Sunday, June 7, 2009

One Local Summer 1st week

Eating local here in New Hampshire is still a bit hard as far as fresh vegetables go, though we are harvesting more than enough salad greens to enjoy with every meal. For this week's meal I focused more on the proteins of the meal, which are available year round from local sources, right here in town. We dined on a local version of Spaghetti Carbonara, with homemade pasta made from fresh duck eggs and NH smoked bacon. Unfortunately the semolina flour was from Bob's Red Mill in Oregon, but that was the only ingredient (aside from salt and pepper) that came from far away.


Spaghetti Carbonara (New Hampshire version)

serves 4

For the spaghetti dough:

3 eggs (we used duck eggs)
2 cups semolina flour
1 cup AP flour

Create a well on a board or counter in the flour. Crack the eggs into the well, and scramble the eggs slowly using a fork. Gradually bring the flour into the eggs until the eggs become thick enough that they will not run out onto the board. Using your hands, bring in the rest of the flour (adding water if necessary) until a ball forms. Knead the dough for at least 10 minutes, until it becomes smooth. Allow the dough to rest for about 20 minutes. After resting, cut the dough into smaller pieces, about the size of a golf ball. Using a pasta machine, roll out the dough to the second to last setting on the machine. Lay out all the pieces, allowing them to dry out a bit to prevent the dough from sticking in the next step. (You may also need to flip them, or rub a bit of flour over them to help the drying) Using the thinnest noodle cutters, cut the dough and lay onto towels or on a rack to dry.

Get a pot of water to a boil on the stove.

For the carbonara:

6 slices of bacon, chopped
1 tablespoon bacon drippings or oil
2 eggs

In a skillet melt bacon drippings. Add the chopped bacon to the skillet and cook until crisp; it is better to get them quite crispy since they soften up a bit when mixed with the pasta. Begin cooking the pasta, it should only take 3-5 minutes, and will be ready when the bacon is ready. While the bacon and pasta are cooking, beat the eggs into a serving bowl, large enough to hold the pasta.

When the pasta is finished (cooked al dente) reserve a bit of the cooking water and immediately drain the pasta. Quickly add the drained pasta to the bowl, and begin tossing with two forks, which will help to cook the eggs. Add the bacon, and all the drippings from the pan to the pasta. Continue to toss the pasta for about 2 minutes, adding some of the reserved cooking water if the pasta seems dry. You will notice that when you continue to toss the pasta a creamy sauce is created right in the bowl from only a few simple ingredients.



Local sources:

eggs: Fitch's Farm, Milford, NH
bacon: Garfield's Smoked Bacon (purchased from Lull Farm)

2 comments:

Virginia June 7, 2009 at 9:01 PM  

Oh another vintage Pyrex user...yipee!

Your meal looks tasty!

Anonymous June 10, 2009 at 2:09 AM  

Very yummy looking. I tried to make pasta for the first time this past winter, and while it was good, it looked nowhere near as "photo worthy" as yours. Our salad greens are coming in strong too, a great way to get them in.

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