Procrastinated Pasta

Paul and I celebrated our fourth marriage anniversary last November. (I can't believe we're coming up on five this year!!) Now, I'm rather persnickety about gifts. My philosophy is that if you are going to spend money on a gift for me, it would be best if you get me something I will like. It's not that I don't appreciate "gifts from the heart." In fact, some of my favorite gifts have been ones I wouldn't have thought of for myself. What I don't want is for someone to feel obligated to get me a gift, and to stab around in the dark until they land on some generic thing that I will probably never use or look at. I just feel like that is a waste of time, worry, and money. I try to simplify things for people. I have a running wish list of the things that I really, truly want. I keep the list on Amazon so it is easy for people to use and find. There is nothing on the list that I would not be THRILLED to receive. (Incidentally, all but one of the items on my list are kitchen books and tools. The one that isn't is a garden tool that I can use to grow food to cook in my kitchen. I'm predictable that way....)

While I think the wish list system works wonderfully, it is sometimes throwing to others. My husband is always worried that I will be disappointed if he doesn't come up with a "heartfelt" gift. After nearly five years of marriage, I think I've finally convinced him that I really truly want the things on my list, and that his safest bet is to order something from there.

So last year, Paul dutifully went to Amazon to get me what my heart desired for my anniversary present. He even paid attention to the items I had marked "highest priority." On our anniversary I unwrapped a beautiful hand cranked stainless steel pasta maker. It was a perfect gift.

That was nine months ago. I used my little pasta maker for the first time yesterday! Oops. This was not Paul's fault. I had very much intended to make all my own pasta as soon as I got the machine. However, upon opening it up I read that I had to make a special batch of dough to run through the machine to clean it before I could fulfill my pasta aspirations. Somehow, I was never able to find the time. There were many times that I wanted to make fresh pasta for dinner, but I was always stopped by the realization that I hadn't cleaned the machine yet.

Finally, yesterday I decided I would set aside the time to both clean and use my anniversary present. As it turns out, making the batch of dough for cleaning was not difficult, and it was good to get a little practice with the machine before I used my real dough in it. For the main event, I made swiss chard pasta. We have been absolutely over run with swiss chard from the garden, and I need ways to both use and preserve this large and flavorful green. (If anyone has fun and interesting ideas about chard preserve-age, please let me know in the comments!!)

Deborah Madison provides a recipe for spinach pasta dough in the New Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone (NVCE), and I just adapted it to chard. I have found that swiss chard and spinach are almost completely interchangeable once they are cooked. I don't know that I would like to eat chard raw though...

The pasta was a smashing success, and the machine was a blast to use! I will definitely be making more pasta this year than I did last year!

Madison's recipe for Spinach Pasta can be found on pages 400-401 of NVCE. I used chard this time, but I bet the recipe could also be adapted to kale, or any other green for that matter!

The first step was to blanch the chard. This involved submerging it in boiling water for 2-3 minutes, then immediately plunging it in ice water to stop the cooking. The leaves turn a brilliant green!

Once it's been blanched, the greens need to be dried well. I ran them through my salad spinner, the squeezed out all the water I could by hand.

The chard and the eggs are pureed together

Then the whole shebang comes together in the mixer. (A shoutout to my cousin, who got me a gift that wasn't on my list! This Kitchen Aid scraper attachment is the bomb!)

Then the machine does all the hard work of rolling it out just so

And cutting it. (Isn't that just the coolest thing you've see today? It's the coolest thing I've seen today! Maybe I shouldn't admit that to people...)

The night I made it, I went ahead and cooked some for dinner. I roasted some garden cherry tomatoes (Sungold, my favorite), and added basil leaves. I gave the whole thing a generous grating of parmesan cheese, a dash of olive oil, and viola! It was so delicious that I will DEFINITELY be making it again soon. As in tomorrow. As in I'm not even kidding.

***Disclaimer: All representations of Deborah Madison's recipes on this blog are intentionally incomplete. Do not attempt to copy a recipe from this blog. I have intentionally left out critical steps and ingredients to avoid copyright infringement. All recipes should only be attempted when referencing the book in which they were originally published.***