yeasted pasta

Talking to a Chef awhile back, I was told that there is a very traditional pasta from one region of Italy that is yeasted.  This was a Chef that told me that my hand kneaded pasta was better then his because I am a baker.  I knead bread so often that I was not surprised.  Last week, bread was made at least four times and I am not counting this pasta!

I did a bit of research and found out that this pasta was actually made on baking day.  That way you did not have two doughs going.  I read the recipe for this pasta a year ago and decided that I did not wish to go through the process of getting the book from the library and using it as a go by.  I

know how to make bread.  I know how to make pasta.  I know how pasta dough should feel.  My Beloved asked for sourdough pasta so why not!

The taste of this is similar to a non-yeasted pasta. There is more flavor.  It rolled easier.  Which is a plus.  And if I am making a simple bread, I would put a bit of dough aside to make into pasta.  It just need tweaking.

yeasted pasta dough

Note:  I started this from scratch.  If you have a French dough, Italian dough, or a baguette dough, just knead in flour until you have a VERY stiff dough and go from the resting point of these directions.

sourdough starter

100 grams water

100 grams white whole wheat flour

2 eggs

a pinch of salt

1 1/2 to 2 cups flour

Eight to fourteen hours before, refresh your starter with 100 grams of water and 100 grams of flour.  Cover and let it get bubbly.  I have been finding that cling wrap works very well for this step but I want to make some of the coated linen to try.  

When the starter is bubbly, remove a bit for next time.  A bit is a couple tablespoons.

Mix in two eggs.

Mix in the flour.  Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead.  You want a very stiff dough.  Wrap and let sit.  I would have liked it to sit for more then the couple hours it did but I kept forgetting what I was doing on Saturday.  That was because I was mostly sleeping.

Unwrap the dough.  It will be a bit puffy.  Divide in half and roll out into a thin sheet.

Cut and place on a floured baking sheet.  Dust with more flour as more pasta is sliced.

Put the pasta into salted boiling water.  Cook for about three minutes.  A few more if you did not roll the dough very thin.

Serve with any sauce you wish.  One of the reasons I wanted eggs in the pasta was I knew I was going to serve it with a vegetarian sauce.  It was a day of sleep and looking for calories.  In another words, a weekend of healing and not traveling.  Guess what I wanted it be doing!

I will be making more of this.  It makes my life easy because I just have to knead extra flour into a bread dough and I have pasta for dinner.  Talk about frugality!

frozenish yogurt

I am not a big frozen yogurt fan.  I like what I make.  I like one brand out.  I do not like stuff on my yogurt.  Or ice cream.  Whether that is stuff on top or mixed in.  It is who I am.  But today I was craving some frozen yogurt.  It is just hot out.  Records may be broken today.  

I like citrusy tangy frozen yogurts.  So I go for a frozen Greek yogurt most of the time.  Lime is a big favorite.  Where I normally go for frozen yogurt was much to far out of my way today for me to get there.  I decided to create something at home.

I used 5 ounces of an Icelandic key lime yogurt, about 2 ounces of ginger syrup, and a quarter cup each of mango, strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries.  Into the blender it went.  Full power for a three minutes or so.

Into the bowl.  I could have put it into the freezer for about thirty to sixty minutes to firm it up some more but I could not wait.  It was frozen enough for me.  Cold when it is hot.  One of the best ways for me to get the fruit into me because I am still poor at eating fruit.  It comes from I think it is a good idea but I do not do it.  I would rather eat a dish of roasted veg.  But this worked for me.  Much better then going way out of my way to buy something.  Actually better then buying frozen yogurt out.  I will probably do more of this while it is so hot.  

Hopefully, records are not broken today!

mountain jam

So much about going to the mountain is maintenance.  My Beloved and I cleared the path to Canada (the end looks towards Canada) with the tractor and the clippers.  I am horrible!  If I think it is going to hit me in the head, it comes down!  Including any berries.  I clipped back huckleberries.

