So, this week was bad, like really bad. I had gone overseas for a conference and whilst I was away my daughter was admitted to hospital with severe pneumonia. A day after I returned she then had a really bad allergic reaction to the antibiotics she was on which was pretty scary all round, then as if anything else couldn’t go wrong. I ballsed up…….well and truly, like I made the biggest stuff up at work ever! You know when you have that worst nightmare, the thing that you never want to do? Well I did it, its a horror story that I can’t even talk about yet!
So by 6am this morning, I was wide awake and seriously in need of some serious comfort cooking. Since I haven’t restocked the fridge since I got back and Poppy was still asleep, my options were limited. As I surveyed the cupboard, my eyes came to rest on Tipo “00” flour…….my body breathed a sigh of relief, one of my favourite cuisines……….Italian. Like any good stressed out Italian, I turned to pasta making.
Well maybe not like all good Italians actually………as a side note…….when I discovered that my daughter was in the emergency department last week, I was in a hotel room in San Jose at 2am with my lovely Italian boyfriend whom I was travelling to the conference with. I was frantic, I couldn’t get hold of my mother whom was looking after my daughter and was calling everywhere I could think of. Finally as a last resort I called the local hospital. Truly when the phone answers “Emergency Department, Westmead Hospital” The last thing you want to hear when you ask if your daughter is there is the word “Yes”. My response was of course “Oh my God, she’s in emergency!” not knowing at that stage why or any details. The boyfriend is fumbling around over near the television in the hotel room and looks up at me upon hearing those words and says “Do you know how to use the percolator?”
Oh dear, well I suppose between my stress relief cooking and his emergency percolating we should be able to get through most crisis situations!
So take 400g of Tipo “00” flour, 4 large eggs and pop them into a food processor. I don’t have one of these so I just put into the kitchen aid with the dough hook until it started to come together. Then take it out and give it a bit of a knead till it is a bit smoother.
I then cut it into four pieces and cover the three I am not using with cling film.
Then flatten the piece out and start putting it through the pasta machine starting on the widest setting. You can do this with a rolling pin but you can pick up a pasta machine really cheaply, I think mine was maybe $20 at Victorias basement and it really is worth the investment. You can then make your own silken, luxurious pasta for a few dollars, and served with a few choice ingredients you have a seriously budget dish, that will impress anyone at the finest dinner party.
I fold the pasta over a few times before putting through again on the widest setting until I am happy that it is nice and smooth before then running through until I am happy with the thickness, for my machine I go down to #2 but they are all different.
I think folded the sheets of pasta over and then cut into long strips. I do like my strips quite wide when I am needing a little comfort. Somehow they seem that much more generous and indulgent.
I have put half of the pasta, well dusted with flour into a plastic container in the freezer for later and there is a lovely big mound of it drying on the bench, that I will just pop into some salted boiling water tonight. I am thinking perhaps…..well based on the current limitations of ingredients in my house and some serious shopping limitations with a still sick child…….perhaps a creamy broccoli, parmesan, garlic and pine nut sauce………yum…..its a pity its only 9.23 am…….
the spare change kitchen 