Almond Cream Pasta with Roasted Brussels Sprouts (Vegan)

Why do I feel like I posted this already? Because I ate it over a month ago. Sorry!

Sometimes I get a craving for something super creamy. 
Being lactose intolerant and sharing the occasional leftover with vegan friends means I have to look to uncommon places for that satisfying sauciness.  Frankly, I was surprised to learn that this is an actual pasta sauce (I thought it was just something I dreamed up out of low pantry supplies and lack of motivation to go outside).
It ends up tasting somewhere between an alfredo and a white cheese sauce, and this depends on how much nutritional yeast (if any) you use.
The sauce is pretty easy: 
Take a cup of toasted almonds (skin on or off) and grind them in a blender until they're a fine crumb. Add one or two cloves of chopped garlic and pulse together.  
To this add 1-2 cups of water and continue to blend until smooth.  Pour the mixture into a pan and simmer. At this point you can add lemon zest, lemon juice, basil, or up to 1/4 c. nutritional yeast to taste, as well as salt, pepper or nutmeg.
Simmer the sauce until it's the desired thickness and serve over pasta.
On the side, I served roasted brussels sprouts. They were halved and tossed with curry paste, vinegar or citrus juice, some sugar or maple syrup optional garlic and a little olive oil and roasted at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes.  They're a dream of crispy chippy leaves and soft insides.
Yum!

Homemade Pasta 2 - ENTER THE MACHINE

Finally broke down and bought a pasta machine. Turning into a proper nonna over here! I love fresh pasta, but rolling and cutting it by hand can be a pain, and I wanted that fresh taste with a little less work.
Unfortunately, no pictures of the machine in action (hey, I needed both hands to wrangle the noodles!) but some of the process steps are below. I plan to make spinach or tomato noodles next!
This dough wasn't vegan, but the next will be. For the first try, I stuck with a basic recipe of 2 eggs to 2 cups of flour, mixed gently with a fork, kneaded for 10 minutes and then allowed it to rest covered in plastic wrap. I rolled it out into sheets using successively smaller settings on the pasta machine's flat roller, and then dusted the sheets with a little flour before running them through the fettuccine-type setting. I tossed them in flour and allowed them to dry for a few hours (well, I cooked up a bunch before that happened, with a little pesto and some tofu steaks. YUM!)

Fiddlehead Pasta!

I'm not much of a pasta-eater for someone of Italian descent, but I couldn't think of a more delicious way to try my first fiddleheads than with butterfly pasta. My friend K.K suggested that I cook them with lemon butter, and the notion of eating these in a light, clear sauce stuck with me. I adapted this recipe from one I found online, adding a couple of things I enjoy.

The first step was to blanch the rinsed fiddleheads in boiling salted water for 2 or 3 minutes. Then I rinsed them in cold water and added my butterfly pasta to the already boiling pot.
When the pasta is 2 or 3 minutes away from being al dente, saute 3 or 4 cloves of garlic, sliced, in 3 tbsp butter or margerine, until just brown.
At this point, I added some dry chilis because I love a little kick to my pasta, especially if it's a light dish.
Drain the pasta and rinse in cold water. Then add the juice of 1/2 a juicy lemon to the margerine and garlic and allow to thicken (it will likely take only a few seconds)
Add the fiddleheads and toss, then add the pasta and toss. Keep on the heat, tossing, until the pasta is coated and most of the liquid is absorbed.
At this point you can season with salt, pepper, or cheese if you like.
Deeeelish.

Fresh Pasta - Vegan

I went out for a friend's birthday to Fressen, a great vegan restaurant that serves little vegan plates that you share. Dishes are sort of a mishmash of cultural influences, and one of the dishes we had inspired me to make my own pasta.
It was roughly cut basil fettucine noodles in a cheeseless pesto sauce. It was delicious (if a bit oily) and I vowed to to it myself at home. I love that I now feel confident enough in the kitchen that I will attempt to recreate most recipes that I like from restaurants. At least once.
I have great memories of helping my nonna and my mother make pasta. It was my job to crank the handle on the pasta machine, which would flatten the balls of dough into smooth sheets, and then cut it into noodles. They were soft and delicious, and I would nibble on one or two while they hung on the back of kitchen chairs, drying. I hope to some day make noodles that good.

I also posted this as an instructable.

Ingredients: 1 2/3 cup flour
about 2/3 cup water
1/2-3/4 tsp salt
optional 1 tsp oil
*Optional flavouring (pureed spinach, tomato paste, pureed basil, or just about anything)

-Mix all ingredients together in a bowl. If you would like to add flavouring, adjust the amount of water up or down.

You want a ball that sticks together but is not too wet or dry. Add more flour or water until you get something that holds together without being too wet.

Turn your ball out onto a well-floured cutting board. Knead it for at least 10 minutes.











To knead: push the ball away from you with the heel of your hand. Then gather the sides inwards, flip the ball around and repeat. It should start to become smoother and more pliable.
Add flour as needed to keep the ball from sticking to the board.



When the dough is well-kneaded, cover it in plastic wrap and let it rest for at least 10 minutes.

When it's rested, divide it into eighths. Work with one eighth at a time and put the others aside, covered.






Roll out the dough on a floured board. Push the dough outward from the middle, then turn it around, applying more flour to ensure that it's not sticking to the board. Continue to roll out until it's about 2-4 mm thick. At this point you may want to let the sheets dry out for a few minutes to make them easier to cut. Not long, though, or they'll dry out.














Cutting the noodles into rough fettucine shapes by hand isn't terribly difficult. Heavily flour the strip of dough, then lightly roll it up like a jelly roll. Cut strips as thin as you like with a sharp knife, then carefully unroll them.













To store your noodles: dry hanging for a few minutes (on the back of a chair perhaps) then flour and gather into bundles. Freeze or refrigerate, covered.

Squash Gnocchi with OliveTomato Sauce

I love squash. Like, a 'let's move in together and star planning for our future' kind of love. I have tried to sneak it into a few recipes with varying degrees of success. This one was bang on.
I found a basic gnocchi recipe in 'The Joy of Cooking" and substituted mashed Kabocha squash for the potatoes.

1 1/2 c smoothly mashed cooked squash, cooled
1 cup (and a bit) of flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp allspice or nutmeg
Combine all of the ingredients and stir. Turn out onto a cutting board and knead until smooth (it took me about 2 or 3 minutes.
Roll the dough into long ropes about an inch around. Then cut into half-inch pillow shapes.





Roll each pillow towards you with the back of your fork. You should create little grooves. This might be to allow for more thorough cooking, it might be to give them a uniform shape, whatever it is, this is how Nonna showed me, and so it's how I do it.

It would be nice to serve these with a butter or white sauce to show off their nice orange colour, but I made do with what I had on hand and made a sauce with leftover deli olives.



Sauce:
1 can crushed or diced tomatoes

2 cloves of garlic, halved
a handful of pitted olives, chopped
a couple of inches of celery diced
1/4 onion, diced
3 basil leaves, roughly torn
1-2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp oregano
a shake of crushed dried chiles

Easy peasy. Sautee everything but the tomatoes and basil until things start to soften and get a little brown. Then add tomatoes and basil and simmer, stirring often, until it reduces to a 'saucy' consistency.





To cook the Gnocchi: Drop gently in boiling salted water. Stir gently. They're done when they float to the top.