Arugula Pasta

There had been more and more pasta adventures lately that I had failed to take photos of.  While I still do the standard plain pasta, I did not feel any compelling reason to post as it would just be a repeat of previous posts.

What I love about my new found skill (pasta making) is that I have another venue to utilise food that are close to being wasted.  For example, I found wilting Arugula in our crisper--guess what I did?  

Arugula Pasta

I had worked quite a bit with various pasta doughs to realise that adding semolina gives me some grit.  It isn't bad, just different.  You can see the semolina bits.  This was a mix of Semolina, Whole Wheat and All Purpose Flour. 

I also learnt (the obvious) that fresh leaves sometimes do not cut perfectly when passed through my pasta cutter--so some pasta strips have some small leaf bits dangling. 

Other things in my pasta bucket list are beets infused pasta and herbs between pasta sheets (so they look like wrapping paper).


Oh, I need to use my spaghetti cutter too!

black pizza

I have not touched yeast longer than I had expected given that my stand mixer had been with me for more than a month.

I was worried that my pack of yeast had gone dead, so I tried proofing a small amount earlier this week and got positive results. With that, I made pizza :)

I have done pizza more than a few times in the past, but this is the first time since my bread baking class.  I used the same recipe I always used--and will continue to do so until my weighing scale reaches me, then I can play around with recipes.

'before' shots are never flattering!

I used a mix of wholemeal and unbleached all purpose flour.  On top is a medley of my favourite things like squid ink, cherry (or grape) tomatoes, capers, anchovies and while it is not my favourite as I like making my own, random dollops of ready-made spaghetti sauce. 

Some basil would have been great, but I didn't have any.

black is beautiful

Luckily I had cut the pizza right out of the oven because in a matter of seconds almost, it had gone crispy.  Good luck not shattering crispy pizza--even with a sharp pizza roller.