{"id":72,"date":"2011-02-24T23:05:22","date_gmt":"2011-02-24T23:05:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/suppersfromscratch.wordpress.com\/?p=72"},"modified":"2013-04-21T21:03:01","modified_gmt":"2013-04-21T21:03:01","slug":"mammia-mia-pastaria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.suppersfromscratch.com\/?p=72","title":{"rendered":"Mammia Mia Pastaria"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week marked another craving\u2026 Pasta<\/span><\/p>\n

Last year I probably had pasta three or four times a week, whereas so far this year I have had none. It has been nearly two months without the Italian shape-shifter, meaning I have missed out on around 28 pasta dishes and counting.<\/span><\/p>\n

I was heading to my parents for the weekend, and knowing they had made pasta before and had a kitchen big enough to facilitate this sort of activity I decided this would be the weekend of pasta.<\/span><\/p>\n

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As I\u2019m a planner as soon as I knew I was making pasta I had to sit and think about which delicious dish I was going to create for my first taste of pasta From Scratch. With pasta dishes there are endless options of goodness from a basic garlic oil and chilli, to Bolognaise, Carbonara, and Arrabbiata.\u00a0 In the end I opted for a tomato based sauce, although I will definitely be trying a basic garlic sauce when I next get my rolling pin out \u2013 which will hopefully be soon as writing about it makes it quite an appealing prospect!<\/span><\/p>\n

One day I will get ambitious and organised enough to try something like pasta mid week, but for now weekend cooking allows me to spend 4 or 5 hours trying something new without eating a whole pile of fruit, loaf of bread or collapsing from starvation.<\/span><\/p>\n

So I embarked on my journey into the gluttenous gluttony of pasta. For some reason, and I don\u2019t know why (maybe it\u2019s the good luck I have had with everything else?), I thought pasta would work perfectly. I presumed it would go really well and be pretty simple.<\/span><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t want to mislead you, it is actually pretty simple but for some reason the food gods weren\u2019t smiling quite so brightly on me this weekend and the pasta was a bit of a challenge.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The weekend started off brilliantly, with a Saturday morning trip to get the ingredients.\u00a0 Being out in the countryside I was lucky enough to have an inspiring stroll around Stroud farmers market. Looking at great quality fresh ingredients got me really excited.<\/span><\/p>\n

Not only did I manage to get the Tipo 00 flour, fresh eggs and lovely garlic (which I was assured was French- not Chinese like the supermarkets) but also fresh yeast and some beautiful Rhubarb!<\/span><\/p>\n

My original project had no aspirations to be anything other than From Scratch. But since starting it I have realised it\u2019s all about great food and great tastes and as a result I\u2019m going to try and eat as seasonally and as locally produced as possible.<\/span><\/p>\n

Because I think as much as making your own food does lead to delicious dishes, when it\u2019s been dug up fairly recently and is currently at its best it\u2019s like collecting enough gold tokens in the Crystal Dome and scooping the grand prize rather than just ending up with the \u2018well done\u2019 crystal. So those are the sorts of ingredients I should be trying to source.<\/span><\/p>\n

And despite living in London it\u2019s not really that difficult, but perhaps more on that another time as I think we are all hungry for pasta.<\/span><\/p>\n

So after the obligatory trip to the supermarket to get the remainder of items I headed back with parents in tow \u2013 who will now be referred to as Sue (not because that\u2019s her name, but because she acted as a superb Sous Chef) and my dad The Food Connoisseur.<\/span><\/p>\n

Items on today\u2019s menu:<\/span><\/p>\n