the zingiest pasta of summer

hey peeps. just devoured a pasta like this at cuoco.  i'm all about lemon, garlic & spice and have been all over this since i figured out how to replicate it at home.

Dan isn't big into carbs so it's my go-to when he's not home.

SPICY LEMON, GARLIC & PARM SPAGHETTI
If you're eating for 1, here's what you'll need (multiply accordingly if there are other guests in your party, or extra hunger in your belly):

8 garlic cloves (thinly sliced)
1/2 cup parsley (finely chopped)
1 tbsp butter
splash of olive oil
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 cup parmigiano reggiano (use your microplane)
zest of half a lemon (or zest of a full small lemon, use your microplane again)
spaghetti for one, can be quinoa or regular gluten pasta (cooked al dente in heavily salted water)

cook your spaghetti in heavily salted water (i heard somewhere that pasta water should taste like the ocean). drain and set cooked pasta aside. add butter, olive oil, garlic and red pepper flakes to your pan. cook about 5 minutes on low heat, until garlic is cooked and not brown and the spice of the flakes begins to develop. add in lemon zest. add in your pasta. toss. remove from heat and add in your finely grated parm.

get that pasta into a bowl and slurp it up.    

rolling in the dough

I was recently introduced to homemade pasta made by the infamous Pasta Attachment on Lily's KitchenAid, two of her fabulous wedding gifts. We shared a meal together, the pasta and I, gazed into each other's eyes and the rest is history. 

I left Lily's that night, and came home to find the pasta maker I had recently been gifted, it's of the hand-crank variety, but a pasta maker nonetheless. Using this new gift, the next week was filled with four nights of homemade pasta in various preparations topped with many a sauce. It was beautiful. Just beautiful. These photos below are the noodle fruits of my labor of pasta-maker-love. The sweet sweet product of eggs, flour, a little basil, and a lot of mixing, followed by rolling rolling rolling, followed by machining. A lot of machining. It is truly a process, and because I used a machine to do much of the work, this isn't even considered "homemade" pasta by old world Italian standards. Yes, I'm an impostor, I know.  

If you haven't already tried your hand at making homemade pasta, I highly recommend it. It opens up so many possibilities for dough thickness, shapes and flavors. In fact the possibilities are so endless that you might find yourself too overwhelmed to experiment at all. Don't let that happen. Take this new task in stride. Start small, like with a plain spaghetti or fettuccine, and then think about the other flavor options. 

Oh yeah, and want to know the coolest part about this project? This pasta maker was purchased from JC Penney circa 1980 (possibly earlier) for $19.99, my mom gave it to me for keeps this year and it's the best. It's in its original box with price tag and all. The same machine will now set you back between $60-100, but it's worth it.  Otherwise a rolling pin, a ruler (to measure the dough's thickness) and a sharp knife can get the job done.     

the rolled dough ready to be cut

like magic, the dough turns to spaghetti

spaghetti, basil spaghetti and fettuccine

INGREDIENTS:

1 and 1/4 cups fresh basil leaves

3 cups flour

3 eggs

1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon water

2 teaspoons olive oil

Place the basil in a food processor, cover and process until finely chopped. Add flour, process until blended. Add eggs, water, and oil. Process 15 - 20 seconds or until dough forms a ball. Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 8 - 10 minutes. Cover and let rest for 30 minutes. Divide into fourths. Follow your pasta maker's instructions on rolling the dough to the desired thickness.