Category: Learning Project

Finito Per Ora: Perfect Pasta Project.

Finito per ora or finished for now in English. This post will summerize my learning project up until this point. I feel that I will continue to work on the art of making homemade fresh pasta, so I went with Finished for Now as my title because I know I will keep on learning and trying out new recipes when it comes to making pasta.

First of all I want to explain that I used way more tools and resources than I thought I would while doing this leaning project. I used a variety of websites and I also used Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube to find pasta recipes and to learn techniques. Then to document my learning process I started by using my iphone camera and imovie to create videos that I could load to YouTube and then include on my blog. I branched out and also tried Splice and InShot video editors. I found that the app Recipe Keeper was helpful in saving recipes that I found online. To keep track of all of the online resources that I was using I signed up and started using Wakelet. It really helped me to organize my websites and videos from youtube.

This was the first time that I actually tried to learn a skill by only utilizing online resources. I was nervous at first because I was not sure if I would find the right types of instructional sites and videos. I worried for nothing, there are so many resources that I needed to really sift through them and find ones that were going to work for me. I realized how important it is to be a critical consumer of online content in all circumstances. Not every video, recipe, or website is going to be credible. This activity showed that we need to think about what we are looking at, sometimes investigate where the information comes from and decide if we trust it. I know with something like making pasta the worst that is going to happen is a failed batch but I could see how this could transfer over to all of the content that can be found online and the awareness that we need to have when we are accessing it.

Continue to read my blog post to find a summary of my project along with some final thoughts.

Photo Credit: wuestenigelCompfightcc

My First blog was an introduction to my project. I wanted to explain what my idea was and how I was going to learn how to make fresh homemade pasta using online resources. At this point in my project I had found a couple resources but I had no idea just how many videos, websites, and tools I would use to do this learning project.

Fun with Fettuccine this was my second post. This was my first attempt at making egg dough pasta. I was nervous but I had completed a few sections of the Instructables online resource and watched a few helpful YouTube videos so I was able to get a good understanding of the method of making fresh pasta and using a pasta rolling machine.

For my third learning project post I wanted to try a different type of pasta dough, flour and water. I then used this dough to create hand shaped noodles. You will find a few videos of my process in this blog post, So Many noodles so little time. My Family still thinks that the cavatelli that I made is our favorite and we will be making it again soon.

My forth post, Ravioli Regrets, was one of my first real roadblocks in my learning project. I knew that this would be one of the more difficult types of homemade pasta to make. I was happy with the dough and the sauce but the actual shaping of them did not go well and the filling was a bust. I also discuss using Inshot video editor and a new Recipe Keeper that I found.

Fun with Flavour is my fifth post and I discovered that making flavoured pasta was not that hard and it really added to some good spinach flavour to the noodles. One of the things that shocked me was the vast amount of different flavours that can be used to make pasta. I can not wait to try chocolate pasta.

Ravioli Round Two was a redemption post. I had to try again and I was pleased with the results. I was able to use the tool properly as I found a website that used the exact tool that I had and could follow their directions. I also found a better suited filling recipe. I think that by trying again I gained confidence in my abilities.

Photo Credit: Pest15 Flickr via Compfight cc

For my last post actually making pasta I decided to try a type of pasta that I thought was going to be most difficult, Tortellini. In my blog titled Terrific Tortellini I share some information about different ways to use tortellini and a video on how to shape them. I was pleasantly surprised when I did not really have any trouble making them.

Overall, I think that I was very successful in my learning project. I definitely learned how to make homemade fresh pasta but I also learned how to edit videos, post them to YouTube and link them to my blog. I learned more about being a critical consumer of online content and found that not all resources are created equal.

Here are a some of my final product pictures.

Final thoughts, I am excited to have this new skill. I know that my family is also very happy. I am a little worried that I ruined traditional store bought dried pasta for them and now a quick pasta supper will no longer be quick. To end each post throughout this project I chose a quote from Julia Child. I remember watching reruns of her cooking show when I was young and thought that she was great. I’ve read some articles and a book about her and felt that so many of her quotes were not just for the kitchen they were also about life.

My final quote from Julia Child,

 “Find something you’re passionate about and keep tremendously interested in it.” –Julia Child Retrieved from Today.com

Personally, I am passionate about my family, good food, lifelong learning and education. I will continue to be tremendously interested all of them. Thank you for joining me for my learning project. I hope that I have given you a glimpse of the potential of what online learning can look like and perhaps inspire you to learn something that you are passionate about too.

