Sunday Gravy with yeah right: A Pleasing Pictorial for Pitch Perfect Pasta

Good morning everyone!

Damn good to be back.

Here we are just a week before Memorial Day weekend. I wish we could call it the unofficial start of summer but it’s still gloomy and overcast as fuck over here. I’ll still get out there and fire up the grill at some point next weekend, just haven’t figured out the details yet.

Have a fun little presentation for you today. I say presentation rather than recipe because we’re doing a full fledge pictorial.

The menu idea came about because I had one last good size chunk of parmigiano reggiano left and it was time to finish it up. Of course my old fall back recipe for this particular delicious, delicious cheese is fettucini alfredo but it’s also been awhile since I showed off my fresh homemade pasta skills so I figured we could go that way.

Quick note: while I’ve definitely made fresh pasta and fresh bread on the same day, the last time I did that it kind of kicked my ass.

This time? Just the pasta but I will share with you a really fantastic brand of store bought bread which can probably only be purchased in the greater LA area so not sure what fucking good it will do for those of you not residing here.

Fresh pasta? Alfredo? Spinach salad and bread?

Sound good?

Let’s get busy!

We’ll start with the vinaigrette for our salad first.

As mentioned in our Peperonata episode.

Then you’ve got your dijon, minced garlic and salt and pepper.

Whisk this fucker. You want a fully combined emulsion. Keep whisking until the oil is fully incorporated. If you do this right the dressing will stay incorporated even after a day or two of refrigeration.

Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready for use.

It’s pasta making time.

Fresh pasta from scratch.

1 1/2 cups of semolina flour

2 eggs – beaten

2 tablespoons of olive oil

2 tablespoons of water

My pasta always starts out with this.

I’ve absolutely used all purpose flour with fresh pasta before but I really like the consistency, elasticity and chew of semolina based pasta.

Flour goes in the bowl, beat the eggs, then add them with the water and olive oil.

Now comes the physical work.

Ten solid minutes of kneading to produce this.

As mentioned many times in the past, this dough is too firm to use a stand mixer for the kneading. It has to be done by hand. One thing that the hand kneading will assist you with is getting used to the “feel” of the pasta. This particular batch when I started out felt a little too sticky. So additional semolina was added. The pasta should never stick or leave a residue on your hand. After a few tries you’ll be better at it. I use the feel of the pasta more than the look of the pasta now and I have consistently solid results.

I wanted to show you good folks a pictorial so you can see what tools are needed for making pasta and the full on process from start to finish.

Here’s the stand mixer with the pasta attachments.

That box of attachments contains the pasta roller, a spaghetti cutter and a fettucini cutter.

Here’s the fettucini cutter from the top.

Yes we were watching baseball while making this so you’ll see some beer and peanut photo shots today. Fucking tradition and shit.

Here’s the drying rack. You’ve seen this fucker many times before.

Now for the action shots. After the dough has rested for 20 minutes or so, put on the pasta roller attachment. Break off a small chunk of the pasta and flatten with your hands.

Yes the kitchen was busy today. I was also making my weekly soup while doing this so it was slightly cluttered.

Run the dough through and make a pasta sheet. I start on the “1” setting then proceed to “2” then finally “3.” No need to go past that setting for fettucini. We want some heft to our noodles.

After rolling out all of the pasta sheets – probably 5-6 sheets – remove the pasta roller attachment and replace it with the fettucini cutter attachment. Cut away.

Keep feeding it through. Yes, you will require both hands and some practice.

And keep cutting.

Dig the grandad slippers. Yes, I always put a towel down for easier pasta scrap clean up.

You’ll then need to hang the pasta to dry.

These should dry for a good hour or more.

When dry you will have something like this.

Oh yeah.

Let’s get to work on the salad next. Salad, strawberries, red onion and add the vinaigrette just before serving. We’re also using pecans in the salad today. These were raw so we’ll give them a quick toasting.

Add them to your spinach, strawberry, red onion mix and give a quick toss.

Yes, a dinner plate makes a perfect discard location for your peanut shells.

Put the salad in the fridge until ready to serve. Wait before adding the dressing.

Next we address the Alfredo.

Alfredo sauce.

3/4 stick of butter .

1 cup of heavy cream

1 to 1/2 cups of grated cheese – remember? The good shit.

1/8 teaspoon of NUTMEG!

1- 2 crushed cloves of garlic

Some grinds of black pepper if desired.

Here is the last chunk of the incredible cheese that friend of Sunday Gravy, 2 Pack, sent me so let’s use it up.

Get to grating.

Again, I did NOT make the bread today with too much other shit going on, so here’s a peek at the bread I used. The bread is from La Brea bakery – an LA institution – and this baguette was exceptional. Perfect chew to it. You can find it at grocery stores throughout the greater LA area.

I’ve mentioned before that you can make tons of variations to Alfredo. We have one today.

Sopressata! A lovely Calabrian dried sausage with a touch of heat from chilies and some good roughly chopped chunks of black peppercorn. It’s a beauty.

I’ll let the Wikis explain: “Soppressata is an Italian dry salami. Although there are many variations, two principal types are made: a cured dry sausage typical of Basilicata, Apulia, and Calabria, and a very different uncured salame, made in Tuscany and Liguria. It is still part of southern Italian cultural heritage that local people (especially in the smaller rural towns) slaughter the pig themselves and use it all, with nothing going to waste, using some parts to make cured meats including soppressata. Soppressata is sometimes prepared using ham.”

See? Knowledge and shit.

Give it a rough chop.

Since the alfredo sauce comes together pretty fast, go ahead and start to heat up some salted water for the pasta. Yes I always use a splash of olive oil.

I’ve read articles about how the addition of olive oil doesn’t keep the pasta from sticking together and I don’t give a fuck. I like the flavor it brings.

Heat up a small skillet and add the salami. No oil required.

Give a toss or too until the salami starts releasing some of its oils then add in some mushrooms.

While the mushrooms cook down get a sauce pot and melt the butter.

Don’t forget to keep stirring the salami, mushroom mixture.

When the butter has melted in the Alfredo pot, add in the grated cheese.

When the cheese has melted add in the heavy cream.

Add the salami, mushroom mixture and heat until thickened and bubbly.

Better cook the pasta now. Best part about fresh pasta? It only needs to cook for 3 minutes and the chew is perfect. You can’t get this chew from store bought shit. You just can’t.

Just gotta slice up that bread and make some garlic toast.

Look at this shit.

Yes, we were also snacking on some of the toasted pecans too.

Plate some noodles, add some sauce, put on some salad that’s now been dressed. Get a piece or two of toast and maybe a really nice white wine.

Here you go.

God. DAMN was this delicious.

Simple ingredients and I ain’t gonna lie to you. 

I like you. 

Some effort required. 

The reward is worth it so very fucking much. 

Every taste bud spoken to.

Every sense involved. 

Salt, funk, creaminess, buttery, a bit spicy with that chew of the pasta. 

That goddamn perfect al dente with fresh pasta?

A bite from the soprasetta.

Litre is the man because the Pinot grigio paired perfectly.

Try. 

Enjoy. 

Manja.

PEACE!