I do not know why the muse said use fennel. All I know it was perfect for me this one time.
The seeds were smashed in the mortar and pestle so they come out irregularly unlike the spice mill which turns it to uniform powder. The scent of licorice that lifted up when I carried the stone mortar over to the bowl was amazing all by itself and told me I was on the right track. This is an unusual spice to include in a pasta and I am not recommending it.
It is a good step to let the dough rest. I see the chefs in the competitions rush this, so no autolyse can occur, full absorption doesn't happen, the dough stays uncooperative, it's too stiff or too wet and as I observe them struggle with the same mistakes I made way back there when I was ten, a non professional cook, and I'm wondering "what are these dummkopfs thinking?"
They say wrap it with plastic and put it in the refrigerator and I say no.
Quit bossing me around. I just cover it with a plate, smile knowingly and walk away.
The last of the 1 LB. loin steak.
There are plenty enough pasta noodles around here, and good ones too, but none of them have egg in them. They're all water and flour. Mostly semolina.
You can buy fresh pasta too and it's probably worth it if you lack the mad skillz of a natural dough boy like me. Or have some kind of weird aversion to huge kitchen messes.
4 comments:
"This is an unusual spice to include in a pasta and I am not recommending it."
You must be kidding, right?
What spice gives Italian Sausage its distinct taste?
Have you tried fennel as a topping directly and in quantity and would you recommend it? I liked it, but I would not recommend it.
I have not. Good point. Another point, unless I am mistaken, is that the fennel seed is left whole in sausage, resulting in a more "mellow" flavor.
That said, I was just pointing out that it's not really that unusual with pasta (perhaps it is unusual in pasta).
So say if you would come over here I might say say something along those lines that I wrote as we put something together and you'd go, "Oh I like fennel a lot. Are you crazy? Dump it on. The more the better!" Then I'd go, "woo hoo." Freedom.
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