Cooking Tip of the Day! Pasta Flavors
COOKING TIP OF THE DAY:
Did you know there is a whole world of unique pasta flavors? Not only are there endless varieties of pasta sauces and pasta noodle shapes…but there are many flavors added to the pasta dough directly that you can experiment with!
Making your own unique pasta…
A basic pasta dough recipe…
- 2 cups flour (all-purpose works, but semolina is best)
- 2 – 4 tbs water or as needed
- 1 tbs olive oil
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 2 eggs (it is very important to get good quality eggs with lots of flavor…I recommend getting them from your neighborhood natural market or farmers market)
- Herbs or vegetables…etc to flavor dough
It is best to use a pasta maker like the one below…
or…you can use a pasta maker attachment for your mixer
What you can use to flavor your dough…
-Spinach
-Basil
-Artichoke
-Beet (this adds beautiful color as well)
-Olive
-Curry
-Chocolate (yes, chocolate! I purchased some in Italy)
-Garlic
-Lemon
-Red Pepper
-Tomato
-Squid Ink (The type of pasta that Michael has made on a few occasions–picture above)
-Wine
-Wasabi
-Mushrooms
…the list goes on
…be creative. Combine different flavors, try something unique and different.
How to do it:
When adding vegetables, mushrooms, fruit…to the pasta dough, the vegetable must be cooked first and finely diced. Then put through a food processor. Before mixing into your pasta dough, dry thoroughly.
When adding herbs, simply chop fresh herbs (fresh is best, but dried works as well. Fresh has the most flavor) and incorporate into dough.
Enjoy!
