INTP Live

Tried a new topping combo for my focaccia, and it’s amazing.

Left third and middle are standard combos at this point:

1. Rosemary, coarse sea salt, fresh pepper, sundried tomato, heirloom tomato/basil marinated in white wine vinegar, garlic in the dough, fresh basil, jalapeños, and Parmesan.

2. Rosemary, coarse sea salt, onions caramelized in a homemade balsamic reduction, canned beets, roasted sunflower seeds, walnuts, crumbled feta.

Right is a new combo and so good!

3.Rosemary, coarse sea salt, Chorizo cooked with sweet onion, sun dried tomato, crumbled feta.

Made spaghetti and meatballs from scratch and I think I'm almost done tweaking all the ingredients.

Madrigal wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 26, 2021 5:38 pm

Made spaghetti and meatballs from scratch and I think I'm almost done tweaking all the ingredients.

Did you make the pasta from scratch? I haven’t tried doing that yet but it’s on my bucket list.

If so share your recipe?

elfsprin wrote: ↑

Mon Dec 27, 2021 12:21 am

Madrigal wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 26, 2021 5:38 pm

Made spaghetti and meatballs from scratch and I think I'm almost done tweaking all the ingredients.

Did you make the pasta from scratch? I haven’t tried doing that yet but it’s on my bucket list.

If so share your recipe?

Yeah, the pasta was from scratch too!

These are the established proportions:

2 cups of all purpose flower
3 whole eggs (room temperature)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tsp salt
3 tbsp water (or more)

I tweak it because this ratio of flour/egg is too eggy for my taste. And I like egg, I'm not weird about it or anything, so it really is too eggy. What I do to that recipe is cut down an egg (just using 2) and add more than 3 tbsp of water to make up for it. Another option for reducing the egginess is using two yolks and three whites, but I haven't tried that. That might be nice.

You can do it the manual way, putting the flour into a bowl, mixing it with the salt, and then making a volcano shape with the flour and adding the oil and eggs and water to the hole and mixing it into the flour that you add in gradually from the sides. And you add the any extra water in 1 tsp at a time. Once it's all in a ball, you knead with your hand for at least ten minutes until the color is smooth throughout and it's elastic and soft (if feels lumpy and hard, it needs more water, but it shouldn't get sticky because it has to pass through the pasta machine and not get stuck there).

You could make it the easy way and put everyting in a blender, adding 1 tsp of extra water at a time.

I do half and half, I blend it all and then work it into a ball on a surface while adding a tsp of water at a time as i knead. If you use only two eggs it'll be quite bit of extra water.

Once you have that smooth elastic ball you have to wrap it in plastic wrap because it dries up really fast, and keep it at room temp for at least 10 mins but 30 mins is better. I keep it there an hour while making the sauce and meatballs.

Once the sauce and meatballs are ready to eat, you can pass the dough through the pasta machine 1/8 at a time, sprinkling the spaghetti with flour as it comes out so it doesn't stick together. Then you dump it all at once into boiling water (the water should be "as salty as the sea") and once it breaks into a boil again (the boiling usually stops when you dump it all inside), it's only like a minute of cooking, depending on how thick the noodles are. I make it like fettucini and probably leave it in for a minute and a half after it breaks into a boil again, but I taste it before draining.

Madrigal wrote: ↑

Mon Dec 27, 2021 1:36 am

elfsprin wrote: ↑

Mon Dec 27, 2021 12:21 am

Madrigal wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 26, 2021 5:38 pm

Made spaghetti and meatballs from scratch and I think I'm almost done tweaking all the ingredients.

Did you make the pasta from scratch? I haven’t tried doing that yet but it’s on my bucket list.

If so share your recipe?

Yeah, the pasta was from scratch too!

These are the established proportions:

2 cups of all purpose flower

I've always used high grade flour although when I was looking online about it, someone said they used plain flour as well. High grade or 00 has a higher gluten content, which combined with multiple passes through the pasta machine rollers to work the gluten, gives the pasta its "springyness".

Similar to not working your cake mixtures too much to retain the "light and fluffy" aspect of a good cake.

jyng1 wrote: ↑

Mon Dec 27, 2021 4:51 am

I've always used high grade flour although when I was looking online about it, someone said they used plain flour as well. High grade or 00 has a higher gluten content, which combined with multiple passes through the pasta machine rollers to work the gluten, gives the pasta its "springyness".

Similar to not working your cake mixtures too much to retain the "light and fluffy" aspect of a good cake.

You're right, the recipe originally said all-purpose or 00 flour. I don't actually make pasta enough to buy a specific flour for it (I actually stopped this year altogether because I've been trying to reduce my carb intake). But I should try it next time, why not. If I lose some weight I can start eating pasta more.

In my family we always used all-purpose flour, but that side descends from Spaniards, not Italians. :p

Madrigal wrote: ↑

Mon Dec 27, 2021 1:36 am

...into boiling water (the water should be "as salty as the sea") ...

I've heard this Italian saying so often I had to fact check it. It's bupkis of course.

Seawater is roughly 3.5% salt. So 35 grams per litre. I have read pasta water should have about 10g/litre.

I think the expression comes from the fact pasta water should be quite salty by usual cooking standards, but nowhere near as salty as the sea. I suspect pasta cooked in actual seawater would be near inedible. But if one of you seaside dwellers out there has tried it, please report.

Note: edited for decimal placement per jyng1

Senseye wrote: ↑

Mon Dec 27, 2021 8:00 pm

Madrigal wrote: ↑

Mon Dec 27, 2021 1:36 am

...into boiling water (the water should be "as salty as the sea") ...

I've heard this Italian saying so often I had to fact check it. It's bupkis of course.

Seawater is roughly 3.5% salt. So 3.5 grams per litre. I have read pasta water should have about 1g/litre.

I think the expression comes from the fact pasta water should be quite salty by usual cooking standards, but nowhere near as salty as the sea. I suspect pasta cooked in actual seawater would be near inedible. But if one of you seaside dwellers out there has tried it, please report.

35 g/litre

Senseye wrote: ↑

Mon Dec 27, 2021 8:00 pm

Madrigal wrote: ↑

Mon Dec 27, 2021 1:36 am

...into boiling water (the water should be "as salty as the sea") ...

I've heard this Italian saying so often I had to fact check it. It's bupkis of course.

Seawater is roughly 3.5% salt. So 35 grams per litre. I have read pasta water should have about 10g/litre.

I think the expression comes from the fact pasta water should be quite salty by usual cooking standards, but nowhere near as salty as the sea. I suspect pasta cooked in actual seawater would be near inedible. But if one of you seaside dwellers out there has tried it, please report.

Note: edited for decimal placement per jyng1

You're so literal! I dunno if I ever made it that salty before but I dump in quite a bit, the point is not to be shy I think. Also, to be even more literal, the sea's saltiness varies at different places. When I lived in the Caribbean it was so salty you could float without trying. It's a lot milder down here.

My wife is ill with the omicron variant so I'm cooking.

I made a roast chicken with roast potatoes, roast sweet potatoes and carrot yesterday. Today I made a shepard's pie, mixing in peas, onions, garlic, carrots and a sprinkling of Worcester sauce with a crust made from a sprinkling of Grand Padano cheese on the mashed potatoes. Tomorrow I'm planning spagetti carbonara with some pecorino (sheep) cheese I picked up from the cheese counter, some bacon and wholemeal spagetti.