For my 2009 “I Dare” Cooking Challenges, I said that I would be making 12 different types of pasta at home this year. Of course, making pasta is not new to me – I’ve made: Fresh Pasta with Basil, Tomatoes and Burrata, Fresh Lemon Pasta with Spring Peas and Mint, and Pappardelle Pasta with Leeks and Gorgonzola.
This time I decided to make some fresh pasta (spaghetti or troccoli, depending on your viewpoint) and pair them with some lovely little fresh vongole, clams.
I really enjoy making fresh pasta and I find it therapeutic! There are several ways to make pasta, from the completely manual (hands + rolling pin) to the completely automatic (stand mixer + pasta machine) – I take a mixed approach, and I mix all the ingredients and knead by hand and then roll it out into sheets of pasta with a pasta machine that was S’ grandmother’s.
How to Make Fresh Pasta
Note: You can make less, but keep the ratio 1 egg to 100 grams of flour/semolina mix. This makes enough for at least 2 meals for 2 people.
350g Flour
150g Semolina flour
5 eggs
Salt, a pinch
Flour at hand
- On a work surface, put both types of flour into a pile and create a well for the eggs. This is a lot of liquid, so if you want, you can work them in one at a time or all together. Work the pasta for about 10 minutes until it gets elastic and smooth. Keep a supply of flour nearby so you can add some if it gets too sticky.
- Let your pasta rest, covered with a dish towel or plastic wrap, for about 20-30 minutes.
- Divide it into manageable parts (I chose three) and run each through your pasta roller at the widest setting. I rolled out pieces, folded them in half, and ran them through again, and then laid them to rest with a little flour sprinkled on. I used a smaller/thinner setting on the next roll.
- I use the self-patented “pasta forearm” which is using your forearm as both a guide for pasta coming out as well as feeding it into the machine. Set the cut pasta on a floured surface and let rest for 10-15 minutes before cooking. Make sure you flour up the final pasta a bit so it doesn’t stick to other strands. If you want to, you can dry out the pasta to be used within 2 weeks. I made mine into little nests and then used what we didn’t cook in the days to follow.
- To cook, boil in (healthily) salted water for 3-4 minutes.
Spaghetti alle Vongole, Spaghetti with Clams
Note: I recommend cooking the pasta a little ahead of the clams, so you can set aside a little pasta water when draining the pasta, and add it to the pasta sauce if necessary to thin it out.
Spaghetti
1 lb. Fresh Clams
1/2 Lemon
Garlic cloves, to taste (3-4)
Hot Pepper
Flat leaf parsley, chopped
(1/4 cup) Extra virgin Olive Oil
1/2 cup White Wine
1/2 cup – 1 cup Broth
- To help purge some of the sand from fresh clams, put them in cold salted water for at least an hour, preferably several hours. If any clams float, throw them away. Drain the clams.
- Chunk or halve the garlic cloves and cook them in the olive oil with some hot pepper flakes if you want it spicy over medium heat. Don’t brown the garlic, but cook until starting to get soft, several minutes. Add 1 cup broth, or 1/2 wine / 1/2 broth to the mixture.
- When it starts to simmer/boil, add the (drained) clams to the mixture with a few squeezes of lemon. Cover, and cook for several minutes, stirring every so often. When most of the clam shells have opened, remove any that are still closed and throw them away (don’t eat them!)
- If you have too much liquid left with the opened clams, remove them to a bowl and cook down the liquid. Add the cooked pasta and to the mixture, mix well and cook for a few minutes. Take off heat, toss with some parsley and fresh lemon juice and serve.
This is all that remains after:
Lets make pasta when you come out here! :-)
Wow, I just made fresh pasta last night! And I make it like you do, too – a mix of semolina and regular flour. Your dish with the fresh clams is my all time favorite. Brava!
Vongole, vongle, vongle! You can taste the sea in them. With fresh pasta they must be to die for!
Can’t even spell = ‘VONGOLE’ : P
I might just get the help of my son the chef, just for the first time. I have never tried to make pasta, always a first.
This is my favourite pasta dish, couldn’t get enough of it when in Italy..:-)
VONGOLE – one of my favourite things to eat! Only problem is, it never tastes as good here as it does in Italy… please explain!?
Sara, you were mentioned in the Los Angeles Times, in a story about Nutella, here is the link
http://www.latimes.com/theguide/restaurants/la-fo-nutella11-2009feb11,0,3933430.story
Oh, I just looooove spaghetti alle vongole, (one of the first pasta dishes I ever fell in love with (and over)) though I must say that I prefer the good old dry spaghetti variety since you can get it much more al dente…
Buon weekend!
There are few things in life as rewarding as making and then eating your own paste. Beautiful post, thx for sharing!!!!
The pasta looks just gorgeous.
We make fresh pasta often at home without a machine. The recipe is given in the link to this post
This is one of my favorite dishes. Like Scintilla said you can taste the sea in this dish. Yum!
You are almost making me wish I liked vongole…..
But the fresh pasta…..YUM! Haven’t made in in so many, many years and really don’t know why. Fairly simple and so rewarding.
While I won’t be making vongole this weekend, I think I just might be making home made hand cut tagliatelle! Thanks for suggesting it.
I love vongole. Might try out your fresh pasta recipe some day. :)
I love this dish and the little bit of heat the hot pepper adds.
informative post. I’ve yet to make my own pasta and don’t know what the hold up is… I’ve just tagged this post! :) thanks for it.
Yum! This dish is so popular on the Amalfi Coast, but I haven’t had great success imitating it at home. I look forward to trying this. Grazie!
Mmmm one of my favorite dishes as well although I’ve never had it with homemade pasta. If only someone would come here and make it ;)
Spaghetti alle vongole, yum! Your photos are making me hungry! If only I could find good clams here.
Ooh, I’ll have to try your pasta recipe here. We’ve run out of the first batch I made and I think I have enough semolina left to try this out. I haven’t used a recipe with egg yet, so I’m curious to try the whole pile o flour well thing ;) No clams though, sadly, Bubba would die from allergies.
For all you lovers of spaghetti alle vongole, I just wanted to point out arselle or zighe, which are simply tiny tiny clams, unlike vongole you can practically digge them up by the beach, on the tuscan coast you’ll find loads!!
Here’s a link for a simple recipe:
http://www.turismo.intoscana.it/blog/2009/06/10/arselle-telline-o-zighe/
Oh it’s just as good as a pasta sauce
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