Luci's Tasty Adventures

I am pretty inspired right now to make fresh pasta dishes.  You can buy the noodles from your local market if you do not have the time, or passion for making fresh pasta.  The marinara sauce is perfect in my opinion; it has a nice balanced flavor from the shallots and carrots.  The Prosciutto is crisp and light and goes so well with the melting goat cheese and pasta.  If you have never tried goat cheese, I would recommend getting some soft goat cheese and spreading it on your morning bagel.  The flavor is very unique and the cheese can be used in sweet or savory dishes.

Marinara Sauce

• 1 15 ounce can of tomato sauce
• 1 4 ounce can of tomato paste
• 2 shallots, finely chopped
• 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
• ½ carrot, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1 tbsp olive oil

Method:

Heat olive oil in a sauce pan over medium heat, add shallots.  Saute shallots and carrot till they are tender; about 7 minutes.  Add garlic to sauce pan, saute for another minute.  Add tomato sauce, paste, salt, oregano and water.  Bring pot till a boil; then turn your temperature down to low, cover and simmer for about an hour.

Crispy Prosciutto

• 5 slices of Prosciutto

Method:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees; line a baking sheet with parchment paper.  Spread the prosciutto out evenly over baking sheet.











Bake prosciutto for 7 minutes; take the prosciutto out of the oven and flip it over, and bake for another 7 minutes.  Watch this closely as it can burn.  Take prosciutto off baking dish and set on paper towels to drain. (this can be done in advaced and set aside till you are ready to plate)













Pasta: (now you can skip this part and just purchase past from the store, 1 lb will do).

• 4 large eggs
• 2 tbsp water
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 3 1/3 cup all purpose flour
• ½ tsp salt

Method:

Combine all ingredients in mixing bowl; mix with a heavy spoon till combined.  Attach bowl to mixer; attach dough hook and kneed on setting #2 for 2 minutes.  If mixture seems dry and another table spoon of water.  Take dough out of mixing bowl, and kneed by hand for 2 minutes.  Take dough and separate it into four disks.  Wrap disks in plastic wrap, and store in the refrigerator for at least 20 minutes.  I have found that working this dough on a floured server with wet hands helps the dough kneed and combine nicely.











Work with one disk at a time.  Roll disk out to a 4 by 4 in disk; about ¼ inch thick.   Attach the pasta sheet attachment to mixer; put it on setting # 1.  Turn your mixer on to speed #2, and feed disk threw.  Take pasta sheet and fold it in half feed it through again, do this a total of 3 times.  Change the setting on your pasta machine to 2; turn your mixer on to speed #2, feed pasta threw.  Change the setting on your pasta machine to 3; turn your mixer on to speed #2, feed pasta threw. Continue this same process till you reach setting number 6 on your attachment. 

Remove the pasta roller attachment from mixer, and attach the spaghetti making attachment.  Cut your pasta sheets to the 5 inches by 12 inches; basically cut your large rectangle into 3 smaller rectangles.  You do not want your spaghetti noodles to be 24 inches long.

Run each sheet through the spagaetti attachement, set noodles on a plate.  Switch out attachement and repeat steps for the last 3 disks of pasta dough.  Cook pasta right away or hang to dry.































Boil a large pot of water, salt and add about a tbsp of olive oil.  Cook pasta for about 4-5 minutes till al dente.  Drain pasta and combine in sauce pan with marinara sauce.

Assembly:

• 2 tbsp chopped green onion
• 1/3 cup soft goat cheese
• 5 slices of crispy prosciutto

Plate:

Garnish with chopped green onions, dots of goat cheese, and one piece of crumbled crispy prosciutto.  Serves 4-5 people.