Thursday, November 27, 2008

Time (Un) Management

If you know me, you know I'm probably the world's worst planner. I double and triple book myself into every possible corner that exists in the world, and usually don't realize it until it's way too late! Case in point - I bought my pasta machine weeks ago to finally slake the longing I had for the home-made dough of my childhood (I had a cheap plastic pasta roller that my parents bought me) and made this dough almost immediately, but did I do anything with it then? Did I blog about it? Did I even remember the dang stuff? Noooo... until now, that is. Long after it's been eaten and (somewhat) enjoyed, this pasta makes an appearance on the blogosphere. Not that anyone's really going to see it all that quickly, it is only the major holiday in the U.S.! By the way, Happy Thanksgiving!

It wasn't that this wasn't a blog-worthy recipe either. I have so much stuff in the backlog right now that it's crazy, I have post fodder for ages! In fact, just because tomorrow is Presto Pasta Night (hosted by Daphne of More Than Words), you'll get two goodies for the price of one... the fresh dough and a great use for it!

We try to avoid anything overly "white" in our house these days, what with the diabetics and weight-watchers running around. I made this dough up to satisfy everyone, and it did! I love Kamut for both it's taste and nutritional value - buttery and vitamin-packed - and my family loves the texture of spelt too, so the combo works well! This mixes and kneads easily by hand, and you can keep the dough in the fridge for a couple days if need be. I'm going to try ravioli next!

Multi-Grain Fresh Pasta
Serves 4
1 cup Kamut flour
1 cup spelt flour
1 tsp vital wheat gluten
1 tsp fine sea salt
1 tsp olive oil
1/2 cup water
  1. Combine flours, gluten and salt in a large shallow dish.
  2. Make a well in the centre, add olive oil and water.
  3. Stir with a fork to incorporate the wet and dry ingredients. When mixture becomes too stiff, switch to hand mixing.
  4. Knead dough until it is not sticky at all (this will take time... and muscle!) - it should be stiff but have all the flour mixed in evenly. Add water a couple drops at a time if necessary.
  5. Wrap dough in Saran wrap and let rest for 30 minutes - 1 hour at room temperature, or up to 36 hours in the fridge.
  6. Roll dough through pasta machine settings to make the thinnest sheets you can, or roll by hand in sections with a rolling pin before cutting.
  7. Cook pasta 2-3 minutes (no longer) in boiling, salted water if using immediately.
  8. If drying pasta for later, hang cut sheets or noodles on the backs of chairs or drying racks for 12-24 hours, until completely dry, and store in covered containers up to 2 weeks. Cook time will be 3-5 minutes.
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 221.1
Total Fat: 2.2 g
Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
Sodium: 1.9 mg
Total Carbs: 45.9 g
Dietary Fiber: 7.5 g
Protein: 8.8 g

So, what exactly did I do with this newfangled pasta dough? Well, inspiration credit goes to Heidi for this one, and it's being passed to Bookmarked Recipes at Ruth's Kitchen Experiments because of it! Like many a blogger before me, I have finally embraced the goodness that is the Thousand-Layer Lasagne, and changed it up to make it my own. You will never believe the complexity that the paper-thin layers paired with a savoury tomato sauce give to an otherwise "plain" lasagne recipe. Just like baklava, it gets a central thick layer too - pureed cottage cheese that I strained to almost a custardy consistency. I found that when I chilled this before baking it (like I usually do for my lasagnes) it got kind of "gummy" (to quote my mother) - I'd bake it ASAP next time. You will also need every bit of counter space you own, especially if you're making your own pasta! If that's not your thing, use 1 lb fresh lasagne sheets from the grocery and roll them out with a rolling pin as thin as possible.


Baklasagna
Serves 4
All the pasta recipe (above)
---Filling---
1 cup low-fat (1%) cottage cheese
1/2 tsp lemon zest
1/2 tsp black pepper
---Sauce---
28 oz crushed tomatoes
2 oz red wine
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp dry basil
1/2 tbsp dry oregano
1/2 tsp lemon juice

  1. Pour cottage cheese, lemon zest and 1/2 tsp pepper into a blender and puree until completely smooth.
  2. Line a strainer placed over a bowl with cheesecloth, pour cottage cheese puree into it and allow to stand covered in the fridge for 8-12 hours.
---Sauce---
  1. Combine all ingredients but lemon juice in a saucepan, bring to a simmer.
  2. Cook 5-10 minutes, until hot, bubbly and fragrant.
  3. Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice. Set aside.
---Assembly---
  1. Preheat oven to 375F. Grease a 9" square pan.
  2. Spread a very thin layer of sauce onto the bottom of the dish.
  3. Layer over 3 sheets of pasta, then another thin layer of sauce.
  4. Repeat until half the pasta sheets are used up, rotating the direction of the pasta sheets each layer (you want it to look almost "woven").
  5. Finish with a layer of sauce.
  6. Spread all the strained cheese mixture evenly over the bottom layers of pasta.
  7. Resume layering dough sheets and sauce until the rest of the ingredients are used up, again finishing with a layer of sauce.
  8. Bake lasagne, covered, for 35 minutes.
  9. Uncover and continue baking another 5-10 minutes.
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 386.1
Total Fat: 3.1 g
Cholesterol: 2.3 mg
Sodium: 1,052.0 mg
Total Carbs: 71.3 g
Dietary Fiber: 9.0 g
Protein: 19.6 g

4 comments :

  1. Pasta isn't blogworthy? Umm. Why? Particularly since yours has all sorts of wild stuff in it, other than just flour, egg, oil, water, and salt.

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  2. The recipes looks wonderful. Now all you need to do is...take a few slow, deep breaths and enjoy some of it.

    Thanks for sharng with Presto pasta Nights.

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  3. wow.. not blogworthy?? I beg to differ!! That is a fantastic lookin pasta, and I never make pasta I should so try it now though, the whole shebang looks amazing!!

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  4. Okay now you've inspired me to roll out my own pasta. Now all I need is a pasta machine :P

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for the feedback!