Nothing better than from scratch

By: 
Keith Bryant
 With a sunny, beautiful weekend under our belts you can feel the first inklings of spring in the air. I noticed I had a couple of my bulbs starting to sprout in the yard and felt the warm sun on my face in the afternoon on Sunday. 
 Sharon and I took off to Memorial Park to do some training with Groot, my 9-month-old puppy. The wind was a little chilly but we enjoyed the afternoon.
 When we got home that evening, I felt like a nice light pasta dish would do the trick for dinner. Now if you have never made pasta from scratch you are in for treat. 
 We had a few shrimp in the freezer so I got inspired to make a homemade lemon infused pasta to go with the shrimp.
 Now for me it would have just been easier to add lemon juice to the shrimp and olive oil while cooking, but I wanted the pasta itself to have the lemon flavor. 
 I added the zest of one lemon to my batch of pasta dough. It was added to the food processor when I blended the eggs and olive oil together before adding the flour. This worked out pretty well as I tried some without any shrimp and it was delicious.
 I use an attachment for my mixer to roll out my dough and cut it. But if you don’t have one you can do it with a rolling pin and knife. Just remember to get it as thin as possible as it will thicken up when you boil it. Cooking fresh pasta is a 4-minute boil not an 8-minute boil like store bought. 
 Try this at home and although it is a labor of love and takes a little time it may just be the thing for a sunny weekend.
Lemon infused pasta
Ingredients
Pasta
2 cups flour
3 eggs
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
1 zest of lemon
Directions: 
 Add eggs, zest, salt, oil in food processor and pulse on high for 30 seconds. Then add flour pulsing until combined. I added a teaspoon of water because it may have been a little dry.
 Wrap dough in plastic and let sit for one hour.
 Roll out dough in 3 batches Then cut to desired width with knife or pizza cutter.
Shrimp and pasta
Ingredients
8 ounces noodles
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons butter, divided
1 tablespoon garlic, minced
1 pinch red pepper flakes
1-pound shrimp, uncooked, peeled and deveined, tail on
1 whole lemon, zested
2 tablespoons lemon juice (juice from whole lemon)
2 tablespoon chopped scallions
4 tablespoons parmesan cheese
 In a large skillet over medium heat add olive oil, 1 tablespoon of butter, garlic and red pepper flakes. Cook until butter is melted then add the shrimp. Cook shrimp until they just turn pink, stirring constantly.
 Once shrimp is cooked add lemon zest, lemon juice and remaining 1 tablespoon of butter. Stir until combined. Once butter is melted add scallions and cooked pasta. Toss to coat. Remove from heat, sprinkle with parmesan cheese and serve.
 
 
 

 

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Weiser, ID 83672
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