Passport & Plate - Making Pasta (Elena Recipe)
Netherlands | Friday, March 14, 2014 | 5 photos
Ingredients
PASTA
Pasta Dough - 1 egg per 100g of flour (Type 00)
FILLINGS
- ricotta
- nutmeg
- different types of mushrooms fried with olive oil and vinegar
- spinach (pre-cooked and drained)
- lemon juice
- parmesan
How to prepare this recipePREPARING THE DOUGH
Knead the eggs and flour together and then let rest in fridge for 1 hour (cover really well so it doesn't get dry!)
Then put through the pasta maker after preparing the fillings (I recommend lasagne)
Put it a couple of times through the thickest setting before making it thinner every time.
Layer the dough and filling into the baking pot. Preheat the oven at 180 DEGREES CELSIUS and cook for about 30 minutes.
The story behind this recipeThe recipe comes from Elena Macedo Dauzacker. A real life, cosmopolitan Girl from Ipanema who prefers knitting jumpers and making origami cranes than eating feijoada or drinking her national cocktail. The truth is that the cachaca ridden and lime infused Caipirinha is too sickly sweet for someone like Elena. You'd do much better to fix her with a bottle of Cabernet. It goes better with her pasta.
I first found Elena in Maastricht, a staggeringly picturesque southern Dutch University town, where she is renowned within the student community for her 'Friday Night Philosophy Dinners'. They always appear on the cultural radar very last minute, dependent as they are upon a whim (and the quality of produce at the Friday morning farmer markets). But despite a plethora of prior social engagements, those invited will always find any excuse to attend.
Walking over the threshold into her little house on the Brusselsestraat is like walking into the midst of a pit orchestra as the instruments tune up in anticipation of the evening concert. Bubbling water hums on the stove, knives slice percussively through shiitake mushrooms, parmesan grinds up and down the scale of the silver cheese grater. But the best bit is always the making of the pasta itself.
As the room grows full with rumbling stomachs Elena will flatten out the dough and begin to feed it through her sturdy little pasta making machine. This magical instrument can tune the dough into whatever best suits the flavour of the night. One time it broke into a crescendo of fettuccine strands. The next it was a ritardando of long sheets, perfect for folding into balls of seamless ravioli.
When the feast is finally prepared the performance can begin. A hat is passed around the table and every guest is invited to drop in a piece of paper suggesting a topic for discussion. And then, over steaming plates of fresh, hand-made pasta, the night's dialogue can begin. Philosophy is always better when paired with pasta.
