August 22
A Family Effort (Except the Baby)
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- Creamy Fresh Pasta with Chard and Serrano Ham [View Recipe]
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Ingredients
- .5 batch homemade pasta
- 2 cloves garlic (peeled, sliced thin)
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 9 ounces chard (gently packed, washed and spun dry)
- salt & pepper
- 2 slices ham
- .25 block cheese
- red pepper flakes
- cheese (freshly grated)
Instructions
We start by filling our large pasta pot with water, covering, and heating it over medium heat.
In a large, microwaveable, bowl, we combine the sliced garlic and oil, microwaving for 30 seconds. At that point, garlic flavor is beginning to infuse into the oil.
On our cutting board, we coarsely chop the chard, a large handful at a time, and add it to the bowl of garlic and oil. We have about 6 cups of chard.
We cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and microwave for 2 minutes. The slightly wilted chard is mixed with the garlic and oil, and the bowl is re-covered. We microwave for another 2 minutes. We taste for tenderness, and add some salt and pepper. The bowl is set aside, covered, while we wait for the pasta.
Once the water has come to a boil, we add the pasta and a large pinch of salt to the boiling water and stir. We cook the pasta for just a few minutes until it is "just" tender.
Meanwhile, the ham is cut into small strips with scissors, put on a small plate, and set on the table.
Before draining the tender pasta, we remove ¼ cup of pasta cooking water to be added to the sauce.
We drain the fettuccine in a colander, then return it to the pot. We put the pot back on the hot burner and turn the burner off. The Boursin is crumbled in. We stir with tongs, add the reserved pasta cooking water, and serve topped with the garlic chard, hot pepper flakes, freshly grated Locatelli, and Serrano ham.
- Wheat Bread
Our son enjoyed making the dough more than the pasta. He loves the KitchenAid and was absolutely fascinated how the dough came together. He did get a kick out of watching the dough get flattened and cut into pasta, but only took a few moments out of his busy four year old day-planner for that.
Our daughter had more fun flattening out the pasta and running it through the fettuccine attachment. She was just thrilled to be allowed to feed the dough through the flattening attachment and the fettuccine cutting attachment (not something a young child should do!). It was her first time manning all aspects of the pasta preparations and she could not have been more pleased with herself.
Robin mostly appreciated not having to do everything herself. She found that an extra egg yolk was needed for the dough. We are not sure if it was the little, excited hands that dried the dough more than expected or if it was the store-bought eggs. Whatever the reason, the dough was not coming together properly. A single extra egg added to our standard pasta dough recipe did the trick. Plus it gave our daughter the chance to learn how to separate an egg.
Everyone enjoyed the pasta—it was delicious and the meal was well deserving of a little wine on the side for the adults.