Adventures in Pasta (and Ice Cream!)

Today was a busy, busy day in terms of food prep. I keep wondering if I'm secretly pregnant (which I'm not, BTW, so please don't get the rumor mill started) because I seem to be going through a heavy-duty nesting period. Or perhaps it's Xtreme Domesticity!

Anyway, I tried my hand at making pasta from scratch (second attempt, first was a complete flop) and attempted another flavor of ice cream in our new Cuisinart ice cream maker (first attempt wasn't bad but not great).

First the pasta. A few weeks back, after my smaller-than-expected (but totally nifty) pasta machine arrived, I bit off more than I could chew by attempting an INCREDIBLY difficult and time-consuming pasta recipe courtesy of Thomas Keller's French Laundry Cookbook (I told you I was being overly ambitious). It sucked, to say the least. But I'm not one to give up easily. So back in the trenches I went today with this recipe which I adjusted by subbing 1 1/2 cups sprouted whole wheat flour (more about that in an upcoming blog) and 1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour. I decided not to go 100% sprouted whole wheat because I was worried it might mess with the consistency and I'm no pasta expert. I'm pleased to say the recipe worked...and the dough actually traveled smoothly through the machine without the horrific clumping I experienced with the previous recipe. At which point, it dawned on me I had about four hours before said pasta would be needed for dinner and what the fuck was I going to do with it until then? Thank God for the internet! Apparently (who knew? perhaps everyone but me) you are supposed to dry the pasta unless you plan to use it immediately. But of course I don't have a professional pasta dryer so I improvised:


Yes, those are coat hangers from our hall closet. Hey, desperate times call for desperate measures.

After I picked up M from preschool, I decided it was high time to try my hand at another quart of ice cream. The first batch (strawberry) I made a few weeks ago wasn't quite what I'd expected. I suspect it had to do with a) the strawberries not macerating completely before I added them to the bowl and b) the fact that I cut down the sugar significantly. The resulting ice cream was VERY creamy but that was about it. Today I decided to simplify and go for something basic: vanilla. I used this recipe and, of course, modified to some degree. And let me be the first to tell you this was THE BEST DAMN ICE CREAM I'VE EVER TASTED. Holy crap it was good. In fact, K and the kids must have told me at least three times today how much they liked the ice cream. So, assuming you have an ice cream machine of your very own, you might want to give my version of the Ben and Jerry's recipe a try:

Jen and Jerry's French Vanilla Ice Cream

2 large eggs (pastured organic if you can find them. hey, just because it's ice cream doesn't mean you shouldn't try to insert as much nutrition into it as possible!)
3/4 cup sucanat, rapadura, whatever (I used sucanat)
2 cups heavy whipping cream (raw, organic, grass-fed, whatever)
1 cup milk (see above)
1 vanilla bean pod
1/2 teaspoon pure bourbon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Whisk eggs in mixing bowl until light and fluffy, 1 to 2 minutes
2. Whisk in sucanat, a little at a time, then continue whisking until completely blended, about 2 minutes more. Pour in the cream, milk, vanilla extract and whisk to blend.
3. Place vanilla bean pod on a cutting board, flatten it out, and carefully slice it down the middle to open. Use your finger nail or a dull knife to scrape all beans out and dump into bowl. I also dipped the pod into the bowl afterward and left it there while I prepped the ice cream machine.
   
4. Transfer the mixture to an ice cream maker and freeze following the manufacturer's instructions.

Makes one quart. Also, due to the addition of sucanat, the color will be darker than what you may be used to for vanilla. But who cares? It's so frigging good it really doesn't matter. The sucanat gives it a rich, satisfying caramel/maple flavor that I defy you to dislike.