Great Quick Pasta Recipes
Simple Pasta Dough
5 Eggs
3 tb Olive oil
1 tb Salt
3 c Flour
Add salt, olive oil, and eggs to your food processor. Pulse quickly to combine ingredients.
Gradually add flour, pulsing to mix. You will use your pasta machine to thin and cut the dough.
Kneed your dough for a few minutes until it becomes glossy and elastic. Roll it into a ball and push it down until if is fairly flat.
Cut the dough into 4 equal pieces.
Feed each piece through the machine at the #1 setting. Turn the setting to #2 and you will get longer, thinner lengths of dough. You may need to put the dough pieces through twice at the same settings to get an even dough.
Your pasta is thin enough to use when you can see your hand behind it. You can cut your pasta at this point but make sure that you cover it with a good amount of flour to keep it from sticking to itself.
If you want to use less flour you can run the dough through your pasta maker machine to cut it after the pasta has dried.
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Here is a quick and simple mushroom pasta dish your family and guests will love.
12 ounces plain or spinach fettuccine pasta
1 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 1/2 teaspoon olive oil
1 1/2 cup sliced fresh mushrooms
1 jar (14 ounces) reduced-sodium spaghetti sauce
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese (optional)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil or parsley
Cook your fresh made pasta , but do not add salt. While your pasta is in the pot cooking, beat the cheese, pepper, and nutmeg in a large bowl until smooth, using an electric mixer set on high speed.
Useing a large nonstick pan, heat olive oil over medium-high heat and add the mushrooms, sauteing until tender.This will take about 4 minutes. Add spaghetti sauce; cook until heated through, stirring often, also taking about 4 minutes.
Remove from heat. Drain pasta in a colander; add to pan to dsitribute sauce before plating. Spoon remaining sauce over each portion. Place a spoonful of ricotta mixture in center of each portion. Sprinkle with Parmesan and basil and serve.
