Homemade pasta, that's amore!

I always buy the homemade pasta from the Bluffton Farmer's Market and have been anxious to try making it myself. When I was a kid we would make homemade pasta and it seemed like an exhausting process because we used a hand crank.

I got a pasta roller/cutter attachment for my KitchenAid mixer and have used it a handful of times already. It is surprisingly easy! The hardest part seems to be finding a grocery store that carries semolina flour. It takes me about an hour to make 8 small "nests" of pasta. The end result is totally worth the effort - light, fluffy and flavorful pasta.

The set-up:

Rolled sections and cut sections:

Final product:

Mangia!

Basil Overload

Basil is one of the best smelling, best tasting and low-maintenance herbs out there. I love having a big basil plant that I can always depend on for pesto and salads. Recently I was out of town and when I came back the basil had grown dramatically. Last night I made some pesto and turned it into a dinner!

First, I added almonds, extra virgin olive oil, parmesan cheese and a clove of garlic to the food processor and created a paste:


Next, the basil went in with some salt and pepper:

Voila!

So for dinner I made pesto chicken quesdillas! Yum!

You Say Crostada...

I saw an episode of "Secrets of a Restaurant Chef" with Anne Burrell on the Food Network a few months ago where she made a Swiss Chard & Ricotta Crostada. I had never made my own dough before and she made the whole process look very simple. So one Saturday morning, before we hit the beach with some friends, I prepped everything so that we could have the Crostada for lunch. I came up to the house earlier than the rest of the group to finish up the cooking. It was an amazing lunch! Even the cold leftovers were dee-lish.

I decided to give it a try one more time for dinner tonight. I prepped the dough last night and let it sit in the refrigerator overnight:

When I got home from work today, I sauteed the swiss chard, leeks and other ingredients:

Then I combined the ingredients with the ricotta, parmesan cheese, eggs and a pinch of cayenne and put it onto the rolled out dough:

Bake for 45 minutes and enjoy! Comes out golden brown with a perfect crust:

All credit goes to Anne Burrell. For the recipe, click here.