Thursday, June 3, 2010

Sun dried tomato, basil pasta!

Well, I have had a few complaints that I haven't posted anything lately, so this is what I made for supper tonight, keep in mind that I have consumed a bottle of wine before writing this post.
My future brother and sister in law came over for supper tonight with their soon to be three year old. It was such a nice evening and the food was fantastic!
It was decided the night before that Shawn wanted spaghetti for supper, of course I just can't make spaghetti for supper so I made a new kind of homemade pasta. I am sure that this has been done before but it was my first time not following a recipe for pasta. I started with the traditional four eggs in my mixing bowl, I then added about three tablespoons of minced sun dried tomatoes in oil, I also added about 1 ounce of fresh basil and oregano. I mixed this until the eggs were slightly beaten. I proceeded to add flour until I had a nice ball of dough. I would say about four to five cups of flour. I took the dough out of the bowl and wrapped it in saran wrap and let it rest for about a half an hour.
After it rested I divided it into quarters and rolled it out with my pasta roller, five times on the largest setting folding it into thirds each time before rolling it out again. Then once the dough was all smooth I gradually started rolling it out thinner without folding it, until it was to the smallest setting. Then I put on the angel hair pasta cutter and cut the dough. I did the same thing with all four quarters of dough. Once the dough was cut I dusted it with semolina flour so it wouldn't stick together. I wrapped it up on a cooking sheet and kept it in the fridge til our company arrived. When it was time to cook it I threw it in boiling water for about a minute and that was that! Fabulous pasta!
Meatballs! Scott is my official meatball maker. As long as we have been together he "makes" the meatballs under my close supervision and recommendations but he does a very good job, and someday soon could probably do it himself. He started with a pound of hamburger and a pound of raw Italian sausage, then added, salt, pepper, bread crumbs, Italian seasoning, Tabasco, soy sauce, tons of fresh garlic, some very ripe Parmesan Romano cheese, and about two tablespoons of spaghetti sauce. We were out of eggs so I suggested we use the spaghetti sauce as a binder instead and they were by far the best meatballs he had ever made! The real secret is to barely mix the mixture or they will be tough meatballs. To cook them I just bake them on a cookie sheet at about 300 degrees until they are done.
Sauce! For the sauce I always just use a fresh canned one and doctor it up or mix two different brands together. I know I am a cheater like that, and proud of it!
Garlic Bread! I bought a loaf of Italian bread and sliced it three quarters of the way through. I then buttered each side of it and sprinkled it with garlic salt. I threw it in the oven for about ten minutes and it was perfect. Crunchy on the outside and nice and soft on the inside!
Dessert! I cheated and bought a Sara Lee frozen pound cake but I added fresh locally grown strawberries to it that were soaked in sugar. I also topped it off with some fresh whipped cream that had cinnamon, sugar, nutmeg, and real vanilla in it!
This was a great evening shared with great company! Can't wait to do it again!

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