Since we have cleared out trees to make room for the possibilities of gardens, we are actually getting berries now.  Mountain berries crawl over things.  The seem to get no higher then knee high and have the tiniest blackberries on the brambles.  But the flavor so good!  I usually think blackberries need sugar because they are a bit tart.  I find the invasive Himalayan blackberries are tart like that.  Or store bought strawberries.  These are berries that make your teeth hurt because they are so sweet.

The blackberries were what was most ripe.  But there were also salmon berries, a few huckleberries, and a few thimble berries.  We picked for a couple three hours and came away with about 3 quarts of berries.  There was no way they would have travled well cross country.  The thimble berries and salmon berries all but crush in your fingers when they are ripe.  Even in the Yeti container I was picking into they would not have made it.  I made jam at my parents with the berries.

2 cups of washed picked clean berries to 1 cup sugar.  Bring to a simmer and let cook until a bit of juice slowly runs down a plate.  I take my finger nail through it and see if it stays where it is put.  If it does, the jam is done.  I

bought a sourdough French from one of the bakeries I like it Bellingham.  With butter, that just makes breakfast so good.  I had to make a loaf of French bread when I got home.  The only negative is that I am still not on the mountain.  I would be picking berries every day and making jam.  25 pounds of sugar back in my life.  But I have little bit of mountain with me until it is gone.  1 and 1/2 quarts of jam.  

And more memories of sunsets.

heritage grains

It has been an interesting week.  Boyos went camping but then Koda Bear ended up not feeling well.  Not feeling well with a low grade fever and just wanting to be held.  I do not mind all the cuddling but it does mean not much gets done. 

My garden is swamped in weeds after being gone, heat, and rain.  While pulling weeds, I found an ant bead and was bitten multiple times.  This should not be a big deal.  Yes, ant bites hurt.  Burn.  The problem is I have been bitten too many times and my body is reacting very badly.  My hands and feet are badly swollen, I got dopey, and my throat tightened.  I do try to be careful but I did not even see the pile until after I had been bitten.  The rest of my day was taking care of my bodies reaction.

Days like these just make me wish to bake bread.  But I bought flours from heritage grains recently and one of the flours is being troublesome.  It absorbs a lot of water after the dough is mixed.  It is a Sonora White whole wheat flour.  The Red Fife whole wheat did not react the same way.  I have add to rely  more on measurements then feel.  I do find letting all the liquid and just the Sonora flour rise together for a few hours does help.  

Bread baking is one of my meditation spaces, healing spaces so this has been very hard on me.  

But I am getting there.  I have been relying more on weights and technique then feel.  But that is what you have to do sometimes, go backwards to go forward.  

Especially when you are fulfilling a request.  Every week I am currently making a loaf of oatmeal bread (which also needed tweaking with the new flours) and a loaf of cranberry walnut bread.  The cranberry walnut bread is not a sweet quick bread but a yeasted loaf.  Not cake.  A loaf that has not sugar except what is in the cranberries.  

It is based off a loaf I purchased from Barrio Bread.  A bakery that is only 1100 miles away from one home, 1500 miles from the other.  Another spot I cannot get to every week.  Where Koda Bear asked, "Grandma, can you make this?" from the back seat of the car while adventuring.  He was eating the loaf.

Since I am not a sandwich person, I do not eat this bread on sandwiches.  But I eat it on and with everything else.  I do use it for open face sandwiches.  Salmon and cheese on top.  Or just cheese.  I like it as toast and with my eggs.  It is just a good bread.  It also satisfies the craving for sweet at times.

What I make is denser the Barrio Bread's.  Mostly because I put more walnuts and cranberries in it.  I like it!

cranberry walnut bread

sourdough starter

100 grams water

100 grams whole wheat flour

350 grams water

300 grams white whole wheat flour (or just all purpose white flour work here as well)

20 grams salt

200 grams whole wheat flour

130 grams cranberries (these can be chopped if you wish)

65 grams chopped walnuts

A bit of extra flour for folding

In a large bowl, mix the sourdough starter, 100 grams water, and 100 grams whole wheat flour together.  Cover and let sit overnight or for ten to fourteen hours.  Eight works too.

The next day, set a bit of the starter aside for next time.