Terrific Tortellini: Perfect Pasta Project

Photo Credit: Pest15 Flickr via Compfight cc

Welcome back to my perfect pasta project. It had been an interesting learning experience for me so far and I feel that I have come a long way in my pasta making abilities. This week I worked on making hand shaped filled pasta, Tortellini.

Now that I have got the hang of some the basics such as making and rolling out my fresh pasta dough and learned some useful tips in working with the dough, I felt confident to try out something that seemed a little more difficult. More difficult than ravioli? Well you will have to continue on reading and watching my post to find out.

So was making tortellini the hardest that I have tried so far? Actually no, the ravioli were more difficult for me, but I think that it was the experience that I had in making ravioli multiple times that gave me that ability to do a better job on my first attempt with tortellini. I looked at a few websites and found many videos that went through step by step instructions on how to make the dough, the filling, and then actually shape the pasta. The one I liked the best was from Laura in the Kitchen.

I started out by making my trusty egg dough that I have shared many times through my learning project blogs, such as in my last post Ravioli Round Two. I found that there are multiple types of filling that you can use and are all similar to ravioli fillings. I chose to do a ricotta cheese and spinach filling. Watch in my video below how I was able to get the hang of shaping my tortellini.

I think that I was able to do a pretty good job, once I had a bit of practice.

Now that I had the tortellini made I had to decide what I was going to do with them. As I was searching I realized that there are so many ways to use tortellini to create a meal. On the Taste of Home website they list over thirty ways to use tortellini. I decided to make a hearty vegetable soup and put the tortellini in my soup.

It turned out pretty great. I had precooked the tortellini in boiling water and then put them in the soup when the soup was ready. I did not want the excess flour in my soup. After the soup sat the tortellini got a little mushy but luckily it was so delicious that it did not sit for long.

I encourage you to try out a new way to use an ingredient. I went away from the traditional sauce and I was impressed.

“Cooking well doesn’t mean cooking fancy.” – Julia Child Retrieved from Goalcast

Ravioli Round Two: Perfect Pasta Project

Welcome back to my Perfect Pasta Project blog, you will be pleased to find out that I have achieved ravioli redemption, sort of. Round two of making ravioli went a bit better than my last attempt, if you would like a recap you can see my post Ravioli Regrets. Let’s just say that although the ravioli stayed together when cooking the overall taste was not great. I am so happy to report that this time around the flavor of the filling was pretty good, all of my ravioli stayed together, and I was able to properly use the tool to make ravioli with the crimped edges. Let me tell you a little more about my process.

First things first I had to go back to the internet and find a better filling recipe. As I searched I again I came across so many different recipes. I just had to pick one that I thought that I would like and that I had the ingredients for, I do not really believe in always having to go to the store and buy every little thing that the recipe lists. Maybe that is my down fall but it is realistic, I am not always going to have everything on the list. I like to learn how to improvise and I have been cooking long enough that I have gained some confidence in this area.

I found a recipe on a site called All Our Way, I was excited to see that they used the exact ravioli tool that I had. This site had step by step instructions, a good break down of the recipe, and a link to a video.

Here is a video of my second attempt at ravioli during my learning project.

The mushroom and ricotta filling was delicious, the pasta was tender and not to thick. None of the ravioli broke open and only a couple had an air pocket in the center (not that big of a deal to me). I made a brown butter mushroom and sage sauce which was tasty but when I make them again I am going to try them with a simple tomato sauce. I think that the acidity in the tomato sauce will cut and balance better with the creaminess of the cheese filling.

This was a shorter blog post but I feel that I may be beating ravioli to death if I go on to long about it. It is time to move on from ravioli and try my hand at another style of filled pasta, perhaps hand shaped tortellini?

As always I look forward to comments or suggestions. What is your favourite kind of pasta, maybe I can try it out?

“…no one is born a great cook, one learns by doing.” – Julia Child AtoZquotes.com

Fun with Flavour: Perfect Pasta Project

Welcome back to my learning project blog. I am happy to report that I have redeamed myself this go around. After my ravioli regrets on my last learning project post, I was anxious to try something new and put my failure behind me. But with my confidence a little on the low side I really was not sure what was going to happen with with making flavoured pasta. I am excited to say that my faith in my ability to learn how to make fresh pasta using online resources has been restored.

