Tonight was a night of firsts. It was the first time I cooked duck and it was the first time I made pasta from scratch.
A couple of weeks ago I decided it was almost a crime against humanity that I didn’t own a pasta machine. Not having the $300+ to buy the beautiful automated attachment for my KitchenAid, I sniffed around for the best deal: the Jamie Oliver Pasta Machine (it even comes in red so I can continue my love affair with red kitchen appliances) for a mere $39.95 at Victoria’s Basement. Bargain! It sat in the bag waiting for the perfect time to make its debut… Tonight! Pasta dough is easy to make, flour and eggs and a splash of olive oil. 1 egg per 100g of flour. There’s something fun about rolling it through the machine, something antiquated and humbling, but at times, it makes you wish you were some sort of octopus as one tends to run out of hands rather quickly. Note for next time, roll pasta thinner… it was a little chunky.
Now for the duck… I scored the skin and rubbed some salt into it and left it for a little while. Then I put it skin down into a medium hot pan that had been wiped over with olive oil and let it do its thang… After about ten minutes or so, the skin was nice and brown and crunchy looking, so I turned it over and let it cook for another few minutes before taking it out of the pan to rest.
In another pan, I had a mix of mushrooms, garlic, spinach and sage going and when the spinach was nice and wilted, but not too soggy, I threw in the pasta which had been cooked in boiling water for about four minutes. Mix it all around. Do the Hokey Pokey.
Put it in a bowl, with the sliced duck breast and there you have it… Simple, tasty, impressive Fettuccine with Duck.
I feel my pasta machine needs a name… Obviously and Italian name, and I feel my machine is male… Suggestions, anyone?
