Fresh Pasta and Bolognese

For Christmas this year, John surprised me with the meat grinder and pasta extruder attachments for my Kitchen Aid mixer. We absolutely love fresh pasta with sausage or pasta with a real homemade bolognese. I was very excited about the prospect of honing my skills in this area however after reading some reviews online, I was worried that my 7 year old mixer might not be up to these new and strenuous tasks. (I read that these attachments work great but with an older model, could really strain the motor.) I decided that I'd rather trade them in for an old fashioned hand-crank pasta machine instead. We used to make pasta like this with my Mom when we were kids and even though its a little bit more labor intense, its really quite fun. So on an unusually cold Saturday afternoon, I started first with a slow cooked bolognese and then made some fresh pasta with my new toy. I decided to try a new take on bolognese. I've historically been a big fan of Michael Chiarello's quick veal, pork and porcini bolognese which is fantastic. (Though I've been avoiding veal lately for ethical reasons.) This time I landed on an Emeril iteration of a traditional bolognese ... I followed the recipe almost exactly except that I used 1 full pound of hot pork sausage and 1.75 pounds of ground beef. I then used roughly one and one half times the called-for-proportion of each ingredient. (This made a huge batch, you'd definitely need a 7+ quart pot to fit it all.) I went extremely light on the cinnamon and nutmeg too. I definitely agree with the other recipe reviews in that it adds a nice depth of flavor, but honestly, I wouldn't add them next time. (I don't like Cincinnati style chili either- if you do, you'd love this recipe. The sauce cooks for a couple of hours which gives it a richness that you just can't get from a quick recipe like the Michael Chiarello one- and the longer it sits, the better it gets. I also really like the addition of the veggies in here too, both for the flavor and the texture.

Next we tackled the fresh pasta... For this I used a Mario Batali recipe found online. I doubled it and seeing as I had large instead of extra large eggs- we used 7 cups of flour and 11 eggs total. We made a pile of the flour on the counter and then formed a well in the center with a spoon. I poured the eggs into the center and then we very carefully mixed it together with a fork - incorporating a little bit of flour at a time until it formed a sticky dough. With such a large batch, it was tricky to keep the eggs from pouring over the edges of the flour. John had to catch them a few times before they slid right off the counter- it was actually quite comical. John then kneaded the dough in one large ball-using some extra flour to keep it from sticking- until it resembled dough.

The resting step is very important. If you don't do this, the dough will be very elastic and will sieze back each time you try to roll it. We covered it with a towel and let it hang out for 25 minutes. Once it was ready, I cut the dough into little balls and started to roll it through the machine. I was so pleased, it worked like a charm! I was able to clamp it to the kitchen island to keep it from sliding away from me. I rolled each of the sheets through three times (on settings, 1, 3 and 5) before running it through the linguine cutter.

I laid each batch in a single layer, separated by clean kitchen towels untl we were ready to cook it. I then boiled it in batches (maybe 5 total) for just 3 minutes until it was al dente and tender. I drizzled each batch with olive oil and soon as it came out to keep it from sticking together in the pot. Once all of the pasta was done, I tossed it together with the hot bolognese and one ladle full of the pasta cooking water. (Again this easily serves a huge crowd, but it also reheated very nicely the next day for left overs.)

We actually enjoyed left overs the following night with Morgan and Guy alongside Guy's eggplant parmesan which was OUT OF THIS WORLD. Stay tuned... I'll be attempting to recreate it over the next few weeks and will absolutely report back if it turns out nearly as good as his.

I served the pasta with freshly grated parmesan reggiano cheese, a simple green salad and some delicious garlic bread. It was the perfect traditional Italian feast.

For the garlic bread, I used French bread (I know, ironically not Italian) and made some fresh garlic butter. I started with a few tablespoons of olive oil in a small pan over medium head. I then pressed 4 of 5 garlic cloves into the oil. As soon as the garlic started to turn barely golden brown, I added roughly three tablespoons of butter to the pan. As soon as it was melted, I removed it from the heat and spooned it over the bread. I sprinkled with kosher salt, cracked black pepper and some fresh parsley (left over from the sauce) - I then wrapped the whole thing in foil and baked at 350 for 10 minutes or so until warmed through. Yummmm.