handmade pasta experiment: regular & gluten-free.

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!

qp

mascarpone & maple caramel apple butter cinnamon rolls.

hello from the 5th or 6th day of cinnamon roll consumption, and the last day of 2 0 2 0 .

i’m sure everyone is tired of hearing about “this weird year,” but - once more for the people in the back ——— this year has been so weird.

if you’re reading this far in the future when we are all able to gather around a large pan of cinnamon rolls again - just know what a luxury it is to share space and meals with several other people.

also, cinnamon rolls are meant to be shared by like 8-12 people - not eaten by the same person for days on end 😂 that’s my 2020 for ya - pigging out on so many cooking projects designed for a family. luckily we had a couple other people around us this year to share everything with. i really can’t complain. so many hard circumstances took place this year for every single person i know, including myself - but i am so fortunate & lucky to be exactly where i am in life.

something great to come out of 2020 were all the creative pivots people made to create a business, a project, learn a new skill, or dive into a huge career change.

my lovely friend jeff, who’s an extremely talented chef and one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet, has always made delicious homemade jams, jellies, apple butters, etc - this year, he launched his own etsy shop where you can buy his incredible homemade apple cider butters in several flavors!

so proud of any friend who takes a chance on a business endeavor. yay, jeff!!! a foodie business endeavor was one that i was quite attracted to. 😊

not only are jeff’s apple butters sooo delicious and lovingly made from locally grown washington apples right in his home kitchen, but the attention to detail in the product shipment was so so sweet. it being december now, each jar was carefully wrapped (in eco-friendly wrapping - a huge plus for me with the zillions of boxes and paper waste coming to our doorstep these days) and came adorned with a jingle bell on each jar, along with recipe cards, and a personalized & typed note for me! i was very impressed with all the details, thought and effort put into his packaging. bonus was that shipping was super fast!

gorgeous apple butter color, too.

the flavors i got were regular, vanilla, smokehouse, and maple caramel apple - which is what went into these incredible cinnamon rolls on christmas morning!

taking food photos in the darkness of winter at like 9am is not ideal, but heyyy make it work, ya know.

the bulk of this recipe comes from JOY THE BAKER!!!

this is a life-changing cinnamon roll method that keeps your cinnamon rolls tender for SO many days. she spreads cream cheese across her rolled-out dough and folds it in, rolling out and folding a couple more times to create these amazing flaky & moist layers.

here i used mascarpone instead of cream cheese, and mascarpone in the icing on top. i love the bit of tartness that it brings to the sweetness of the apples. and the way it keeps the dough moist for seriously a week - not exaggerating - is so amazing. usually after a couple days of reheating regular cinnamon rolls, the dough is hard as a brick. but nooo, not the genius of joy the baker - tenderness for days. they continue to be as soft and fluffy as the day you baked them.

i used the whole jar of jeff’s maple caramel apple butter and a bit of the regular apple butter to supplement - about 10-12 oz in total. you don’t need walnuts, but i like em for the extra texture in there.

layerrrrrrrs.

these cinnamon rolls were sooo incredible and enjoyed by everyone living in our household on christmas morning - which is very special. cinnamon rolls are a christmas tradition for me - and i can safely say this version was perhaps the best i’ve made.

the apple butter is so so flavorful but not too sweet - and the mascarpone folded into the dough - fuhgetabouddit. so delicious. i sprinkled some extra brown sugar and cinnamon over the apple butter before rolling up the dough into a log and slicing.

and the smell of them, too! fantastic.

thanks so much, jeff, for sending me the maple caramel apple to try out in a recipe - it couldn’t have gone better, and i can’t wait to make these again next christmas. 😊

jeff’s etsy shoppe is found here in this link, and on instagram, here!

Mascarpone & Maple Caramel Apple Butter Cinnamon Rolls

Makes 8-12 Cinnamon Rolls, depending how you slice them

Active Time: 30 minutes // Bake Time: 30 minutes // Total Time: 3 hours

• Read & Follow JOY THE BAKER’S incredible cinnamon roll method here!

  Full recipe credit to Joy! Changes that I made:

• Use 8 oz. Mascarpone cheese instead of cream cheese to spread and fold into your dough.

• Spread 8 oz. Lovage Homemade Maple Caramel Apple Cider Butter over the rolled out dough (in lieu of the regular filling). Sprinkle a handful of brown sugar and add chopped walnuts, if desired.

• Once the rolls are sliced and placed into baking sheet, sprinkle with additional cinnamon over top.

• Use 3-5 TB. of Mascarpone in Joy’s icing recipe - being careful not to use too much milk, or the icing will be a bit grainy.

• Bake for about 28 minutes for tender & soft cinnamon rolls.

• ENJOY!

qp