Fresh pasta, the thing of gods… or people with the luxury of extra time. Which today in an odd turn of events we had. An entire day at home together. I of course roped the entire family into a project for the majority of the day, and after tearing apart and re-organizing our entire kitchen Jamie decided to make fresh pasta. (Tearing apart the kitchen turned out to be a great idea because we found all the kitchen gadgets we forgot we had.)
The kids of course we all in for helping, Little Sous Chef mostly poured flour between the oven and the counter (thanks).
Her favourite part was dusting the rolled pasta in flour. And herself, and her brother, and the stove, and the counter, and the cat…
The trick to perfect fresh pasta is a silky smooth dough that has rested for at least an hour. Rolling it just thin enough and then dusting it in a generous amount of flour so that it does not stick to itself. Or you. Or the cat. (Can you tell the cat really wanted to be involved?)
Little Sous Chef got put on sweeping duty after her generous floor sprinkling with the flour bucket. Little Chef jumped in to help pretty quickly after he realized she was just making a bigger mess… there is now flour in the living room as well.
Little Sous Chef then decided to take a short musical break while Jamie made the other components to our dish.
Jamie fried up bacon, chicken, and garlic and cooked off the pasta.
Then we of course devoured it like starved animals. It was so delicious. Beyond good.
And if you are wondering, yes the kids are still in their pajamas from last night. Because it was that kind of day. We all need those days sometimes. They watched tv (gasp) and fought, and made huge messes, and ran out in the snow until their faces and fingers were red with cold. Less and less I feel inclined to justify the way these wild little people spend their time. Because I know that it all comes together in the end. Maybe they didn’t learn any new numbers today, but they made fresh pasta with their daddy and that is awesome. So my little preach moment of the day is this: if you are a parent who thinks they are doing it all wrong, don’t worry. You are doing great. Your small people know that you love them. And there is just as much value in time together if it’s spent doing something they love, or something you need to do. So don’t stress. You’ve got this! (Steps off soapbox)
If you want to make some fresh pasta for your family here is our recipe:
Fresh Pasta Dough:
2 cups flour
3 eggs
1 Tablespoon water
1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
pinch of salt
Knead the dough in a stand mixer or by hand for minimum 5 minutes until dough is silky smooth. Let rest for at least one hour wrapped in the fridge. Roll out into pieces with a rolling pin, and then with a pasta roller. Cut into noodles, and generously dist with flour. Set aside.
Fresh Pasta:
1 package bacon
1 chicken breast
2 cloves garlic, diced
1/4 cup milk
S&P
eggs
Cut bacon into small pieces and fry in frying pan. Remove when very crispy, and leave some of the bacon fat in the pan. Cut the chicken into bite size pieces and fry in the pan with the bacon fat. Remove from pan. Wipe pan out, add a splash of olive oil and fry the garlic. Cook the pasta in boiling water (it takes much less time to cook than dried pasta) and add it to the pan with the garlic. Add the milk and mix. Let the milk reduce slightly. Add the chicken and bacon. Plate into a bowl, separate eggs and garnish with egg yolk.
Enjoy your family time folks! And follow Jamie’s new food instagram @chefsdayoffyyc
-Stephanie
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Looks healthy and delicious.