Pasta Project Parts 2 and 3: It's About More than the Dangly Bits

I'm making turkey lasagna tonight.  We ended up with a little extra homemade sauce and not much room in our freezer for it, so the next logical step is, of course, to turn it into something yummy.  I have a confession, though…  I will be using boxed noodles.

"What?" you say.  "You were off to such a great start with your pasta attachment!  What happened?"

All I can say is that it was a classic case of success leading to cockiness and then my downfall.

The second time I pulled the pasta maker out was to make spaghetti.  I figured I'd give the filled pasta a rest and focus on something relatively simple:  noodles.  I think the dough sensed my heightened confidence, as it first decided to cower in fear in the bowl:

Then it huddled among other objects on the counter as it rested:

The sheets emerged from the rollers beautiful, long and silky.  The recipe said to let them rest for a bit, which helped to dry them out. 

Then came the harder part, sending it through the noodle cutting apparatus.  However, again it went smoothly, and I ended up with gorgeous long spaghetti noodles.

The spaghetti was in anticipation of my birthday, which was at the end of February and a couple of days away, so badass me even made calzones from homemade dough that night:

Yeah, I was rocking the kitchen.  I didn't get a chance to blog it for other reasons, which I will get to, but I was feeling confident.  My spaghetti making had gone without a hitch, and I now had a full set of lovely two ounce nests in my freezer.

Then, mid-march for Hubby's birthday, I decided to try the ravioli again.  I adjusted the recipe a little according to directions from Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, adding a tablespoon of milk to the dough and allowing the eggs to come to room temperature so the dough wouldn't be tough.  I also made some of her Ricotta-Parsley filling for inside the ravioli.  The pasta sheets came out lovely and silky, and I made them a little thinner this time, taking the rollers to 5 rather than 3, which had made them too thick the previous time.

I had my pasta and filling.

I had my strategy.

I even had a blog post planned out in my head titled, "It's all about the dangly bits."  I was going to be witty and clever and compare pasta making to writing romance and the importance of a certain kind of chemistry between characters. 

That's where it all went wrong.  No, I don't have any pictures from this process.  It was too gruesome.

In an effort to make the ravioli not come out thick and tough, which they were edging on the first time, I overcompensated.  Once I fed the dough into the ravioli press, the weight of the remaining dough on the sides caused it to stretch, and therefore only the middle row of ravioli (of three) ended up being completely sealed.  The outer two rows were pitiful half-raviolis that oozed filling.  The second sheet went a little better, but by the time I got to the third, it had dried out too much.  Stubbornly, I pressed on, but it mocked me, and I had very few keeper ravioli.  The fourth sheet got turned into fettuccine.  Here's the final result.  As you can see, there are many fewer usable ravioli than with my first attempt:

I still succeeded in my carb production efforts with a lovely focaccia, though:

And dinner turned out fine:

So yes, I could make pasta dough tonight.  Lasagna sheets would be easy, but I'm a bit demoralized.  I'm obsessed with the ravioli, my little square nemeses, and should I proceed with any kind of homemade pasta, the idea of ravioli would be taunting me.  The rollers would whisper, "We're over here!  Ravioli filling and lasagna filling is similar.  Just make a little extra and try again."

Oh, I will attempt them again with fewer recipe tweaks, thickness 4, and perhaps only two sheets so they won't dry out as quickly, but not tonight.  See?  This is why it's a bad idea to mix perfectionism and pasta.

However, red wine and pasta always go well together, so tonight, Hubby and I will be partaking of the Mettler Cabernet Sauvignon.  It's a good wine for those who love fruity and well-balanced reds, and this cool snap is the perfect opportunity to visit those big reds one more time before we shift to whites and more heat-friendly reds.

And yes, I will remember next time that when it comes to writing romance and pasta, it's about more than the dangly bits.

Note as to why I haven't been posting much this year:

Remember how when you were a kid, and there was that one toy you wanted so badly you felt like you needed it?  And then how when you got it, you couldn't play with anything else for hours, you were so enamored of it?  Well, we have the same strength of desire as adults, but we often don't admit what it is we really really want.

I got it at the end of January when I got THE EMAIL (in this modern age, you don't get THE CALL anymore) that a publisher was interested in one of my novels.  I made some minor edits they suggested, signed the contract, and since then have been hard at work on the sequel.  I just sent the sequel proposal to the editor, and I'll be getting my major edits for the first novel soon.  

