The gadget is a simple rectangle wood block with ridges and a slim rolling pin. I would not have known the usage of this gadget without the demonstration.

This is how it’s done. Place a square piece on the wood as shown above. Use the slim rolling pin to roll up the pasta to midway. Place your hands on both end and roll firmly until the pasta is totally wrapped and a tube is formed and sealed. Remove the hollow tube from the rolling pin. Cover with plastic wrap or towel until they are ready to be cooked in salted boiling water. Since this is made with fresh pasta, it will be cooked in 2 to 5 minutes.

Garganeli is best served in meat sauce as it’s catches the sauce in the tube. Just toss the cooked Garganeli in a meat sauce and garnish with some shaved Parmesan cheese.

Jane, thank you so much for showing us how to make various types of fresh pasta from scratch.

© suanne for Chow Times, 2008. | Permalink | One comment
Post tags: Community Kitchen, Pasta, Recipe

Ravioli	Tortellini (belly button or hat)
Mezzalune (half moon) or Agnolotti

Ingredients

• fresh pasta
• Grana Padano cheese (a close cousin of Parmigiano-Reggiano but cheaper)
• cottage cheese
• egg yolk
• spinach
• nutmeg

Click on Read More for the instructions.

More after the jump. Click to read the rest of Making Filled Pasta (459 words)

© suanne for Chow Times, 2008. | Permalink | No comment
Post tags: Community Kitchen, Pasta, Recipe

As an experienced teacher, Jane started off her demonstrations with a brief introduction to the geography, culture and food of Italy. We can see that she is a good teacher.

Jane prepared the above two dough from all purpose flour and whole wheat fine ground flour early in the morning using a bread machine. Jane will demonstrate to us how to prepare the dough by hand from scratch later in the kitchen.

One important tool to make fresh pasta is a sturdy pasta machine. The above pasta machine has 3 slots, one for rolling the dough into thin sheet with adjustable thickness, another for cutting the dough sheet into wide flat noodle like fettuccine and a last slot for cutting the dough sheet into thin noodle like angel hair.

Ingredients

• Flour (usually white all purpose, but you may use whole wheat fine ground hard wheat)
• Eggs – roughly 1 egg per one cup of flour; quantity varies according to the type and humidity of the flour and the size of the eggs.
• For our demonstration, Jane used 2 cups all purpose flour and 3 eggs and 1/4 teaspoon (1 ml) salt.

Click on Read More for the instructions.

More after the jump. Click to read the rest of Making Fresh Pasta (523 words)

© suanne for Chow Times, 2008. | Permalink | One comment
Post tags: Community Kitchen, Pasta, Recipe

Although the sauce for this Fettuccine has no meat in it, it is still very flavourful and satisfying.

Ingredients

• 4 large red bell peppers
• 1 large onion, roughly chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes (dry or oil pack)
• 2 cups boiling water
• 1 lb fettuccine pasta
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 3/4 cip half & half
• 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• salt and pepper to taste

Click on Read More for the instructions.

More after the jump. Click to read the rest of Fettuccine with Roasted Pepper and Sun Dried Tomato Sauce (211 words)

© suanne for Chow Times, 2008. | Permalink | 5 comments
Post tags: Community Kitchen, Pasta, Pepper, Recipe

Minoo made Lasagne in the Caring Place community kitchen. Lasagne is the name of the pasta sheet and also the name of the dish made with alternate layers of pasta sheets, cheese and meat sauce (also known as ragu). The pasta sheets are often rippled in North America and other countries but seldom in Italy, the place where Lasagne originated.

You may double the recipe below to make two trays and freeze one of it for a convenient meal later when you do not have the time to cook.

Lasagne is also great for potluck and is always a popular dish that leaves an empty tray. Kids will love this cheesy dish.

Ingredients

Meat sauce:

• 1/2 lb hamburger (ground beef)
• 3/4 to 1 cup chopped onion
• 1 clove garlic
• 3 cups tomato sauce
• 2 cups tomato paste
• 1 teaspoon salt
• dash of black pepper or more if you preferred
• 2 tablespoons chopped parsley (or 1 tablespoon dried parsley)
• 1/2 to 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/2 to 1 teaspoon dried oregano

Cheese sauce:

• 2 cups cottage cheese
• 1/2 cup parmesan cheese
• 2 eggs
• 4 tablespoons chopped parsley

Other ingredients:

• 8 oz lasagne noodles
• 1 lb Mozzarella cheese, grated

One little tip on the Lasagne noodle is to get the oven ready ones so that you dont have to pre-cook the noodle, less hassle.

More after the jump. Click to read the rest of Lasagne (229 words)

© suanne for Chow Times, 2007. | Permalink | 4 comments
Post tags: Community Kitchen, Pasta, Recipe

Anyway, knowing that he would want to carbo-load with his biking and all, I thought I make good old meatball spaghetti. Arkensen and Nanzaro loves that too. I like to add lots of chopped onions and garlic and with liberal sprinkle of Parmesan.

I learned to make spaghetti only when we got to Canada and did it my way. So, I am not very sure if this is the “normal” way spaghetti was made. Let me know if I am doing differently from the way you make it — I would most certainly want to learn from you.

Ingredients

Oh yeah, I like to use Mrs Dash for seasoning. It’s much more healthier using Mrs Dash compared to salt. If you have never tried it, you should check it out. It goes so well with so many types of dishes that you’ll be amazed. Here are the ingredients:

• Frozen Meatballs: I had that box in my fridge for 3 months now. Good to use that today and free up some space in the ice box. I only used half the box … still …
• Mrs Dash for seasoning
• Pasta Sauce
• Spaghettini: I used spaghettini instead of spaghetti; I like the thinner version in spaghettini,
• Onion
• Garlic
• Parsley
• Parmesan Cheese

Instructions

Well, this is the simple step. It’s not like anyone does not know that you need to thaw and cook the frozen meatballs! Duh …

Chop the garlic, onion and parsley …

Cook the pasta in salted boiling water for 7-8 minutes.

I fried the onion until it’s soft and then add the garlic. Stir fry for a few seconds. Next, I added the pasta sauce and Mrs Dash seasoning. I also added a laddle of the pasta water to dilute the sauce — it gets too thick if I don’t dilute it. To balance the tartness of the tomato sauce, I added in a tablespoon of brown sugar.

The meatballs go into the sauce and cook for another minute or two. Actually, this is the first time I use meatballs. I normally use ground beef.Lastly, I added the parsley and turned off the stove immediately as not to overcook the parsley.

It’s then ready to serve. I sprinkle Parmesan on top of the sauce before serving.

© suanne for Chow Times, 2006. | Permalink | 7 comments
Post tags: Noodle, Recipe