quinn's place

file this one under: first-timer food projects!

i had never made handmade pasta before this (i took these photos on my phone in september 2020). it was fun, easy and delicious.

i hauled the pasta to my bestie’s house where we also made handmade gluten-free pasta to conduct a side by side pasta taste test with the best bolognese recipe in the land.

this may be a very unhelpful blog post because i don’t even remember which pasta recipe i used to make this, but that’s not the point. making your own pasta by hand is a little bit of a process, but it is simple and worth it.

flour, eggs, olive oil and salt - that’s the gist of it. i may have used this gal’s recipe for the regular all-purpose flour pasta and her helpful methods.

another thing i learned after this process was about timing and freshness. if you’re going to make handmade pasta (and not freeze it), consume it within 24 hours. i think i had made mine and refrigerated the noodle nests for a couple of days before taking it to my friend’s house, so the noodles oxidized a bit and turned slightly green.

i learned a lot about fresh pasta and pasta storage from reading this article from the pasta evangelists.

i’m a big fan of big fat chewy noodles, so this process was very worth it to me. fresh pasta is one of life’s greatest pleasures, i say.

i discovered this cute shoppe in seattle that makes delicious fresh pasta - la pasta! there is a location in wedgwood, and i just noticed one on queen anne! i once tried their pappardelle noodles, and they were fantastic. i love that option for when you want to make a special pasta meal but don’t necessarily want to make the actual noodles by hand.

pete got me a few kitchenaid pasta rolling attachments for christmas that i’d been yapping about wanting for a while. after our current bathroom/kitchen remodel mayhem is through, believe you me that i am going to make all the pasta messes with those kitchenaid babies.

for the gluten-free pasta, we used the bob’s red mill 1-to-1 gluten-free flour and i believe we added 1 extra egg yolk to the same recipe i’d used to make the regular noodles.

we were super stoked with the final results of the gluten-free noodles! they were definitely more fragíle to handle, but after gently moving them to boiling water for a few minutes and adding the bolognese sauce, they were super scrumptious. we cut them to a pappardelle-like width and they had a nice texture!

you can see how my pasta nests did oxidize and change color over the couple days spent in the fridge - doesn’t mean they were bad, they were just not as “fresh” as they could possibly be. lesson learned.

i could have boiled the regular noodles a couple mintues longer, i think. they turned out a bit too chewy, but i was too nervous about overcooking them to mush (the worst!!).

^ above you can see the regular all-purpose flour noodle nests on the left, and the flat gluten-free noodles on the right.

i think next time i would keep the regular pasta drying flat or hanging straight; twisting them into nests and not flouring them before storage made them clump together unnecessarily, i think.

below are 2 very unattractive photos of each pasta 😂 taken by candlelight with the only parmesan cheese we had on hand, lolz. i would regularly use finely grated or parmesan shards.

this was actually the week of those awful awful wildfires happening on the west coast - we had all planned for this great camping trip, but we were totally smoked in for several days where all there was to do was cook & eat. 😈

^ left: regular/all-purpose (undercooked here, but oh well). ^ right: gluten-free (cooked properly, about 3 minutes in lightly salted high-simmering water).

both were great and andy baraghani’s bolognese is the star player, as usual. my personal takeaway after our taste test was that if you’re having a gluten-free eater over for homemade pasta night, the gluten will really not be missed! i enjoyed the texture and taste of the gluten-free noodles for sure.

here are some other instances when i’ve made the beef bolognese recipe with pappardelle noodles. fantastico.

more homemade pasta experiments, here i come!

this is pete's brother phil's fabulous red pepper sauce recipe!

brother phil's got all the sauce knowledge on lock. he's also the one who first introduced me to chimichurri, which i love so much. both sauces are vegan and versatile and fantastic.

this red pepper cashew sauce is delicious. it's similar to the texture of hummus and has SO much flavor. it can be enjoyed with veggies for dipping, on meats, in tacos, on sandwiches, noodles, etc etc etc!

phil says you could also use walnuts, but i prefer cashews in this!

Roasted Red Pepper Cashew Sauce

Yields 2 cups of sauce

Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

(1) 12 oz. jar roasted red peppers, well drained
2 garlic cloves
1 1/2 cups cashews, roasted until fragrant
2 TB red wine vinegar
2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
3/4 tsp. salt
2 TB. Sriracha
1/4 tsp. black pepper

Instructions-

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Spread the cashews on a baking sheet and roast in the oven for 5-10 minutes, until warm and fragrant.

In a large food processor, add the drained red peppers, garlic cloves, and olive oil. Process until smooth. Add the warm cashews and process. Add red wine vinegar, salt, pepper and sriracha to the food processor and run until very smooth.

The sauce should be the consistency of hummus. If it's too thick, add a drizzle of olive oil and pulse. Salt to taste.