Last
weekend we attended the Southeast Harvest Festival in our home town of Moruya. It was a muddy start to the day, but a few
tarps down and a roll of carpet and we had made our little home for the
day.
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| Rolling, rolling roll the dough.. |
We
set up our children’s pasta making table and away we went. Children flocked to the table and enjoyed
rolling out the pasta dough while they waited for their turn on the
machine. It was as much a pleasure to
watch as each ball of dough was turned through the machine with the rhythmic
whirling of the handle, a joy that could be experienced from the smallest of
hands. A few rolls through and…. voila!
Fresh pasta ready to be cooked on the spot.
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| A bowl of pasta ready to be cooked |
One
minute in the boiling pot and the pasta was ready to be topped with fresh home
grown herb and garlic butter, South Coast Cheese and fresh cherry tomatoes
picked from my home garden.
We
rolled and rolled all day long until the last of the dough was gone.
Many
of the parents were surprised about how easy it was to make pasta with
children. I thought that I would include
the pasta recipe’s we used on the day so that you can try it at home:
Pasta Dough
number 1:
Kylies Duck Egg pasta:
Ingredients:
Duck eggs
Organic
Durham wheat flour ( you can use normal wheat flour, but Durham wheat is much
nicer and easier to manipulate)
Method: Put
required amount of flour into a mixing bowl.
Add enough eggs to make smooth dough.
The general rule is one egg to 100gms of flour, but you may need to add
flour if it is too wet or a dash of water if it is too dry. Knead the dough until smooth.
The duck
eggs made beautiful rich pasta with a tasty flavour that was easy to
manipulate.
Pasta dough
number 2:
Melschooks Pasta
Ingredients:
Fresh chook
eggs
Organic
Durham wheat flour
Method: As
above only using chook eggs instead of duck eggs.
Pasta dough
number 3:
Jayla’s Gluten free pasta
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| There's Jayla making the gluten free dough while I worked the "Melschooks" dough |
Ingredients:
Eggs
Gluten free
flour mix
Method: As
above. When rolling the gluten free
pasta, we found that rolling it just a little thicker than the wheat dough worked
best.
We used a
hand operated machine that can be purchased easily from a kitchen ware
store. We took pieces of dough about the
size of a ping pong ball- not too big or it is too hard for the children to
manage the dough. Roll out the dough with
a rolling pin, adding sprinkles of flour if it is too sticky. Put the machine on the widest setting and
roll through, sprinkle flour on both sides and fold in half. Repeat this at least five times. Then you are ready to make the dough thinner,
set the dial a little thinner each time you roll the dough through the machine,
adding flour as you go. You don’t want
the dough to be too sticky or it will be hard to cut into strips. Too dry and it will break apart. If you roll it too thin for gluten free it
will break apart. When you have made the
dough thin enough to your satisfaction you can put it through the cutting part
in your machine; we used the fettuccini setting mostly, as it is the easiest to
make and cook.
Put the
fresh pasta straight into a boiling pot for 1 minute or 2- not too long or it
will melt away into sludge.
You will be
surprised how lovely fresh pasta is on its own or with a simple accompaniment of
fresh tomatoes and cheese or just a dash of olive oil and crushed garlic. It is
also a nutritious meal for children providing a great amount of protein and
nutrients from the eggs and the complex carbohydrates of whole Durham wheat. Besides the fact that they love the taste!
We would
like to thank the Southeast Harvest Festival for having Nature’s Nest, and Harris Scarfe Moruya for
the donation of the pasta machine, it will certainly become a well- loved
activity at Nature’s Nest for years to come I am sure!
By Mel Turner