Surprisingly, making flavoured pasta was not that hard. I have to admit that I looked at so many sites and recipes that I honestly lost count. I wanted to make sure I was finding resources that would lead me to success. A came across the site recipetips.com and found a page titled, flavoured and coloured pasta. Here there was information for over twenty different types of flavoured pasta. It had the information displayed in a chart which make the information very easy to read. The columns include the flavouring agent, a description, the taste, and the colour. I decided that I wanted to try making spinach pasta, partly because that is what I had in the freezer and because I wanted to see if I could actually achieve that bright green colour I had seen in pictures on an Instagram account that I follow called Freshpastafun.

Spinach Pasta stages

I ended up finding a new egg dough recipe to use that included the use of spinach and garlic. I ended up leaving the garlic out this time because I did not want it to be too overpowering. I found the recipe on Yummy. I have made fresh pasta enough at this point that the mixing and needing process have become pretty simple but the recipe on this site also includes a good set of step by step intructions.

Here is the video of me making spinach flavoured pasta. You will see that the dough is quite a bit softer than than the traditional egg dough pasta that I have made before. I was a little worried at first but it ended up to be easier to handle that I thought it would be.

I decided to take the easy route and make a packaged alfredo sauce, I followed the directions on the package but then tossed in a pan with the cooked pasta, sauteed mushrooms and garlic. Honestly I don’t think we could have had a better sauce to pair it with. The creamy alfredo coated the spinach fettuccine and the mushroom and garlic added a nice earthy flavour to balance out the richness of the creamy sauce.

We turned this amazing spinach flavored pasta into a meal with bacon wrapped steak medalions, garlic toast, and salad.

I was so happy that this turned out as I have plans to try a few more flavours that were included on the recipetips.com site. Perhaps chocolate pasta?? Before I try that I think I might need to try ravioli again, I am determined to get that figured out. Either way I hope you join me for my next perfect pasta learning project blog.

“Some people like to paint pictures, or do gardening, or build a boat in the basement. Other people get a tremendous pleasure out of the kitchen, because cooking is just as creative and imaginative an activity as drawing, or wood carving, or music.” – Julia Child – Quote retrieved from atozguotes.com https://www.azquotes.com/quote/660280

Ravioli Regrets: Perfect Pasta Project

This week I will be posting about a few new experiences relating to my Perfect Pasta Project. I attempted the dreaded ravioli, I checked out a couple of new video editing apps, and explored some recipe storage apps to try and find some technology to help me get organized in the kitchen. Some of these experiences were great while others were less successful. Find out more while you read my blog.

I was challenged this week to explore and learn about some new apps while documenting my learning project. I decided to try out a new video editing app, so far I have used iMovie and Splice. The iMovie app is definitely in my comfort zone as it is already on my apple device and it is simple to use. It is the video editing app that I used for my Rolling Egg Dough Pasta learning project blog. The only problem that I have had with using iMovie is that if I do not take the recording from far enough back it crops the screen so that the top of my head gets cut off. I now know to put my phone far enough back so that the frame is bigger.

For my Hand Shaped Pasta blog post I used the video editor Splice, It has a free app version that you can download and choose the way you want your video cropped, so no more heads are cut off. The only problem that I had with this app is that once I tried to save the video I could not because I had added features to my video that were not included in the free version. I was disappointed because it let me add them and then I could not save them. So I took out the music and the special effects and I was able to save my video.

Screen Shot

I was set on going back to iMovie but then I found InShot. This free app is similar to the iMovie app but it gives you more options for sounds and effects. You can also use it to make picture collages and edit pictures. I was also able to add multiple sound tracks and change the music part way through, splice it and use a different music or sound track. In the screen shots below you will see what the screen looks like as you edit, add text, add music, and add voice over. With this video I also used a picture and a voice over at the end. I liked that I could extend the amount of time the picture was shown to match the amount of time I needed for my voice over. The full video will be included in this blog post when I go over my ravioli making experience.

Screen shots

Ravioli is tricky to say the least. I thought that I was ready give it a try as I felt confident in my ability to make egg dough pasta and rolling it into sheets. I found that the tools that I had were hard to use. I ended up trying a few different methods where I used a press, then just used a knife, and with each ravioli I had to go through and press the edges to make sure they were sealed so that the filling would not come out when they were cooking. I used a few recipes to guide me through the ravioli making experience. I used the egg dough recipe from the Instructables site, as it was the recipe that seemed to turn out the best. Then for the filling I used a combination, I used a food.com recipe that showed four different fillings and one for butternut squash ravioli from the blog, Self-Proclaimed Foodie. I made a butternut squash and ricotta filling with a brown-butter and sage sauce. Next time I will choose just one filling recipe and follow it exactly, trying to concoct my own filling did not turn out so great. As for the pasta, I liked with the taste and texture and I am happy to report that not one of my ravioli came apart in while cooking. Yay! I would say that is a victory. Unfortunately, the over all taste of the ravioli was not that great and think that this was due to the filling. It just did not taste that good and it had a weird texture.

