You always bring an interesting observation to the table….. if you had the misfortune to be a neighbour of mine, we’d be rehydrating and experimenting with all sorts of things, enough to worry Heston I dare say

Back to the pasta…. question is do freshly made pasta sheets require blanching before they go into the lasagne… the dried shop bought stuff used to but there are some that don’t. Confused? I know I am Problem used to be trying to stop the stuff sticking together in the pan…. seem to remember adding a little olive oil to stop that. The last thing we want is a rubbery tortellini so we ought to put this to the test once and for all.

Drifting away from flour and eggs and fabulous pasta devices…. I’ve been up a ladder picking wild cherries in my garden. It’s a fairly young tree but this year produced an enormous amount of fruit. I de-pipped 4 lb of cherries armed only with a Ray Mears pen knife then added sufficient sugar to make a compote, laced with a little Kirsch and a few cherry kernals to give extra flavour. It’s very nice with Greek yoghurt and anything that requires a real cherry flavour. Must remember to skewer a few for my Pimms

Cid

Thanks for the advice. Storage makes perfect sense as a reason for drying. I had just a little paranoia that there was something no-one was telling me. You’re so right, you do a great quantity out of your flour and eggs, plus there’s just something so satisfying in making your own. You should have seen my beaming face when I made my first tortellini.

Staying on the dried pasta theme and you know that I’m a wannabe Harold McGee disciple. He wrote an interesting article in the NY Times, primarily dealing with the application of heat in cooking, in which he speculated that we should be treating dried pasta just like dried beans, mushrooms, etc and rehydrating it by soaking it in water. I’ve no idea why that stuck in my head but I’d be fascinated to give it a side-by-side test. All opinions/scorn welcome!

Good luck with the kitchen remodelling!!

GDave

I’m glad you liked the post and yes, isn’t it great that Miles allows us to do this from time to time. Hopefully it means he’ll get a night off although I suspect he’s far too busy for that. I could write reams on this site but if I had my own, bet I’d get writers block…. mind you Miles has said that I can do my memoirs on here if I like, interspersed with eccentric recipes

Getting back to pasta Dave, I don’t know of any reason why dried pasta is better, it’s just that I seem to always go mad and make far too much then have to dry it. That rack and I were destined to be together and after admiring it for a year in a shop window, you can’t really call it a spontaneous purchase…. I’m a great dweller on things and like to take my time. Don’t know about you but it never fails to amaze me how much pasta can be made from a modest quantity of flour and a few eggs, perhaps that’s why I do it. It should also be noted that you are the only other person I know with a pasta rolling machine, or at least who will admit it!

I’m having the kitchen remodelled so that my pasta rolling machine is more easily accessible. Cupboards that can only be accessed via contortionist methods are top of my list for demolition, although my design for a push button, electric, wall mounted 007 pasta drying rack is surely obsolete now the Italian and I have found each other

Cid

Smashing post, Cid! and thanks to Miles for giving up his time and bandwidth once again.

GDave

Thank you for your kind words. My efforts at pasta making are largely due to a child-like affinity with Playdoh and generally making a mess in the kitchen In truth the whole affair wouldn’t appeal nearly so much without my shiny new rack, to which I am stangely drawn despite it’s singular use. I don’t know anyone else who makes their own pasta and there’s probably good reason for that since the high end shop bought variety is also very good and not particularly expensive.

Everyone knows my penchant for glamorous and functional things…. that’s why I like Miles for instance although did you happen to notice I’m now being referred to as evergreen Cid ….. more Norwegian shrub than pasta’s answer to Sofia Loren I’d say

Cid