Fresh Linguine with Cream and Garlic Sauce

If you know me at all, you know that I love a good bargain.  I frequent thrift stores and garage sales in hopes of finding treasures...quite often actually.  Fortunately for me (and my hubby)  I found a pasta maker for $10 last weekend! I definitely scored.  So I wanted to use it right away and found a recipe that would be perfect.


Ingredients:

For Pasta:

2 cups flour

3 eggs

water

For Sauce:

1 cup milk, saved from poaching garlic for puree

1/2 cup heavy cream

1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes (1/4 tsp if you don't want it too spicy)

1 1/2 teaspoons fresh oregano leaves minced, or 1/2 teaspoon of dried oregano

1 head garlic

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Table salt and ground black pepper

Directions:

        Pulse the flour in a food processor fitted with a steel blade to distribute and aerate it evenly. Add the eggs; process until the dough forms a rough ball, about 30 seconds. (If the dough resembles small pebbles, add water, 1/2 teaspoon at a time; if the dough sticks to the side of hte workbowl, add flour, 1 Tablespoon at a time, and process until the dough forms a rough ball.) 

Turn the dough ball and small bits out onto a dry work surface; knead until the dough is smooth, 1-2 m inutes. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside for at least 15 minutes, up to 2 hours, to relax.  

While the dough rests, discard any loose skin on the garlic head.  Then trim off the top quarter, and discard. 

Roll out dough and  cut in five equal sections.   Then take the first section and roll it out as thin as you can. 

Using a manual pasta machine, roll out the dough even further.  I started on setting one and worked my way to setting five.

Once the dough is very thin, run it though the linguine maker. 

Make sure to lay the pasta flat, and keep them separated if possible.  This will ensure that they don't stick together when you cook them.  (If you have someone to help you with this, it will go a lot faster!)

Once you have your pasta laid out, place the garlic head cut side down into a small sauce pan.  Add one cup milk and let simmer for about ten minutes.

Remove garlic from milk (reserving the milk for the sauce) and place on a 8" x 8" piece of foil. Drizzle with olive oil.

Wrap garlic head in foil and place in over at 350 degrees for about 1 hour. 

Once garlic is done, remove from oven and let it cool for five minutes.  

Squeeze out all the the cloves and mash with a fork.

Bring reserved milk, cream, red pepper, and oregano to boil in a medium saucepan;

simmer, whisking constantly, until milk mixture reduces by half. Lower heat;

whisk in garlic puree until sauce emulsifies slightly, 2 to 3 minutes. Whisk in

Parmesan cheese and salt and pepper to taste; cover and keep warm.

 Meanwhile add 1 tablespoon salt and the linguine to the boiling water; boil

until linguine is just tender, 7 to 9 minutes. Drain pasta, reserving some of

the cooking water. Toss linguine with sauce. If the sauce is too thick to coat

pasta evenly, add the cooking water 1 tablespoon at a time. Serve with

additional finely grated Parmesan and ground black pepper.

This pasta was very light, and full of flavor.  The red pepper flakes gave it a kick, so be sure to reduce the amount if you don't care for spicy foods.  In the Cooks Illustrated cookbook, they mentioned that freshly made pasta doesn't re-heat very well, but Matthew and I both had it for lunch the next day, and it was just as good.  Hope you enjoy this dish!

<2 Saleena