I go through my ravioli making process in the video below using the InShot App to edit.

Here are some process photos of my ravioli making experience.

Final product Butternut Squash and Ricotta Ravioli with Brown-Butter and Sage Sauce.

I Found one other app this week that I wanted to share on my learning project blog. It is called Recipe Keeper. I decided to find an app that I can automatically save recipes from websites. It can also make notes, add grocery lists, add photos, and many other things that I have not yet discovered. So far I am still using the free version which has a limit of how many recipes you can store. I thought that this would come in handy for this project as I am constantly finding recipes for fresh pasta and needed a place to store them. Below are some screen shots of this app.

I hope that this post inspires you to try a new app, try a new recipe, or at least stay tuned for my next learning project blog post where I will be attempting flavored pasta. If you have any app or recipe suggestions please feel free to let me know in my comments.

“This is my invariable advice to people: Learn how to cook- try new recipes, learn from your mistakes, be fearless, and above all have fun!”
― Julia Child, My Life in France (quote retrieved from Goodreads.com see link)

So Many Noodles So Little Time: Perfect Pasta Project

Welcome back to my Learning Project blog, Perfect Pasta Project. In this post you will be able to see the progress that I have made at leaning the art of making homemade fresh pasta. This week I worked on learning how to hand shape pasta using a flour and water dough.

Have you ever shaped pasta by hand? It really made me think about each noodle I was going to eat and the fact that I had to create each and every one of those little beasts. Hours and hours of work was consumed in less than ten minutes, but boy oh boy was it delicious. Let me tell all about it.

For making hand shaped pasta I found that I could use either egg dough or flour and water dough. I wanted to see the difference in the types of dough so I opted to make the simple flour and water dough this time. There are many sites that explain the different types of dough that you can use to make pasta. The Science of the Best Fresh Pasta, provides a ton of information about fresh pasta and the different ways that you can make it.

Once I decided on the type of dough I was going to use to make I watched a few videos, How to Make 29 Handmade Pasta from Bon Appétit, How to make Pasta Shapes at Home (e.g. Tagliatelle, Fusilli, Farfalle), and viewed many websites that described different pasta shapes and how to shape them. One site that I found particularly useful was on cookingtips.com which had detailed written descriptions and many pictures.

After watching the videos and looking at sites it was time to try making some of them. I tried making fafalle (bow tie), fusilli, cavatelli, and garganelli. Some of the different shapes required me to use different tools. I did not have the tools so I had to improvise. The Istructables resource that I used for my second post as well as the the blog FOOD52 gave me suggestions of things I could use from around my home. I made a very useful tool out of wooden skewers.

I documented my learning process with a series of videos.

Making Faralle

The cavatelli turned out to be my favourite to make and to eat.

Making Cavatelli

The garganelli was probably the hardest.

Making Garganelli

Sooo many different shapes.

By the end of the afternoon I felt like I was getting the hang of it. But I realized just how time consuming it is to make each noodle by hand.

To cook them I followed the method that I learned earlier in this project, just to boil them for about 3 minutes in salted water and then to finish cooking them in a pan with the sauce. I was not sure exactly what kind of sauce would go best with the types of pasta shapes I made, I looked for a site that could help me. I found an Insider article titled A visual guide to every type of pasta. It shows 52 types of pasta, describes them, and the type of sauce that best suits that noodle. The cavatelli can handle a thicker meat sauce I made a quick sauce with ground beef and jarred marinara sauce then topped it all of with fresh grated parm. It was perfect the pasta had a bit of a chewy bite to it but yet was still soft and delicate.

I hope that you are enjoying my learning project blog. Feel free to leave a comment and let me know what you think also I would love to know if you have ever made handmade noodles and what you though about it. For my next post I think it is time that I attempt my restaurant favourite, ravioli!

“The only real stumbling block is fear of failure. In cooking, you’ve got to have a what-the-hell attitude.” – Julia Child Quote Retrieved from Today.com

Fun with Fettuccini: Perfect Pasta Project

Let’s just say that I think I may have just had beginners luck. My first try at egg dough pasta turned out great! It was the most delicious fettuccini that I have ever had – honestly so good. Let me tell you more about my pasta perfection.

