Something savory for a change...

I have been gone for awhile. A ran off to Mexico for a few weeks for work, taking the camera with him to document the festivities for a friend's bachelor party, and leaving me unable to update the blog. I suppose I could have written some posts sans images, but what fun is a blog without pictures? At any rate, it is October now (how time flies!) and I am back.

Fall has arrived and the unseasonably cold weather makes it feel as if winter is really just around the corner. It was the first weekend that A had been home in a long time and the first weekend in months that we had nothing scheduled. The two of us were looking forward to relaxing at home and finally indulging in some home cooking. The chill in the air brought a craving for comfort food - something warm and hearty. A wanted a stew - heavy on the meat and potatoes. Stew isn't really my thing, so we decided to compromise with a veal and porcini ragu from Epicurious.

The lazy weekend meant plenty of time for adventures in the kitchen, so we decided to take things up a notch and break out the pasta maker (a perfect wedding gift that has been woefully underused, sorry E). I have made pasta a few times before with moderate success... moderate success meaning that the dough held together but could not really be shaped. Since we had all day to experiment, we decided to go bold and try the fresh pasta recipe in the French Laundry Cookbook.


Needless to say, the recipe came together perfectly. After I finished kneading and set the dough aside to rest, I declared that if this pasta works, Thomas Keller is a genius. A reminded me that many people already considered Thomas Keller to be a genius and that the outcome of my pasta would have no impact on his reputation.

At any rate, for a first try, the pasta turned out beautifully. The dough rolled out easily, with minimal breakage, and remained moist until it I was finished cutting. I got a little overzealous with the machine and tried to roll almost the entire recipe as a single sheet of pasta. Next time I will definitely cut things down - it will make my life much easier.

I can't wait to try this again in a few weeks!

Here is the fresh, uncooked pasta:



Here is the pasta, cooked and sauced with veal and porcini ragu (I usually add extra meat and sausage):



And of course what is pasta without bread to accompany it: