Semolina

After making gagaktoboureko ( yes that's a word, check out acouple posts back) I found myself with some left over semolina flour. I took this as a sign that I should make pasta again. last time I made chocolate ravioli, filled with a marscapone, agave, and espresso concoction. they were good. very good. I think chocolate pasta is an idea i shall visit again. Bunz gave me a pasta roller at giftmas, and Momma D gave me another when she came to visit.
So now I have one for fondant and one for pasta. No excuses!

So that picture up there is a bowl of the leftover semolina flour. 2 cups of semolina flour to be exact. I added 2 cups of all purpose flour and a pinch of salt. tossed it all together, and then made a well in the middle. I filled the well with 6 eggs, and 2 tbsp of olive oil. after getting all the ingredients together i kneaded it until it was firm and elastic. then wrapped it up tight and threw it in the fridge for a couple hours.

while the dough rested I prepped a whole bunch of veggies. I chopped up zucchinis, onions, red peppers, orange peppers, garlic, and tomatoes. In a pan I browned some nice local ground bison and added in all the veggies. I also threw in a plethora of tasty spices. I started with some smoked paprika, and then moved on to some chili powder, coriander, cayenne, cumin, salt, and pepper. I wanted to create a chili type flavor. Looking back I wish I had put in some black beans. but no regrets... there is always next time.

I rolled small batches of the rested dough out with my shiny new pasta roller. Pulled out my handy dandy round cutter and cut many many rounds out of the dough. At this point i was about a couple hours into my fun project. So let me warn you right now,this is not a quick weeknight dinner. lol. I think everyone can make time to make their own pasta, but stuffed pasta does take some extra time, so be warned. It is worth it though.
anyway, roll roll roll, cut cut cut. fill fill fill, fold fold fold, next! ( before the fold, be sure to brush the edges of the pasta with egg wash to "glue" them together)

Once they little bundle of joy are folded over and sealed, bring the ends together to make the tortellini shape, and set aside. that's all there is to it. It is kind of tedious, I'm not going to lie to you. but kind of fun too, especially when you re rocking an awesome soundtrack, and dancing around your kitchen. Bunz even folded acouple of these fellas up.

Once they were all bundled up, i put half away in the freezer for later, and then boiled the fresh pasta for dinner. I thought since there were some Mexican flavors going on inside the tortellini, I would carry that theme on. So once they were al dente, i tossed them in a pan with abit of sour cream, and the plated them. I topped the whole pile off with a bit of salsa, and a sprinkle of cheddar.

 

I felt pretty proud of myself as I ate my labor intensive, and yummy dinner.