Homemade Pasta with Zucchini and Carrot Ribbons

Okay, this recipe was sooo out of my comfort zone that I’ve been dreading trying to translate it for you guys. The recipe I followed for homemade pasta was by a french enthusiast (who also makes beautiful cooks books- Yvette Van Boven) and insisted on using cooking terms that have never come up in  my sheltered, American, vegetarian kitchen life. How did I end up making this? I got talked into it by my “cultured, been-to-every-Continent-but-Antarctica” roommate who insisted it would be a piece of cake (please note- she is the one in all the pictures doing most of the intensive labor parts because I was too busy googling what farina is and how you turn dough into “nests”). What kind of person have I become that cooking with xantham gum and agave nectar are normal occurrences but I don’t even know the french term for ‘cream of wheat’? This girl needs to get cultured outside of her hipster lifestyle.

Needless to say, this was my first experience with true fresh pasta and I can understand what all the fuss is about. It may be a bit labor intensive at times (which would easily be avoided if you have a pasta maker! Hoping to get one of these when I become a “real adult” one day) but it doesn’t even taste like the same food as packaged pasta. It’s soft and doughy with an almost…melt in your mouth texture.

I’m going to also post the recipe that we made with the fresh pasta but feel free to do whatever you’d like with the pasta after you make it. I mean…drenching it in french cream and fresh vegetables is only my suggestion…but you should know it’s a damn good one!

Homemade Pasta with Zucchini and Carrot Ribbons

For the pasta:

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 3 eggs
• salt and pepper
• cream of wheat

For the sauce:

• 1 cup creme fraiche
• 3 garlic cloves, peeled and slit but still whole
• 2 carrots, peeled
• 2 zucchinis
• salt and pepper, to taste

First…it’s time to prep the pasta dough: Make a pile of the flour (add a bit of salt and pepper to it) on a CLEAN kitchen counter and create a well in the center of it. Crack the eggs into the center and fold the flour into the eggs until you make a firm, dough balls. This will probably take about ten minutes or so sooo be patient (oh or you could probably stick this stuff in a food processor and make it that way…if you have a food processor. Some of us still live in the stone ages…or are just poor college kids. Either way will work though!). Next, your gonna have to leave the dough to rest for about an hour (I know, I know…waiting is no fun).

If you’d like, you can prep your veggies at this time. You’re just going to peel the carrots and then julienne them and the zucchini. Then set aside for later use!

Wait for the dough to be ready…write a song…dance to some vinyls…wait more…drool over how good this recipe is going to be…wait more…READY!

Now, this is the easy part for you folks that have a pasta machine. Basically, you are just going to roll out chunks of the dough and put them through the pasta maker until you reach the desired size you’d like. HOWEVER, we did it without a pasta maker and this is how: we floured that clean kitchen counter again and rolled out the dough as thin as we could possibly get it (I realize this sounds easy…but it’s not. the dough will be tough and want to pull back in on itself but don’t let that discourage you! You’ll get it!). Once it’s as thin as you’d like it, generously sprinkle the dough with cream of wheat (this is important because it’s going to keep the pasta strands from sticking to itself). Using a knife, cut thin strips of dough and make “nests” (see picture below) on a cutting board with the strips. Continue to sprinkle with cream of wheat to prevent sticking.

Once done with that, bring two large pots of salted water to a boil. While waiting for them to boil, in another small saucepan put the cream fraiche. Stick the whole garlic cloves in the cream and bring to a boil. Once boiling, turn down to a simmer and add salt/pepper.

When the two pots are boiling, add the vegetables to one of them to blanched the veggies (the time this will take will vary because of how large or small you cut your veggies so just keep an eye on it and test the veggies every few minutes until they reach a slightly soft texture). Throw your pasta in another pan and let cook until it rises to the surface (this will be only about five minutes- it is a very fast process!). Once they are floating, strain and rinse with cold water. Return the pasta to the pot and strain the veggies.

Remove the garlic cloves from the cream and combine everything together in one of the large pots. Season with salt and pepper and enjoy warm!

Make sure to share and show off your European culinary skills to your mother and kittens!