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April 20, 2008

Basil Fettucine, with Bacon-Olive Sauce, and with Honey-Portobello Sauce

I had a night at home with nothing to do, and had to make dinner for just myself, so I decided to make some homemade pasta. I was trying to figure out what sauce to pair with it, so I scrounged around the ol' pantry, and the ol' refrigerator, and the ol' grocery store. I figured I'd use the last of my homemade bacon, and some kalamata olives that had been in the fridge for a while, because they sounded good. I was kinda sick with my nose a bit stuffed up, so I needed some strong flavors. It turned out great.

I had extra pasta, so I decided to make a whole second sauce for Jeanette's dinner the next night (opening night of her show, so she wouldn't have time to eat at home). I'm that nice. So I grabbed some portobellos and a packet of Aidell's Portobello Mushroom Sausage, and ran with it.

For the pasta, I made some basil fettuccine, with 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, 2 eggs, 1 egg yolk, and about two tablespoons of ground up basil in olive oil (it had been a dipping sauce). Mix the flour and eggs together in the normal method (or any old method except food processor, really), knead for a while, then add the basil oil (or don't), knead a little bit more, let it rest for 20 minutes, then roll it out and cut it.

For the bacon and olive sauce, I cut up the last four ounces of some homemade bacon I'd made into lardons and fried them up. I also browned some strips of onion. Then I ground up the kalamatas with a bit of balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and raw garlic, and then added some of the very hot bacon fat to the mixture just to cook the garlic a little bit. So I cooked the pasta, warmed the sauce (and re-crisped the lardons of bacon), and put 'em together with a little bit of fresh basil and some grated romano over top (again, I wanted strong flavors). It was absolutely delicious.

For the honey-portobello sauce, I cut up a couple of Aidell's Portobello Mushroom Sausages, and then browned them in a pan. I then sliced two portobello mushrooms and sauteed them until they had given off their water. Then, while the pasta was cooking, I quickly sauteed a bit of minced onion and garlic, added a bit of tomato paste, deglazed with some very reduced and gelatinous beef stock I had on hand (you could skip this), re-added the mushrooms and sausage to warm them, and then took it all off the heat. Then I added a few good-sized glops of nice, raw honey. I put a whole bunch of fresh basil over the top, added a bit of diced, raw tomato (I wanted to keep it crisp), and some small balls of fresh mozzarella (I had some leftover from the day before). Eventually, I also grated a bit of romano into it. I tasted it, and it was pretty amazing. Jeanette ended up having some of it when she came home that night, and the rest of it for dinner the next day.