Pasta with Black Olive SaucePasta:1. For pasta, place flour on a pastry board or in a large mixing bowl. Make a well in center of flour and crack eggs into the well. Using a fork, beat eggs, drawing the flour into eggs a little at a time. 2. When dough begins to hold together and eggs are completely absorbed into flour, it is ready to be kneaded. If you are using a bowl, move dough to a flat work surface to knead. Flour hands lightly. 3. Work dough with your hands until it forms a ball. Discard any extra bits of flour or dough that have not been absorbed into the dough. Knead for 5 minutes by folding dough toward you and then pressing it away from you with the heels of your hands, rotating dough at quarter turns between each fold. You may have to add a little more flour to the dough and/or your hands during this time if the dough starts to stick. After you have finished kneading, and dough is nice and smooth, wrap it in a clean, damp dishcloth and let rest for about 10 minutes. 4. After kneading dough and letting it rest, divide dough into 6 pieces. Flatten out each section with your hand to an oblong about 1-inch thick, lightly sprinkle with flour, and proceed to roll it out to desired thickness with a heavy rolling pin or pasta machine, being careful that dough is not sticking to the work surface. An approprimate thickness for the pasta should be about 1/16 of an inch. Lift it carefully and sprinkle flour under dough if it starts to stick. When it is rolled out, allow dough to rest for 15 minutes, and then you are ready to begin cutting pasta. 5. Carefully roll each flattened section of dough up in a ``jelly roll'' fashion, and cut each into thin 1/4-inch strips using a sharp knife or feed the strips into a pasta cutting attachment. Unravel strips and allow them to dry either on wax papper or a pasta rack for about 10 minutes. Next, add fresh pasta to 10 quarts of boiling salted water and allow to cook for about 2-3 minutes. Drain pasta. Serve. (This recipe can either be served with fresh pasta or dried pasta.) 6. For Black Olive Sauce, clean and rinse mushrooms thoroughly; and cut into thick slices. Saute for about 5 minutes with garlic and olive oil and a tablespoon of Balsamic vinegar. Then combine sauteed mushrooms, black olives and parsley in a blender or food processor. 7. Next, melt butter in a saute pan and add olive/mushroom mixture. 8. Cook for about 5 minutes with chile pepper and salt to taste. 9. Remove mixture from heat, and stir in heavy cream. Carefully toss sauce with pasta and garnish with Parmesan cheese to serve. Robert Wolf, 2240 Saratoga Drive, Hermitage |