So that's where my writing energy has been going.  There hasn't been a lot of energy to spare with work being super crazy with major personnel issues, and honestly, writing the sequel has kept me sane.  I will get to the samples and wine fridge I need to review soon and will try to post more often.

My Brush with Greatness: the Selby Wine Dinner at Horseradish

This past Thursday, I decided to humor my tyrannical Fitbit* and walk to work so I could try to get my 10,000 steps for the day. That's harder than one would think. Apparently Georgia has decided to give tax breaks to movie companies, and Decatur was the site for the filming of a flick called Adult Children of Divorce. As a psychologist, I cringe at the title, but that's a whole different blog post.

Anyway, they're filming at No. 246 (pronounced two-four-six if you're wondering), and my path home takes me on the sidewalk right in front of the restaurant. They closed a lane on Ponce but still allowed people to walk on the sidewalk amidst the flotsam associated with movie production, mostly cords, random piles of stuff, and minions stationed every few feet to give passers-by the "don't even think about stopping, asking questions, or otherwise annoying us" stink-eye. So there I was, walking along trying not to make eye contact, and I passed within three feet of where Jane Lynch, yes, Glee's Coach Sue Sylvester, was getting direction.

That was a nice surprise, and she's not as tall as I thought she'd be, but the real excitement came that evening at Horseradish Grill by Chastain Park, where I had the pleasure of sitting across from Susie Selby at the Selby Winery dinner. Yes, the phrase "oenophile fangirl squee" applies. Sorry, Jane.

We've been in the Selby wine club since we first tasted there in 2005 and especially love the reds. Susie picked the reception wine to "support the wine industry" and chose one of my favorites: the A to Z Pinot Gris. When Jess lets me choose the wine tasting lineup at Java Monkey, I usually try to have a Pinot Gris from the Pacific Northwest on there because they're nice and crisp but with more fruit than the Italian ones. This one didn't disappoint.

Horseradish Grill has been on our list to try for a while, so we jumped at the chance to check them out and experience their version of upscale Southern cuisine. I have to admit that, excellent company aside, this was one of the most fun dinners I've ever had food-wise.

The first course, Fried Pimento Cheese & Grit Fritters served with country ham aioli and bread and butter pickles (THANK YOU, Horseradish, for not using the word "housemade" anywhere in that description) was like hush puppies with a gooey pimento cheese center. The pairing, 2009 Russian River Selby Chardonnay, gave me citrus on the nose and oak on the palate. This course was an example of how you can take two things I don't really like – pimento cheese and oaky California-style chard – and put them together to make magic. The cheese cut the oak back, and the textures complemented each other. And did I mention it was hush puppies and melted cheese?

Then the course that made everyone ooh and ahh: Georgia Quail and Waffles with sorghum and balsamic syrup. According to Foursquare, Horseradish is known for its fried chicken, and apparently they're good at frying other types of fowl as well. The waffles' dense, European-style texture, savory undertones, and pleasant crunch on the outside helped them surpass breakfast food status. The 2007 Russian River Selby Pinot Noir is big and fruity, and the pairing cut it back to resemble a more old-world style. Hubby thought the finish with the food was odd but liked both on their own.

The third course, Herb Marinated Lamb Chops served with farro with wild mushrooms and blackberry/mint demi-glaze, felt European with its combination of meat and fruit. As with the quail, people picked up the bones to get the last bits of meat off them, so it all felt very friendly and informal by this point. The 2007 Sonoma County Cabernet Sauvignon had an earthy nose but lived up to the fruity and balanced expectations I had for it. It went well with the lamb and the chocolate cake on the surprise dessert sampler we got:


Yes, a wine that goes well with red meat and dessert. Sign me up! Oh, wait, I already am. We'll definitely be going back to Horseradish as well. I hope they plan to add the quail and waffles to the menu as a permanent fixture. Meanwhile, I'll be just as happy to walk through Decatur without celebrity sightings or dirty looks from the second best boy grip (or whoever they were)…at least until the next production company comes to town. When that happens, I'll just open some Selby and toast to a real celebrity who makes life better one glass at a time.

* Codependent bossy pedometer thingy. Srsly, it tells me when I pick it up in the morning to move it. In the evenings, it asks to be held and hugged. I'm not kidding about this.