This pasta was inspired from my new book, The Silver Spoon: Pasta. I'm still enjoying making pasta from scratch and this was my first attempted at making fettuccine. The hardest part of making your own noodles is trying to find places to hang them while you process all the dough. Lots of stores sell fancy pasta hanging gadgets. They look great, but my kitchen is just to small, and I have to be very careful with my limited storage space. So I have to improvise. Last night I hung clean towels over my kitchen cupboards. And hung the strands of fettuccine neatly across them. I have found that if I just flour the cut pasta and put it in a bunch it will take on that shape, and not look as pretty after you boil it. So I prefer to hang it till I am ready to boil it. I am very tempted to us a broom stick next time, prop from on corner of my kitchen to the other, and just hang the pasta that way. It might cause a small problem though if I need to get into the refrigerator.
Any way this pasta sauce is very easy to make and you don't need to make your own pasta; however, I would recommend you buy fresh fettuccine from your local market. Trader Joe's sells a very nice product. This sauce is very versatile in my opinion. You could cut the fat out by adding less cream and using chicken stock. You could very easily substitute different vegetables in your puree and serve it with chicken, or shrimp over pasta. I am very tempted to use this sauce in vegetable style lasagna, and as a topper to some home made raviolis. Enjoy!
Ingredients:
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 shallot, chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, chopped
- 3 red bell peppers, seeded and sliced
- ½ cup heavy cream
- 12 ounces fresh fettuccine pasta
- 1 tsp marjoram
- 2 tsp fresh basil, chiffonade, plus extra for garnish
- kosher salt and pepper to taste
- freshly grated Parmesan cheese for garnish
Method:
Boil a large pot of water for cooking the pasta.
Heat a large sauce pan over low heat; add olive oil, garlic, and shallot. Cook over low heat for 10 minutes. Add chopped bell peppers, cook over low heat for 10 minutes stirring occasionally. After vegetables are tender stir in the marjoram; turn heat off, and let them cool for about 4 minutes. After they are cooled off transfer them into a food processor, and process to a puree. I had to work in batches, mini food processor!!
Return puree to sauce pan, over low heat add cream. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Keep covered and on low heat.
Add 1 tsp of kosher salt to the boiling water, cook fettuccine till it is al dente, 4-5 minutes. Drain pasta, pour it into the sauce pot.
Mix well, add fresh basil and serve. Garnish each plate with freshly grated Parmesan cheese and basil. Serves 4.
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