Mix in 350 grams of water.  Mix in 300 grams of white whole wheat flour.  Cover and let sit for a couple hours.  This is where I am using the Sorona flour which absorbs a lot of water but I find it works with any flour.

After the dough has sat for a couple hours, it should be bubbly.  Mix in the salt.  Mix in about 150 grams of the remaining flour.  Dust a clean surface with the rest of the flour and knead the dough until smooth.  Cover and let sit for about an hour.   I usually put the dough in a bowl.

After the hour is up, flatten the dough.  Fold a long edge a third of the way across the dough.  Fold the other long edge across the dough that has been already folded over.  Fold one short end into the center.  Fold the other short end into the center.  Fold the dough into itself along that crease.  You should have a squat cube.  Set in a bowl, cover, and let rest for an hour.

Do this flattening again.

After the previous wait, flatten the dough.  Spread the cranberries on it.  Fold the long edges in.  Knead the dough up into a roll.  I sometimes divide the cranberries into a couple of groups and do this with each group.  Add the walnuts in the same way.  In the end, of the dough in a rough ball.  Let sit for another hour.

After the dough sits for another hour, flatten again.  Put in a plastic bag with lots of room.  Put it in the refrigerator overnight.

The next day, take the pan or pot you will back in and line with parchment paper.  I have been using a vintage cast iron porridge pot.

Take the dough from the refrigerator.  Shape into a better ball or a loaf shape if you can.  Put it into your pan or pot.  Cover.  Let rise until there is not spring back when you push your finger into it.  

Put the pot into the oven.  Turn the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Bake for one hour.

The loaf should sound hollow when it is done.

If you can, wait until the bread has cooled before you cut into it.

I have prettier pictures but this crazy little loaf called to me.  There are also pictures of slices other places but this is about what I could do today.  And eat bread.  I can eat toast and tea today.  Even with all the strangeness, life is good.

Thick bread with stuff on top

I have said it in this space before that I really do not like much pizza.  I like the pizza I make.  So there was much surpise when I suggested pizza for lunch out in Bellingham.  The novelty made it happen.  

Goat Mountain Pizza.  Pizza is bought by the pound so you can have as little or as much as you wish.  The toppings are not what most people think as traditional but they are what I like.  It is a thick crust, similar to a foccacia, pizza.  It is good bread with stuff on top which is my best type of pizza.  

Since most of my life I cannot just run to downtown Bellingham for pizza, I made some at home.  This is the type of pizza for me which means I could eat pizza once a week or more.  In the shop, I had potato and bacon, and walnut, carmelized onions, and stilton.  I did a combination of the two but may figure the walnut one out just by itself.  I am also thinking the carnitas pizza could be an interesting experiment even though I did not try that one.

Again, simply good bread with stuff on top.

potato, bacon, and carmelized onion pizza

one recipe of foccacia dough (just the dough portion of this recipe, no fruit.  a plain dough)

one potato, washed and thinly sliced.  I used a Yukon gold.

one onion, peeled and sliced

two slices of thick cut bacon, diced

4 ounces of hard mozzarella, grated

pepper

olive oil

Start the dough at least six hours before you wish to eat.

An hour and half before eating, line a quarter sheet pan with parchment paper.  Press in the dough and let rise for an hour (or more).

In a cast iron skillet, heat the olive oil over low heat.  Add the onion.  Sauté gently until carmelized.  This should take about 20 or 30 minutes to have a true carmelization happening.  

Put the sliced potato in a bowl.  Drizzle with a bit of olive oil.  Sprinkle with a pinch of pepper.  Toss until the potatoes are well coated.  Set aside.

In another cast iron pan, about ten minutes before the onions are ready, put the diced bacon.  Cook until brown.  

Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.

When the dough has risen, sprinkle with the carmelized onion.  Sprinkle with the cheese.  Lay the potatoes over it.  Sprinkle the bacon over all.

Put the pizza in the oven and back for 30 to 40 minutes.  Until the edges are brown and the potatoes are to your favorite doneness.  That potato doneness can be debated I have learned.

Let the pizza cool for five minutes.  Remove from the pan.  Cut and serve.

It was lovely!  I have been wanting more since which is just not me.