stamp that was purchased from a popular online kitchenware site but it was very inferior to Terry Mirri’s product, the wood was rough, the circles didn’t cut right, I could barely peel the pasta off the stamp, and as for the design factor, you couldn’t even see it!

I can’t say enough about Terry’s products, the craftsmanship is unbelievable, heirloom quality which can be handed down throughout generations! Check out his other products too, he carries polenta and cavarola boards, and a handmade storage box to house your pasta machine.

Aren’t they beautiful? This is not something you would make everyday but on holidays or a very special occasion, it will be the object of conversation!

We made multiple trays of these, but waited until we got home to freeze them and place into freezer bags.

Making the garganelli was easy once we all got the hang of it, here’s what you do,**cut dough into squares**position squares with point slightly over jute rail**wet far tip with water** place spindle over square**flip the tops of pasta over spindle**push and roll over the slats with your palm**slide garganelli off.

After our trays of garganelli were finished we left them single layered so as not to squish the cylinder and waited until we got home to freeze and bag them up.

We had many scraps leftover from cutting out the corzetti so we became very resourceful and started making spaghetti and fettuccine and even a few pasta sheets.

Pasta was every where, on tables and counters, we had a sea of pasta from one end to the other!

Here we are admiring the fruits of our labor, so much fun, can’t wait to do it again girls!

I cooked up my corzetti a few days later and used a garlic, olive oil, basil, parsley and parmesan sauce which I gently spooned over the cooked pasta and sprinkled toasted walnuts all over. Delicate, light and oh so good!

Imagine bringing a huge platter of these out to your table, your guests will be wowed! Look how pretty the design turned out.

Although there are many different sauces you could use for the garganelli I opted for a nice marinara, it was wonderful!

What a labor of love pasta making is but worth all the effort especially when you do it with family and good friends!

Buon Appetito!

51 Comments Filed Under: Fresh Pasta Tagged: artisinal pasta tools, corzetti stamp, Fatto in America, garganelli board, gnocchi board, Homemade pasta, Terry Mirri

Cappelletti in Broth

December 9, 2010 by Marie 33 Comments

As I said in my previous post I had the privilege of learning how to make cappelletti from my daughter-in-law’s nana who was in for a visit from out of town. This women is in her 80’s and is a spitfire in the kitchen! Not a strip of dough was wasted that day. She took over the kitchen like it was a military procedure, every scrap of dough left over was made into something edible. She put all of us “younger” ones to shame as she kept saying, ” Come on girls we still have more dough here!”

She has the best personality, I want to be like her when I grow up!

Making cappelletti is a labor of love, I didn’t realize it until I made them myself, you’re working with small disc’s of dough each one stuffed individually and then shaped into a little hat, it’s very time consuming but so much fun when you’re doing it with a bunch of people, there were 5 of us actively making them.

It didn’t take me too long to catch on, I think after about 15 tries I became an honorary cappelletti maker.

The dough was cut from a handmade disc the size being around 2 inches, then a savory filling of meat and cheese was piped right into the center.

Next the dough was folded in half to make a half moon keeping the rounded edge facing down, after that you take the two top end corners and stretch them around the back until they meet, then just flip the bottom edge up a teeny bit to make a tiny brim.
.

After you sit doing them for a while you start to pick up speed and by the time we were finished we ended up with 800!
They were then placed in the freezer single layer on baking sheets until frozen, then into freezer bags.

We each went home with our own goodie bags, I couldn’t wait to taste these, but such a labor of love requires homemade broth to place them in, so that is what I did. The day before we ate them I made a rich chicken stock with leeks, onions, carrots and herbs, when it was finished simmering I strained it twice so it was nice and clear, because after all the cappelletti is really the star here.

The next day I warmed up the broth and gently placed the frozen cappelletti into it and avoiding a rolling boil, you don’t want them to break open!

Less than 5 minutes later they were finished cooking.

Scooped out with a slotted spoon and gently placed in a bowl, now it’s time to ladle your broth over them.

I added freshly grated parmesan cheese on top and savored every bite!

Scrumptiously good to the last drop! Thank you Lena!

Buon Appetito

Email me for recipe.

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33 Comments Filed Under: Fresh Pasta, Soups and Stews Tagged: cappelletti, Homemade pasta, in brodo, in broth

Butternut Squash Ravioli and Scenes from our Annual Ravioli Making Day

December 6, 2010 by Marie 39 Comments

Each year we get together as a family and spend one whole day making homemade ravioli, I’ve written about it before and shared pictures of past years on my blog.

Before our day gets off and running we assemble all our tools. This year along with our ravioli we were also going to making cappelletti as well.
What are cappelletti? They look like little baby tortellini, tiny “little hats” of pasta each one stuffed with a savory filling, something I haven’t ever made myself but had the privilege to learn this year by way of a master, my daughter-in-law’s nana who was in for a visit.

I’m devoting my next post to our cappelletti making so for now, back to the ravioli!

The first thing we always do is to make all the dough at once before we get to rolling it out, it’s always done in a food processor, fast and easy! Then we wrap each ball up and let them all rest for awhile before we begin.

