Eat your greens

I am trying to eat more fruits and veggies since I am eating for two now. One thing I’ve read that is really good for pregnant women (and probably everyone else too) is dark leafy greens. They were on sale at the grocery store this week, so we bought some kale. My original idea was to make a kale, sausage and potato soup like the one at Epicurious.com, but my hubby wanted to make fresh pasta, so we went that route instead. Fresh pasta is so delicious, it doesn’t really matter what you put on it. I even like it with just butter and parmesan cheese.

We had some kielbasa in the freezer, one of our favorite sausages (maybe due to my Polish roots?), and some canned tomatoes, so we thought all those things might make a good and relatively healthy pasta dish.

Our favorite recipe for fresh pasta comes from Thomas Keller’s Ad Hoc at Home book. Ad Hoc is a restaurant in the Napa Valley that we have visited on every one of our trips. It was an accidental restaurant that was such a hit that they made it a permanent fixture in Yountville, CA. Read more about it here. Anyway, his fresh pasta uses a lot of egg yolks, making it more expensive than just the regular recipes for fresh pasta, but it is worth it. And it’s so easy to work with. The recipe follows.

This isn’t really an exact recipe, but I’ll attempt to explain what we did.  It’s actually very simple. We made this last night for dinner and the leftovers this morning were even better!

Kale, Sausage, and Tomato Pasta

Olive oil
½ onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 large bunch kale
1 – 14 oz can whole or diced tomatoes
1 Tbl tomato paste
1 tsp red wine vinegar
1 cup chicken stock or water
1 lb polska kielbasa
½ lb fresh pasta rolled into spaghetti noodles, recipe follows
Salt and pepper
Parmesan cheese

Cook onion in olive oil over medium heat in large sauté pan until softened. Remove ribs from kale and chop leaves. Add to onions and stir.

After kale has cooked for a few minutes, add garlic. Once you can smell the garlic, 30-60 seconds, add tomatoes.

If using whole tomatoes, crush them with your hand before adding to pan. Add tomato paste, red wine vinegar, chicken stock and kielbasa.

Cook for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile, cook pasta until al dente. Taste kale tomato mixture, and add salt and pepper to taste.  Add cooked pasta to sauce and toss together. Cook for another 5 minutes.

Add about ½ cup parmesan cheese at the end and toss together. Serve with additional parmesan on each serving.

Thomas Keller’s Pasta Dough, from Ad Hoc at Home, copyright 2009

Makes about 1.5 pounds, so you would need to dry some for later or adjust the quantities for the recipe above.

2 ¾ cups (13 ounces) flour
1 large egg
14 large egg yolks
1 ½ teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
1 ½ teaspoons whole milk

Mound 2 ½ cups of the flour on a board. Create a well about 8 inches across in the center by pushing the flour out from the center, leaving some flour at the bottom of the well.

Pour the egg, yolks, olive oil, and milk into the well. Using a fork, mix the ingredients together in the well. Then, little by little, begin to bring in some of the flour from the sides of the well. Continue to bring in the flour until all of it is incorporated and the mixture has a paste-like texture. Using a dough scraper, starting at the outermost part of the well, make chops across from left to right and then top to bottom. Then use the dough scraper to lift the dough from the board and fold it over itself until it completely comes together.

Begin to knead the dough and use the scraper to clean the board. Sprinkle the board with some of the remaining ¼ cup flour. Continue to knead the dough on the floured surface for about 15 minutes, adding flour as needed, until very smooth and elastic.

Lightly dust the dough with flour and wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Let rest for 30 minutes before rolling it out, or refrigerate for 12-24 hours before using.

A simpler pasta recipe is Jamie Oliver’s, from Jamie at Home, copyright 2008
Makes about 1 pound

4 large eggs
2 cups flour, plus extra for dusting
Sea salt

Crack the eggs into a food processor and add the flour. Whiz it up and listen for the sound changing to a rumble -this means the dough is coming together nicely. Turn the power off and test the consistency by pinching the dough. If it's a bit sticky add a little more flour and pulse again.

Tip the dough mixture onto a floured surface and shape it into a ball using your hands. Give it a little knead until smooth, then divide your dough into 4 equal parts. Start on the thickest setting of your pasta machine and run the first bit of dough through 4 or 5 times, moving the rollers closer together each time until the pasta is silky, smooth and about as thick as a CD. Flour your finished sheet generously, then fold it up and cut across into 1/2-inch strips. Gather all the slices together and toss them through your fingers, with a little flour, to open them up and make your pile of tagliatelle. Place to 1 side and repeat with the rest of the dough.