Today I made pasta (for only the second time) and remembered how much I enjoy doing it! It’s definitely something to do on a weekend, and it’s easier than you think too. My first attempt was some ravioli, and today I tried out my tagliatelle attachment I had to get Tom to help me put it through the machine because it ended up being really long! 

This recipe is taken from ‘Gino’s Pasta‘ and serves 4. The original recipe says to use good quality pork sausages (or Italian sausages) but we used some smoky chipotle chilli sausages which worked really well.

Ingredients

For the pasta (makes about 400g)

300g white flour type ’00′, plus extra for dusting
3 medium eggs
1/2 teaspoon fine salt
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

For the rest of the dish

400g good quality pork sausages
6 tablespoons olive oil
1 leek, washed and finely chopped
2 tablespoons fresh rosemary leaves, finely chopped
50g dried porcini mushrooms, soaked in warm water for 15 mins and drained
100ml dry white wine
150ml double cream
Salt and pepper to taste

Method

1.To make the pasta, sift the flour onto your work surface. Make a well in the centre and break in the eggs, before adding in the salt and oil.

2. Using the handle of a wooden spoon, mix the flour into the eggs, working from the centre outwards. Once you have a crumbly texture, gather the mixture together with your hands and start to knead until you have a soft dough.

3. Once the dough has come together, continue to knead for about 8 minutes, exactly as though you were kneading bread.

4. Roll the dough into a ball, cover in cling film and leave to rest in the fridge for 20 minutes.

5. After 20 minutes, remove the dough from the fridge and flatten it with your fingers so that it fits through the pasta machine. Flour the pasta lightly on both sides and work it though the machine from the thickest to the thinnest setting – keep the pasta floured so that it doesn’t stick. Pass it through the tagliatelle attachment and leave to dry out a little.

6. Remove the skins from the sausages and place the mixture in a bowl. Heat the oil in a large frying pan over a low heat and fry the sausage meat and leeks for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally to crumble the meat.

7. Add the rosemary and mushrooms, season with salt and pepper and continue to cook for 2 minutes. Pour in the wine and cook for a further minute, allowing the alcohol to evaporate.

8. Pour in the cream, mix everything together and cook a couple more minutes.

9. Cook the fresh pasta for 2-3 minutes in a pan of salted water until al dente (if you’re using dried pasta, then you’ll need to put it on a little earlier!).

10. Pour in the cream sauce and toss everything together for 30 seconds to allow the flavours to combine. Serve immediately.

The post Tagliatelle with sausages, rosemary and porcini mushrooms appeared first on Hello! Hooray!.

Tom is making his recipe debut on my blog today – he quite often makes things up when cooking, and this is what he made up for dinner tonight! A yummy cassoulet which was carb-free (great if you’re trying to eat healthily). He left the sausages whole so that there would be leftover veggie stuff – this will go great with a jacket potato or some pasta so we’ll box it up for the freezer.

Ingredients

6 sausages (Tom used some chipotle chilli ones, but you can use whatever you like)
3 peppers
1 chilli
Black pepper
Thyme (dried or fresh)
1-2 tbsp olive oil
1 small brown onion
1 big garlic clove
1 courgette
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
1 tin of cannellini beans
1 tbsp tomato puree
Grated nutmeg
Grated parmesan cheese
Dash of soy sauce
Handful of finely chopped mushrooms
A handful of spinach
Juice of half a lemon

Method

1. Put the sausages, peppers, chilli and oil into a baking dish. Add some fresh or dry thyme and season with black pepper. Put in oven to roast for about 45 mins (or until sausages are cooked and peppers have blackened slightly).

2. Then in a large pan, sautee the onion, garlic and courgette. Add a tin of tomatoes and a tin of cannellini beans and stir well. Add the tomato puree and Henderson’s relish, before grating in some nutmeg and parmesan cheese (as much of each as you prefer).

3. After this has simmered for a little while, add the rest of the ingredients and leave to simmer again. When the sausages and peppers are cooked, add them to the pan.

4. Serve with some green veg (we had mange tout) for a perfect carb-free meal!

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