KitchenAid Pasta Attachment (plus a recipe!)

I finally got around to buying the pasta maker attachment for my KitchenAid stand mixer relatively recently - it's been a while since I actually bought it, but I've been too lazy to write about it.

The attachment is great - and the fact that I make the actual pasta dough in the mixer and then flatten it and make tagliatelle with the attachment is awesome!

In honor of my wonderful new piece of equipment, here's a recipe I came up with at some point in the recent past.


Tagliatelle with a Creamy Smoked Salmon & Mushroom Sauce

1.5 cup heavy cream
0.5 cup dry white wine
6 oz mushrooms
5 oz smoked salmon
2 tbsp butter
salt & pepper
Tagliatelle for two, preferably homemade

Start by boiling water for the pasta in a large pot with a tablespoon of salt and a little bit of olive oil (especially if using fresh pasta.) Slice the mushrooms thinly. Melt the butter over medium high heat in a saute pan. In the meantime, bring the cream and wine to a simmer in a pot. Slice the smoked salmon thinly. When the mushrooms have sweated out most of their moisture content, add the salmon and cook for another couple of minutes. Boil the pasta for 2-3 minutes, if using fresh pasta. If using dried pasta, follow the instruction on the package (and start cooking it earlier.) Add the mushrooms and salmon to the cream mixture. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately with crusty bread and maybe a side salad for the rabbit food lovers.

Shrimp and Asparagus Risotto

I'm back! Woo!

I do apologize for the delay in making this post. I will do my best to get back to the twice weekly updates now. Hopefully, at least!

I love a good risotto, and one of my favorite things with making one is how it tastes and looks like it was hard to make and cost a lot. This does not have to be true at all (unless you like to throw copious amounts of extremely difficult-to-cook ingredients in there, and top it all off with real diamonds, of course.) This specific risotto is pretty awesome, and very quick to prepare. Enjoy!

Note: apparently, there's one of these on Olive Garden's menu. This, however, is good as opposed to what I can only assume is a travesty of food that they would serve you there.

Shrimp and Asparagus Risotto (Risotto di gamberetti e asparagi)

Serves 2

10 medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
10-15 asparagus stems
1/2 medium sweet or yellow onion
1 cup arborio rice (risotto rice)
1/2 cup dry white wine
3-4 cups chicken stock, possibly more
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
4 tbsp butter
2 tbsp olive oil
salt & pepper

Start by bringing a large pot of water to a rolling boil, and add about two teaspoons of salt. While you're waiting for the water to boil, clean the asparagus and cut off the very bottom ends. If there are some very large stems, cut them in two pieces. Once the water is boiling, add the asparagus and boil for four minutes. With a slotted spoon, transfer to an ice bath to avoid further cooking.

Next, prepare the shrimp - peel and get rid of the veins. Add the shrimp to the boiling water and cook for about 3 minutes, or until pink. Set aside. Bring the chicken stock to a simmer, but don't let it boil so it starts reducing too much. Covering the pot should keep the liquid from evaporating.

Next, chop the onion into small pieces and place in a pan, together with the oil, over medium heat. Cook until translucent, about 3 minutes. Next, add the rice and cook, stirring constantly, for about one minute. Do not let the rice get any color. Add the wine and lemon juice, and continue to stir constantly, until the wine has been absorbed. At this point, start adding the simmering chicken stock, 1/2 cup at the time, while you continue to stir. Once it's evaporated, add the next half cup and continue this process until the rice is al dente - cooked through, but still slightly hard.

Once the rice is finished, add the butter and Parmesan cheese, then stir. Salt and pepper to taste, then add the asparagus and shrimp. Stir until everything has heated up, then serve immediately with fresh bread and the white wine you used in the risotto, if you have any left!

I Am Lazy...

Yes, I am aware that I haven't updated for a while now. It sucks. I'm sorry. I've been busy at work and haven't had the energy to update in the evenings. It'll get better soon - just got some new toys for the kitchen and will post about them in the coming days. That's a promise.

In the meantime, here's Alton Brown's segment on the Food Network All-Star Grillfest.