First, I actually went out and found the right tools for the job. I was able to get my hands on a hand crank pasta machine. It is heavy duty and good quality. Next I made sure that I had the right ingredients. I used regular all purpose flour as the recipe called for but I went out and bought a better quality extra virgin olive oil to help give my pasta the flavour that was suggested. I found out that pasta is generally made up of two ingredients flour and liquid, the difference between types of pasta is what you choose to use for the liquid in the dough as well as the type of flour. For this attempt I used the Instructables pasta class, making egg dough pasta, as I am working my through this online resource. You can find the recipe in the Instructables link.

Pasta machine and Egg Dough Ingredients.

After completing the first five lessons from the Instructables class, I was ready to try making egg dough pasta that I would use to make fettuccini. I poured the flour on to my cutting board and made a well in the center. Then I cracked my eggs directly into the well, added the oil, and then the water. I used a fork to mix up the eggs and start to incorporate into the flour. I was quite skeptical as it didn’t seem to be coming together like the video had shown. I was beginning to have flashbacks to the “pasta disata” I mentioned in my first project blog post, Buongiorno! Perfect Pasta Project. I ended up leaving a bit of flour on the board because it did not seem like there would be enough liquid to absorb the flour. One of the tips from the lesson said that it is easier to add flour later than to try and take it out. If you would like to watch the process I have included a video. Be kind this is the first video that I have made like this.

I was so happy with the way the dough came together. It was encouraging to see that with the help from the videos I knew what the dough should look and feel like. The next step in the process was to roll it out and cut it into ribbon pasta, I chose to cut it into fettuccini. The dough rolled out perfectly using the hand crank pasta machine. I also used the pasta machine to cut the pasta using the fettuccini attachment. Although my fettuccini was a little sticky at first, I lightly dusted my sheets of pasta with flour and it solved the issue. I am including another video showing the process of rolling and cutting my pasta.

I was a little concerned as the “nests” I made were sticky so I pulled them a part and hung them around the edge of a container and that seemed to help. The pasta dried a bit as I let rest before I cooked it.

To cook my pasta I brought a large pot of water to a boil and added about two tablespoons of salt to the water. I only put one portion the pot at a time because I did not want to over crowd the pot. I used tongs to stir the fettuccini noodles and once the water came back to a boil I let them cooks for about two minutes. I checked to see if they were close to being done by tasting a piece. The pasta was not quite Al Dente which is what I wanted as I was going to continue to cook it for a few minutes in the sauce that I had made in another pan. I pulled the noodles out of the pot using a fine strainer and tongs. I did not pour them out, a tip shared by Helen Rennie on YouTube, because there is flour on the fresh pasta, it settles at the bottom of the pot so if you dump the water over the pasta the flour water goes back on the noodles and can make them sticky and gloopy. I tossed the noodles in a very simple cream sauce that I made using left over bacon, cream, and parmesan cheese (I will talk more about sauces later on in my project).

Thank you for reading and following along with me on my learning project blog. I will continue to explore the art of making homemade fresh pasta. I think I will try and tackle hand made pasta shapes next. Stay tuned!

“Noodles are not only amusing but delicious.” ~ Julia Child https://www.azquotes.com/author/2810-Julia_Child

Buongiorno! Perfect Pasta Project

I am excited to welcome you to my Learning Project blog. I have to be honest I actually had a tough time deciding on what I was going to learn. After some research and a lot of thought, I narrowed down my choices to learning how to run a marathon, learning a language, or learning how to make pasta. I put it to a vote and it was unanimous my family wanted me to learn to make pasta. I really was not surprised as the other choices were no where near as fun or potentially delicious.

I am a bit nervous about this decision as I have tried to make fresh pasta before and let me tell you there was nothing delicious about it. When I think back about the great “pasta disasta” of 2014 I can remember using the first recipe that came up and then not having the right tools or the right ingredients. So, I guess I should not have been surprised when it did not turn out very well. I am not going to let that happen again, I am going to create a plan.

After watching a few videos like How to Make Egg Pasta on YouTube by Helen Rennie, I was able to create an outline for my learning project. I am going to learn about the proper tools, techniques, and the correct ingredients. Then practice getting the feel for it and experiment by learning how to make cut ribbon pasta, hand-shaped pasta, and different filled pasta. I will be using a variety of online resources including YouTube videos, recipe websites, and other blogs. I have also enrolled in a free online course from Instructables to learn the art of making fresh pasta. Throughout the process, I am going to document my learning by taking pictures, making videos, and blogging about my experience. I hope that you enjoy my perfect pasta project.

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“People who love to eat are always the best people”

Julia Child