Make Your Own Pasta

In a recent LA Times story, Evan Kleiman, the host of KCRW's Good Food radio show and the woman behind the great Caffe Angeli on Melrose in LA (which I adored when I lived there), wrote about why shoppers should not buy supermarket "fresh" pasta.

"If imported Italian dry pasta were choice A and fresh pasta were choice B and I could only choose one to eat for the rest of my life, there would be no contest. I’d choose A, dry pasta. Many home cooks, bamboozled by the glut of fresh pasta in restaurants, have come to believe that if it’s the chef’s choice, then it’s the better product. It is not."

Now while she acknowledges her story is about her love of dry durum wheat pasta, she also readily acknowledges that fresh pasta made well and served with appropriate sauces is a great dining experience.

Making really good fresh pasta demands quality ingredients and skill--and it's something that with practice home cooks can do for themselves. Back in the 80s, the idea was to make it, then hang it on "pasta racks" or broom sticks to dry and then cook later. Today, of course, we recognize that you can put a big pot of water on the stove to heat and make your pasta while the water is coming to the boil.

Because I've spent a lot of time with a several chefs who have shown me their techniques--and because with summer almost upon us and fresh tomatoes being a perfect foil for a good pasta in many cases, I thought I'd do a round up of four of my favorite pasta-making experiences with San Diego chefs. And next week, I'll have a new one for you from Daniel Wolinsky, chef de cuisine at Cucina Sorella in Kensington, whose tagliarini is in the photo above.

Here they are:

Fabrizio Cavallini's Organic Handmade Pasta: Who better to teach the art of pasta making than an Italian chef? Fabrizio Cavallini of Bencotto and Monello demonstrated how seemingly easy it is. All it requires is high quality 00 flour and organic semolina, both of which are available locally at Mona Lisa, and eggs. Oh, and skill. But I have a video of Fabrizio's demo, which shows how you go about making the dough.

Nick Brune's Dark Roux Noodles: Nick Brune is a Louisiana native who lives in California and has combined his culinary understanding of the two states to create a Cali-Creole cuisine that was the focus of Local Habit in Hillcrest. No longer there (both Nick's affiliation with the restaurant and then the restaurant itself), Nick has turned his focus to his longtime catering company Eco Caterers. When I came for a visit, he taught me a dish that combined his Creole background with Southeast Asian flavors, based on his travels there. This dish places dark roux noodles into a pho-like soup, which is stunning. But you can also enjoy the noodles as pasta with your favorite sauce? What's the secret to these dark noodles? You'll have to read to find out!

Ryan Studebaker's Roasted Vegetables and Goat Cheese Raviolini: Ryan, of MIHO Catering, makes a lovely egg pasta that he turns into little pockets of savory cheesey appetizers, thanks to a variety of seasonal roasted vegetables blended with goat cheese. You can take his recipe full hilt with the raviolini or simple enjoy the pasta recipe, make noodles, and top them with his vegetable goat cheese mixture.

Amy DiBiase's Ricotta Gnudi: Okay, technically this may be considered the "anti-pasta" since "gnudi" means naked, as in ravioli without the pasta. But why not make a tender, creamy pasta-like dumpling that so easily takes a good sauce. Amy, who is now with Grand Restaurant Group, taught me this dish while she was at Tidal. It's so luxe it's a whole meal, depending on how you sauce it.


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Nick Brune's Dark Roux Noodles

Sometimes a chef shows me a technique that makes me totally rethink how I do things in my kitchen. Like making pasta, for example. Now maybe this has occurred to you--or you've seen it on Food Network or some other food blog--but the idea of toasting AP wheat flour to create a deep brown pasta with other-worldly flavors was, well, new to me. And I may not ever think about pasta in the same way again.

That's what chef Nick Brune of the Hillcrest restaurant Local Habit and owner of Eco Caterers did when I came in for a visit. Brune, who launched but no longer owns Local Habit, is still there to help shape its new "Cali-Creole" concept. This isn't a stretch for the chef, who was born in Louisiana. What is unusual, though, will be the additional Asian influences, drawn from Brune's recent travels and training in Southeast Asia.

And that's where this dish comes in. These dark roux noodles can be used any way you enjoy pasta. Heck, the deep, almost buttery flavors the toasting yields makes me want to just toss with olive oil and grated Romano and call it a day. But Brune swirls them into a Creole Noodle Soup that's reminiscent of a complex pho. Brune refers to the dish as "gumbo meets ramen."

The soup is astounding in its layered flavors, but what I was smitten most by were the noodles, so that's what will be the focus here.

Now don't be put off by the measurements. Weighing is far more accurate than measuring by volume, especially since this dough can be affected by relative humidity.

Dark Roux Noodles
from Nick Brune
(printable recipe)

Yield: 10 to 12 servings

300 grams toasted wheat
360 grams all-purpose flour
15 grams kosher salt
4 eggs
1/4 cup (or 62 grams) water (to start)
23 grams extra virgin olive oil

Semolina flour for dusting
Salt for boiling pasta

1. To toast the wheat, pre-heat oven (not convection or the flour will fly) to 375˚. Spread 300 grams of all-purpose flour on a baking sheet and bake for 35 to 40 minutes. Rotate the sheet every 10 minutes or so to enable flour to brown evenly. Remove and let cool.

2. Sift together toasted and raw flours along with salt and add to the bowl of a stand mixer. Then add eggs, one at a time and mix.

3. Combine water with olive oil and add slowly, pausing to let the dough come together before adding more liquid. Mix until crumbly.

4. Turn out dough and work it in small amounts. Use your body to put weight into kneading the dough and knead for 2 minutes. Wrap in plastic and form into two balls and let rest for 5 minutes. Then flatten into discs. Let rest again for 5 minutes to absorb more liquid.

5. Roll out in small batches to rectangles 8 to 10 inches long. Trim the edges to make as uniform as possible, but leave a tab at the top to have something to hold onto when lifting the pasta. Sprinkle the dough lightly with semolina flour. Fold the dough up to the tab. Slice into pieces about the width of fettucine.

6. Bring a large pot of water to the boil. Add salt. Cook for two minutes and drain. Add to soup or toss with your favorite sauce.

So, what's in this crazy Creole Noodle Soup? Well, it starts with a broth made with pork bones and chicken backs, along with chard, onion, coriander, all-spice, a bay leaf, bonita flakes, and Bragg's Liquid Aminos. The broth cooks overnight and concentrates into a powerfully rich ambrosia. To this Brune adds a Creole-style pickled egg, braised pork, green onion, andouille sausage, micro greens, and pickled onions--and the noodles. It's become one of the restaurant's most popular dishes and for good reason. This funky soup is just bursting with competing and complementary flavors.

Local Habit is located at 3827 Fifth Ave. in Hillcrest.


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