July 25, 2010

Pasta and Olive Rosemary Bread

I am in love with my pasta machine! Really. Remember what kids would say in elementary school when you loved something, "If you love it so much, why don't you marry it?" Well, I'm considering it. Okay, all kidding aside, it really is fantastic and easy to use. It's even pretty. I love red, so it was love at first site.



This is all you need to make wonderful pasta. You can add water, salt and even oil, but I prefer to use just flour and eggs. I do add salt to the water when I cook the pasta. As for flour, Farina (tipo) 00 flour is more expensive than regular all purpose flour, but it is worth it! It's an amazing light Italian flour and the results are incredible.

I'm still working out the exact flour weight to egg. I prefer to weigh my dry ingredients instead of using a measuring cup. (Have I mentioned I'm a nerd? I am, even when it comes to cooking.) The thing with dry ingredients, when measured using a measuring cup the results won't be consistent. (Picture flour poured to the 1 cup line in a measuring cup, now tap the cup a few times. It's now under 1 cup. Tap it again, you get the picture.) Now with pasta, if too much flour is added, it can easily be adjusted by adding a little bit of water, which I had to do. But, being the nerd that I am, I want my flour to eggs to measure together in perfect harmony.



Now for the olive rosemary bread (recipe from Cooks Illustrated). I want to have a party just so I can serve this bread. Amazing! You would have to like olives a lot to enjoy it, and I happen to love olives. Now this isn't a bread you can just whip out an a couple hours. A lot of love has to go into this bread and it will take 6-7 hours. Not many people would want to invest this much time into a bread, but I truly enjoyed it! I think I've found a new passion; bread making. My husband has told me before that I'd make a good pastry chef due to my need to measure everything exactly. He may know me better than I thought.



Dip in olive oil, balsamic vinegar and crushed garlic...dee-licious!

1 comment:

  1. oh dear Lord in Heaven, what's a girl gotta do to have this meal made for her?!!! Do it myself you say? I just might have to. You make it look so good, Angelique. And I like your apron! ; )

    ReplyDelete