Homemade Pasta and Salad

Yesterday I harvested the first of the lettuce from the batch I sowed on March 7th and planted out on April 6th. According to my notes, they should be harvestable in 10 weeks so eating off of them in 8 is pretty darned good.

Frank turned the lettuce into a salad by adding some mandarins, a bit of lime juice and some brown sugar. Very tasty.

To go with the salad, we made a pasta dish. I made some egg pasta (makes 2 smallish portions but 1 egg per person makes way too much in my opinion) as follows:

• Crack one egg into a bowl.
• Add a pinch of salt (to taste).
• Add, in even proportions, plain flour and semolina flour (I’ve used all plain flour and it works fine – the pasta is a bit softer at the end if you don’t use semolina) until you have a stiff dough (you might need to knead in the last couple of spoonfuls).
• Knead until the dough is smooth and set aside to rest for a few minutes.
• Roll out and slice into strips, or use a pasta making machine to create the pasta (sooo much easier).
• Let stand for a couple of minutes to a couple of hours (this isn’t very time critical).
• Place in boiling water until done (about 5 minutes – semolina requires longer boiling).

Frank made a topping for the pasta which included roasted pumpkin, roasted pumpkin seeds and sausage. Parmesan cheese was served as a topping.

This dish was another really good (that is, yummy) use of an egg. It would have also been a good use of a mandarin and a pumpkin which we sometimes harvest from our garden as well.

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