We always make meat filled ravioli and the meat filling is always prepared in advance, this is Nana Lena’s special recipe and all I can say is that it’s fantastic!! It’s a mixture of 3 different meats, cheese’s, spices and herbs all of which have been passed through a meat grinder.

Along with the meat ravioli we also make cheese filled and I’m in charge of the filling for that. This year I got adventurous and also made a butternut squash filling for us to try.

Even the kids get involved, my two gorgeous granddaughters are here helping out.

Everyone usually settles into their own specific jobs and the ones that they’re most comfortable doing.

We ended up making around 400 ravioli
that day along with 800 cappelletti, yes you heard me right, 800!

Of course with all that hard work going on all day we had to nourish ourselves, so pizza’s and salads were ordered for lunch along with some decadent cupcakes for dessert!

Here’s the filling I made for the butternut squash ravioli, a mixture of roasted squash, buttery sauteed shallots, a touch of cream and lots of grated parmesan cheese all blended until smooth in a food processor which I did the day before and then placed in a piping bags. Piping the fillings out result in a very efficient, neat and all in all a much faster way of getting it all done.

When completed all the ravioli are placed single layer on sheet pans and then placed in the freezer until frozen, then eventually they go into freezer bags.

I recently took out a bag of the butternut squash ravioli to have for our dinner, I couldn’t wait to see how they turned out!

They held together perfectly as they were boiling in the water, I love when they don’t break open and not one of them did!

While they were boiling I made a quick brown butter and sage sauce, I just love the smell it brings into the kitchen.

I drizzled the sauce all over my cooked ravioli and then added more parmesan cheese.

It’s hard to describe just how good this was but I’ll try, cheesy, buttery, slightly sweet and creamy texture of the filling, nutty, earthy, decadent flavor of the sauce, and the fresh pasta? well what can I say, there’s nothing like fresh pasta!

If you haven’t ever tackled making fresh pasta why not give it a try, it’s so perfect for the holidays!

Buon Appetito!

39 Comments Filed Under: Fresh Pasta Tagged: butternut squash ravioli, Homemade pasta

Homemade Ricotta Cavatelli Made Easy!

October 20, 2010 by Marie 40 Comments

A few weeks ago my girlfriend let me borrow her cavatelli pasta maker it was the first time I ever used a machine, all I can say is wow, what a great invention! She has a brand that no longer exists but if you check on Amazon there are many well made brands that our very reasonably priced, just remember to get one that has the wooden rollers.

If you’re crazy about cavatelli, those shell-like ridged noodles that capture and hold the flavor of a sauce so well, then have no fear you can have these made, cooked and on your table in no time at all.

I was amazed at just how easy the process was, you simply feed a strip of pasta dough into the machine and turn the handle, the machine does the rest. The rollers send the dough past a drum set with two tiny blades which cut the dough into small pieces and presses them against the drum’s ridged lining. As quick as you can turn the handle is as fast as they come popping out, you’ll have trays of them done before you know it!

If you want to freeze some, leave them individually on the tray as shown above placing the whole tray in the freezer, when completely frozen you can then bag them up, mine took about a half hour to 40 minutes to freeze.

The ricotta dough is my favorite they turn out so light tasting, you won’t get that heavy doughy feeling at all I promise. They also cook up really fast, just place them into salted boiling water and when they rise to the top, which only takes a few seconds, they’re pretty much done and you can start scooping them out.

Whatever sauce you choose you can be sure that those deep ridges will catch it all!

A simple sauce made of olive oil, garlic, red pepper flakes and some of the pasta water was the perfect combination for the fresh cavatelli with shrimp and broccoli.

Tossing them into a light marinara sauce is my personal favorite, even my 14 month old granddaughter loved them, I cut them into thirds for her and she gobbled them up.

Here’s the food processor method for making the dough

Serves 4

4 cups of flour

1 egg

1 lb. ricotta cheese

1 t. salt

1/4 cup milk

Using the metal blade process the flour, egg, ricotta and salt together, pour the milk through the tube and process again until dough ball forms. That’s it!

At this point if you get the machine you’ll have instructions as to how thick the dough should be when you roll it out and cut it into strips.

If you want to make the cavatelli by hand without the machine (why would you?) you can still enjoy this recipe.

You might consider putting this on your Christmas list, I highly recommend it!

Buon Appetito!

40 Comments Filed Under: Fresh Pasta, Pasta Tagged: cavatelli pasta maker, homemade cavatelli, Homemade pasta

SILHOUETTE PASTA

November 9, 2008 by Marie 60 Comments

Fresh herbs can be rolled into sheets of pasta for a very “sophisticated” effect. Because the pasta needs to be very thin it’s best if you use a pasta machine. It’s a great look for a special occasion, or if you just want to WOW your guests. It’s a little time consuming, but it looks very fancy, and something out of the ordinary!

You can pretty much use any kind of herb you want, here I used the last of my garden parsley, which happened to be in perfect condition. And that’s a key point, you want all your herbs to be pristine and unblemished.

Some other herb choices would be, sage, mint, green or purple basil.

Just use a basic egg pasta recipe, or better yet, a family favorite.Take your dough and roll it out in your machine until you have a very thin sheet, the next thing you want to do is take a brush dipped in cool water, and moisten the whole area.