Linguine alla Bolognese

The Husband found a great way to use up the ground pork in our fridge by making this delicious pasta dish. He claims that he improvised this recipe and then figured out later that it was called ragu alla bolognese. Either way, it was scrumptious. This was his "improvised and estimated" recipe.

Ingredients:
linguine or choice of pasta
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1 lb ground pork
3 thick slices of bacon, chopped
1/2 jar of your choice tomato sauce
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tbsp onion powder
1/2 tbsp garlic powder
1.5 tbsp dried basil
pinch of whole mustard seeds
2 tbsp granulated sugar
salt + pepper
parmesan cheese
1 tbsp olive oil

Directions:
1. Mix pork with soy sauce, onion powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Set aside.

2. Boil salted water for pasta.

3. Render bacon in pan until bits are browned and crisp. Add pork and cook until pink is gone. Add mushrooms and cook pork till browned.

4. To the pork, add minced garlic, tomato sauce, mustard seeds, and basil. Simmer on low heat until desired thickness and flavor has had a chance to develop. (The longer, the more flavorful).

5. Add salt and pepper to taste and grate in as much parmesan cheese as you'd like. Add olive oil and stir in right before serving for some earthy, grassy flavor.

6. Serve immediately over hot pasta.

Some mache lettuce with smoked salmon doesn't hurt either!

Homemade Chinese Dumplings

After wrapping gyoza with store-bought dumpling skins, I decided to try making my own skins and filling. I used this recipe for the skins, but the amount of water used in this recipe was too little. I actually made 2 batches in which I used 1/2 cup of boiling water in one batch and what I believe was 3/4 cup of boiling water in another.

The 1/2 cup batch did not work at all. It was too dry and far too crumbly with which no amount of kneading would fix. The 3/4 cup batch worked beautifully... although I can't be 100% sure it was 3/4 cup because I didn't measure it.

I used this recipe for the filling, which smelled great, but was somewhat lacking in flavor and taste once cooked. The dumpling dipping sauce fixed some of the flavor issues, but next time I would try chives or another stronger aromatic with shrimp and pork.

We filled and sealed the dumplings, which actually took longer than expected.

Dumplings potsticker style.

Final verdict: Time consuming and not necessarily more tasty than frozen or store-bought versions.

I would definitely do this for a dumpling-making party with store-bought skins, but I don't think I'll be making my own dumpling skins ever again. But at least now I know for sure!

Gadgets: Pasta Maker

There are few things quite as indulgent and therapeutic as making your own pasta. It takes time to knead the dough until the gluten is perfectly bouncy and then time to roll it flat over and over and then finally to cut the dough into perfect sized strips.

We used to make homemade pasta the old fashioned way... by brute force, a rolling pin, and knife. Luckily for us, I bought us an Imperia pasta maker last Valentine's Day, which we used this year.

I thought long and hard about which brand of pasta maker to buy. From my research it seemed like the most common hand-cranked brands were Imperia and Altas with equally favorable reviews from their fans.  I decided to go for the Imperia because it was red and because it was available at our local Williams Sonoma. It's also made in Italy and surely they know what they are doing...

We have been super pleased with it.  It's easy and so much fun to use.

Note: We were told not to buy the ravioli attachment and the motorized cranker, but you can decide for yourself. We've never had any use for those items so far.

Pasta Dough Recipe

Ingredients:
1.5 cups all purpose flour
2 eggs
2 tbsp water
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt

Directions:
1. Mix all ingredients together until it forms a ball. Remove from bowl and place on well-floured countertop.

2. Use your hands to knead the dough for approximately 10 minutes until the dough bounces back when you push your finger into it. This means that the gluten has been sufficiently activated and will provide that al dente texture.

3. Split dough ball into 4 quarters, flour them and flatten with your hand and begin feeding it through your pasta machine.  (If making without pasta machine, generously flour your counter top and begin rolling out to desired thickness with a rolling pin).

4. Remember to continue to flour everything otherwise the dough will stick while running through the machine.

5. Cut with your pasta machine cutter or fold long strips of dough over on itself and cut thin strips.

6. Cook in salted water very briefly as fresh pasta can cook in about a minute.

Nothing compared to fresh pasta and you can make it too!