Jess Eaditt: Pasta

Fresh Pasta

Wow! So a month after the event I take the time to write about it. Figures. Anyway, about a month ago we decided to make some homemade pasta, ragu and ice cream. And then have a few people over to eat it up; with much talk of a trial run that never happened. Thankfully no major mishaps- although I started drinking wine early in the day and most likely would not have been bothered had a mishap arose.

I had ragu duty, while Priscilla, who works well with flour, had the pasta all to herself. She found the pasta rack at a thrift store several days before and without it things could have gotten ugly, or at least tangled. She combined recipes from the James Beard on Pasta book and an article in Saveur. I used one of the ragu recipes from the same issue, you know the one, I think it has some pasta on the cover and many recipes for everyone's Italian grandmother. This one had ground beef, ground pork, other pork products, whole tomatoes and a very long simmering time. The ice cream was cantaloupe immersion blended with cream and sugar added and put into the new ice cream attachment on the Kitchen Aid (Know that if you plan to make ice cream with this attachment the attachment itself should be in the freezer for 24 hours before you plan to make the good stuff).

Thanks to everyone for coming and thanks to Lawrence for assisting in the cooking of the fresh pasta. Plans are in the works for a fried chicken and pie supper, so anyone who would like to come please let me know! Everyone is welcome.

In other news: Priscilla has turned in her application and we will know by March where we'll be for the next five years. And I am contemplating a new photo blog of living spaces, so we'll see if I can not be so lazy and make it happen. Plus a trip to New York to see Jason in about a week and then Louisiana in November.

Oh, and the First Day of Fall is tomorrow! Although I believe San Francisco must have traded in it's Summer for some future favors because it never really happened here. We got the first of the butternut squash in the box last week. I went to pick it up and I thrust the squash at the only other woman at the pick up and said enthusiastically, "Look, isn't this exciting!" She backed up frightened but I persisted, "What did you do with all the ones from last year?" I questioned, smiling to show her I meant no harm. She turned and mumbled, "I think they're all still sitting in my kitchen." Exactly. But I plan to cook the shit out of some butternuts this fall and winter, so there.

Pasta making