Home-made Pasta with vegetarian"meatball" sauce

Dry packaged pasta of all shapes and varieties is fairly inexpensive and readily available and I use them a lot. However, ever since we received a simple pasta maker as a present last year, we have started making home-made pasta on and off. I admit, it is a labor of love, something I reserve for a lazy Sunday afternoon when we are winding down the weekend, preparing for another hectic week ahead.

Now that my daughter is a willing sous chef (at times), we've made this a sort of once a month weekend ritual - to make home-made pasta. I get the dough ready right after lunch and let it rest in the fridge. After tea/snack time, we make the fresh pasta, with my daughter turning the handle as I pass the sheet through the slot to get it thinner and thinner and then finally pass it through the fine angel-hair slot and allow the strands to dry for 10-15 minutes and cook it for a short 2-6 minutes (depending on the size/shape of the pasta) and enjoy it for dinner with a sauce or two.



Pasta dough is usually made with fine durum wheat, semolina flour. However spelt flour and a combination of all-purpose and semolina flours seem to work well. Pasta dough can be made with eggs or without. I prefer the dough without the eggs.

Home-made Pasta Dough, without eggs
½ cup fine durum semolina flour
3/4 cup all purpose flour
2 Tbsp Olive oil
1 tsp salt
3/4 to 1 cup water, as needed

Knead the dough well, adding a little water at a time to keep the dough dry but still comes together to roll into a ball. Knead some more till cut surface shows pores. Cover in a plastic wrap and leave in the fridge for an hour or so.

Then, follow the instructions for using the pasta-maker and shape the pasta as desired; allow to dry and cook briefly till al dente.


Broccoli Cream Sauce


Ingredients
2 cups broccoli florets, steamed
1 small boiled potato, if handy (optional)
½ cup cream or half-and-half
¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
¼ cup grated Mozzarella cheese
¼ cup grated Colby Jack cheese
finely minced garlic
ground or dried oregano to taste
ground or dried sage to taste or any other favorite herbs
salt and ground black pepper to taste

Preparation
Heat the cream in a sauce pan with the garlic; mush part of the steamed broccoli and the potato if using, add it to the saucepan; when close to boil, stir in the cheeses, adjust spices to taste; off heat toss in the remaining steamed broccoli florets.


Vegetarian "Meatball" Sauce


Ingredients
1½ to 2 cups TVP (Textured Vegetable Protein)
1 to 3 slices of favorite bread, as needed
1½ to 2 cups boiling water, as needed
¼ to ½ cup all purpose flour
1 Tbsp finely minced garlic
salt, paprika, chili powder to taste
oil for deep frying
1 can diced tomatoes, or favorite canned pasta sauce to be used as-is

Preparation

1. Place the TVP in a heat-safe bowl, add hot water - first just enough to immerse it, and when it is all absorbed and TVP still feels dry and hard, add a bit more - just enough to soften the TVP without making it watery; cover and let it stand for a few minutes till TVP still holds shape but is no longer hard
2. Heat the ready-made pasta sauce or the diced tomatoes in a sauce pan, on medium low, with the garlic and spices
3. Squeeze out the water from TVP, knead in one bread slice and ¼ cup all purpose flour first; if the dough is still wet and hard to form into balls keep adding more bread slices and a little of the flour at a time till the dough is just right to shape into small balls for deep frying
4. Deep fry in oil, drain and add to the boiling pasta sauce, allow to simmer together for a few minutes; turn off heat, garnish with fresh herbs if handy