Cooking as Therapy

If you are looking for a light pasta dish, this is it. Fresh and very pleasing, this will serve 3-4 as a main course (with a salad) or 6-8 as a classic Italian primo piatto (first plate/course.) I've included the instructions for making pasta from scratch. This is something you should try at least once. It's easy and you don't need a pasta machine, just a rolling pan and a bread board. Make the dough as instructed, roll it out very thin and cut it into 1/4-1/2 inch strips. Until you've had fresh pasta, you haven't really had pasta.

Of course you can just buy the pasta at the supermarket.

Fettuccine with Lemon (Paradiso Perduto)

1/2 recipe fresh fettuccine
1/2 recipe fresh green fettuccine
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
4 shallots, finely chopped
1 head Treviso radicchio, chopped into 1-inch pieces
1 1/2 cups cream
Zest of 4 lemons plus juice of 1 lemon
1/2 cup grated Asiago
To Prepare Fresh Fettuccine:
4 extra large eggs
3 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour plus 1/2 cup for dusting your work surface
1/2 teaspoon olive oil
For the Green Fettuccine:
4 extra large eggs
6 ounces frozen chopped spinach, defrosted and squeezed very dry
3 1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour plus 1/2 cup for dusting your work surface
1/2 teaspoon olive oil

Make a mound of the flour in the center of a large wooden cutting board. Make a well in the middle of the flour and add the eggs and oil. Using a fork, beat together the eggs and oil and begin to incorporate the flour starting with the inner rim of the well. As you expand the well, keep pushing the flour up to retain the well shape. Do not worry that this initial phase looks messy. The dough will come together when half of the flour is incorporated.

Start kneading the dough with both hands, using the palms of your hands. Once you have a cohesive mass, remove the dough from the board and scrape up any leftover crusty bits. Discard these bits. Lightly flour the board and continue kneading for 3 more minutes. The dough should be elastic and a little sticky. Continue to knead for another 3 minutes, remembering to dust your board when necessary. Wrap the dough in plastic and allow to rest for 30 minutes at room temperature.

Note: Do not skip the kneading or resting portion of this recipe. They are essential for a light pasta.

Roll out pasta to thinnest setting on pasta machine. Cut pasta into 1/4-inch thick noodles by hand or with machine and set aside under a moist towel.

To Prepare Green Fettuccine: Follow regular fettuccine instructions. Add the drained and squeezed dry spinach after the flour has been incorporated into the egg and oil. You may need to add a little more flour to get the dough to the correct consistency.

To Prepare Dish: Bring 6 quarts water to boil and add 2 tablespoons salt.

In a 12 to 14-inch saute pan, heat oil over the heat. Add shallots and saute until light golden brown, about 5 to 6 minutes. Add radicchio and cook 30 seconds. Add cream, reduce by half and remove from heat. Drop pasta into boiling water and cook until tender yet al dente. Drain pasta well and toss into pan with cream mixture. Return to heat, add lemon zest and juice and toss to coat. Add half the cheese and toss again. Serve immediately in warm bowl, making extra cheese available on the side. Garnish with chopped parsley or chives.

Fresh pasta cooks incredibly quickly. Once you've started cooking it, that is the task you will have to pay immediate attention too. Taste it regularly once it begins to float so that you don't overcook it. It goes from al dente to mush very quickly.

If you are going to serve this as a main course, the zucchini vichyssoise below makes an excellent first course, or for bigger appetites, start with a hearty minestrone with pesto genovese. This is a sophisticated light meal worthy of guests, but easy enough for Wednesday night dinner with the family if the pasta and the soup are ready in advance. I devote free Sunday afternoons to cooking ahead for the coming week so that I've got fresh broths, soups and casseroles frozen down in single serving containers in the freezer. My laundry set-up is in the kitchen, so I cook and do my laundry. If your freezer is set properly (a thermometer should give you a 0 degrees F reading) you can safely keep prepared foods for a month. Fresh pasta freezes well if it is in air proof zip lock bags. If you have the room, you can dry it on pasta dryers that look like miniature laundry dryers.

If you have a food processor, you can mix/need the dough in it:

In a food processor blend flour, eggs, oil, and 1 1/2 tablespoons water
until mixture just begins to form a ball, adding additional water, drop by
drop, if dough is too dry. Dough should be firm and not sticky. Blend dough
15 seconds more to knead and let stand, covered with an inverted bowl, at
room temperature 1 hour.

I have a food processor, but there is something therapeutic to making it from scratch that I miss using my Cuisinart.