Homemade pasta redux.

So the first recipe that we tried for pasta was, well, disappointing. This weekend Sioux and I gave pasta another try, but this time we tweaked things a bit.

We only made linguini for reasons noted below and we also wanted the pasta to have some flavor this time so our base recipe got kicked up a couple of notches.

We doubled the eggs and salt, and ended up here:

• One cup of pasta flour mix (I was only making a test batch)
• 2 eggs (double our last recipe)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Of course, we wanted to make sure that we got some FLAVOR in there (and Sioux is a spice nut) so we kicked it up another couple of notches:

• 1 Teaspoon full of Pequin Chille peppers, crushed (you measure, then crush)
• 1 Teaspoon of garlic powder
• 1 Teaspoon of crushed basil

Now that's quite a bit of chunky additives to add to one cup of pasta. Kneading took some extra time and when I sent it through the machine, I only ran it down to the number 3 settings. About 1/8 (maybe 3/16) of an inch thick. This is quite a bit thicker than we made it last time, but I felt like this would keep the linguini from breaking every place that there was pepper or or a bit of basil. A spice grinder would have been very helpful in preparing this pasta.

Once rolled out and cut we hung it to dry again. The nice thing about linguini is that it uses up the pasta much faster, and packs onto the rack much more tightly. This time around I let the strands start to dry on a cloth first as I was concerned about the pasta sticking together if they touched on the rack.

We let them cure for about 14 hours, then transferred them into an air tight storage container. Later that night I tried to cook up some topping that would satiate Sioux's spice lust.

• I started with a cup of chopped spring onions and 4 ounces of butter.
• Added 2 oz of olive oil
• 2 heaping table spoons of garlic
• 4 tablespoons of fresh chopped basil
• 2 tablespoons of sriracha sauce

 The result was less of a sauce and more something one might consider almost a chutney in consistency. We were still able to toss it in with the pasta readily enough.

Taste wise it was just within my comfort zone, which made it a bit tame for Sioux, and it had a bit of a vinegar taste from the sriracha sauce. We thought the dish was pretty tasty overall, but next time I think I might use a habanero puree instead to limit the astringency.