Pasta salad

Yes, yes, I know that was more than a couple of weeks. I didn't forget about the blog, I was just crazy busy. Now I'm not...actually, that's not true, but at least I've decided to take the time to start updating the blog again! It's right around 100 degrees F out there (that's ~38 degrees C), so I thought a nice, cool salad would be a good idea. I've always had a special place in my heart (stomach) for pasta salads, and here's a pretty simple one that always leaves me hungry for more. For more substance, add some cold, cooked chicken and crumbled bacon - but this sucker is actually vegetarian in the original recipe, that follows (crazy, right?)

Pasta Salad

1 package (16 oz) penne pasta
15 cocktail tomatoes
1 cucumber
1 can corn (or 2 fresh corn cobs, cooked with the corn removed from the cob)
1/2 head romaine lettuce
8 oz feta cheese, crumbled
pesto sauce

Boil the pasta until al dente. Drain and let cool. Wash and shred the romaine lettuce. Wash and quarter the cocktail tomatoes. Wash, then dice the cucumber. Drain the corn (if using a can), or wash the cobs, remove the kernels and cook them (most recipes call for a non-stick pan with a little bit of oil over medium heat until the corn is cooked). Put the cooked and now cooled pasta in a large bowl. Add about five tablespoons of pesto sauce (recipe follows below, or you can buy a jar at the grocery store) and stir until all the pasta is covered. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix until combined. If you wish, add cooked, sliced chicken or turkey and crispy, crumbled bacon to the mix at this point.

Serve with freshly baked bread and a cold beer on a sunny patio (unless it's friggin' 100 degrees out, you want the shade then) for optimum results.

Pesto Sauce

2 cups fresh basil leaves (packed)
1/4 cup grated fresh Parmigianio Reggiano
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil (use the good stuff if you have it)
3 tbsp pine nuts
3 garlic cloves, finely minced

You'll need a food processor for this. Start by placing about a third of the basil leaves in the processor and blend until finely chopped. Add a third of the garlic and a third of the nuts and blend again. Add a third of the cheese and a third of the oil, and blend again. Once it turns into a paste (you may have to scrape the sides of the bowl). Empty the bowl, then repeat the process until you've used all the ingredients. Combine the batches. This will last about a week in the fridge, a few months in the freezer. If you're not making pasta salad, it works really well if you just add it to freshly boiled pasta. I used to heat it with a little bit of creme fraiche and serve over spaghetti, but it's crazy expensive and hard to get creme fraiche in the US and I wouldn't want to try it with sour cream. Heavy cream is probably a better bet.

Sweden Trip!

I'm going to my native Sweden in a few days, and will spend two weeks trying to do as much as possible. Hopefully I'll bring back some Swedish goodies that will end up on the blog at some point :)

I won't be updating for about three weeks, starting now.

Homemade Lemonade (and vodka)

Note: there's an updated version of this recipe available!

It's officially summer! No, that's completely incorrect, but Austin has had temperatures around 90 degrees F the last couple of weeks, so it feels roughly like a really warm Swedish summer to me. Oh, Texas.

What could be more summery than lemonade? Well, probably a thousand things, but lemonade is pretty summery, so I decided to make some from scratch and mix with cheap vodka last night. It came out tasting like I expected it to, which is to say "really good". Enjoy:

Homemade Lemonade

1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup cold tap water
3 large lemons

Let's start by creating a simple syrup. Pour a cup of water into a pot and place over high heat. When the water is boiling, add the cup of sugar and stir with a whisk or spoon until the sugar is completely dissolved, about 1 minute. Let cool completely.

Cut the lemons in half and extract the juice any way you see fit (pro tip: a juice press works pretty well for this). Mix the lemon juice with the simple syrup. This is now lemonade. If you feel it's too sweet or too sour, you can simply add more lemon or make a little more simple syrup and add to taste.

For the adults, and non-adults drinking illegally, mix 1 part vodka with 2 parts lemonade in a New York Yankees tumbler filled with ice, and enjoy on a patio, balcony, or any where else where you can find some early evening sunshine. All right, fine, if you don't have a New York Yankees glass, just use any ol' glass and make sure you order some Yankees glasses from the MLB store.

Pizza, oh Pizza

Made some pizza tonight, with Italian sausage and some wonderful Mozzarella. It was wonderful, and I'm so happy I have leftovers.