So what's a Betty to do with 4 dozen farm fresh eggs from the coop sitting in the fridge? Well, last month we featured a
pound cake recipe with 5 eggs. We also made deviled eggs for Easter. We have given some away and Stacie's hubby has quite a following at work, as he brings the fresh eggs in to co-workers and he is known as the "egg guy."
Well even after all of that, we have a surplus! We each get between 6-10 eggs a day! So, this month it's homemade pasta, which we used to make 2 huge pans of lasagna. One for the freezer and one for that night's supper. The kids have a great time helping to roll it out and it tastes amazing. We have never claimed to be chef's...in fact cooking to us is more out of necessity. Although with hungry kids in the kitchen mulling around like baby birds let's face it, you HAVE to cook. We are trying to find some joy in it. So entertain us if you will:)
To get started you will need a pasta roller. Nothing expensive here. We picked this one up at Ross for 20 bucks. But rolling the pasta out with a rolling pin was a little harder than expected so having the roller really helps.
Next step. Eggs and flour. That's it! For 2 servings of pasta you will need 2 eggs and one cup of flour.
Now, in the beginning we bought the expensive semolina flour which is what authentic Italian pasta is made from. Honestly we couldn't tell the difference and preferred the texture of the white flour pasta better, so there you have it.
We put this in the mixer using the bread dough setting which gently kneads the dough instead of mixing it. A friend asked if she could put the ingredients in her bread maker without baking it. We haven't tried it but sounds like a good idea!
You will have a nice round ball when it's completed (about 10 minutes or so).
We take a handful of the dough to run through the roller. A little larger than a golf ball.
Get a large pot of water going on the stove so that it is boiling.
Now we run the dough through the pasta roller TWICE. Most rollers have a dial with different settings on it. We start out rolling it through on the number 6 setting. Once you have rolled it through on that setting change it to a 3 and go again. This lower setting will press the dough thinner but if you start out at this setting it rips the dough apart.
This can be a two person job, so that the dough doesn't stick together.
Our goal is rolling it about a foot long...the length of our large pyrex casserole dish.
Boil the pasta for about 5 minutes. We drizzle and toss the noodles with olive oil so that they don't stick together. Lay flat on a cutting board while you assemble your lasagna ingredients. You will need about 8 large noodles to assemble a full pan. Also, approximately 5 cups of sauce is needed to assemble the lasagna.
Now, our recipe varies depending on spices on hand. So use your favorite sauce recipe. We love adding italian sausage to the ground beef, tomato sauce, fresh basil and garlic. Follow any old recipe for lasagna. The focus here is on the noodles!
The kids and husbands gobbled it down, so it gets an unofficial stamp of approval because it's gone:)
Oh wait, there is an extra one in the freezer! That will come in handy next week after a late night practice at the baseball field or dance studio.
The eggs are down to three dozen in the fridge...we should get our cholesterol checked sometime.
Ciao!
