Vermont Christmas Pasta 2008 Recipes

CHRISTMAS PASTA

Steps:

• Heat a deep pot over medium-high heat. Add pancetta and brown to render the fat. Transfer pancetta to paper towels to drain. To the pan add the oil, and the meats and brown and crumble them for 5 minutes. Stir in garlic, and pancetta bits.
• Chop carrot, celery, and onions near the stove and add to the pot as you work. Cook vegetables with meat 5 minutes and add wine. Cook for 1 minute; add stock and tomatoes to the pot.
• Stir in parsley, allspice, or cinnamon and season sauce with salt and pepper, to taste. Bring sauce to a boil, reduce heat to medium low, and cook 10 to 15 minutes, minimum, before serving. Reheated sauce only improves.
• Toss pasta (cook off only as much pasta as you need at the time: half a pound for every 3 people) with a couple of ladles of sauce to coat, then top bowl with extra sauce. Top pasta with lots of cheese and pass bread at the table.

CHRISTMAS PASTA

Steps:

• Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt it. Add the pasta and cook to al dente, with a bite to it.
• While the water and pasta work, heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add 1 tablespoon EVOO (1 turn of the pan). Add the pancetta to one half of the pan, the sausage, both hot and sweet, to the other. Break up the sausage into bits and brown while the pancetta renders, then combine and cook together another minute or so. Remove to a plate with a slotted spoon. Add the remaining tablespoon of EVOO, then the beef and veal. Brown and crumble the meat into tiny bits and season with allspice, salt, and pepper. Add the carrots, onions, and garlic and cook another 5 to 6 minutes to soften the vegetables, then add sausage and pancetta back into the pan, draining away some of the fat. Deglaze the pan with the wine, scraping up all the good bits with a wooden spoon. Stir in the stock, then the tomatoes. Check the seasoning. Simmer over low heat until ready to serve, at least 10 minutes. Stir in half the parsley to finish.
• Drain the pasta and add back to the hot pot. Ladle a few spoonfuls of the sauce over the pasta and add a couple of handfuls of cheese to the pot. Stir to coat the pasta evenly. Transfer to a large serving dish or individual bowls and top with the remaining sauce and parsley. Pass plenty of extra cheese at the table.

CHRISTMAS PASTA

Steps:

• Heat a deep pot over medium high heat. Add oil, garlic, bay, and pancetta bits and brown for 1 minute. Add meats and brown and crumble them for 5 minutes.
• Chop carrot, celery, and onions near the stove and add to the pot as you work. Cook vegetables with meat 5 minutes and add wine. Cook for 1 minute; add stock and tomatoes to the pot.
• Stir in parsley, allspice, or cinnamon and season sauce with salt and pepper, to taste. Bring sauce to a boil, reduce heat to medium low, and cook 10 to 15 minutes minimum before serving. Reheated sauce only improves.
• Toss pasta (cook off only as much pasta as you need at the time: half a pound for every 3 people) with a couple of ladles of sauce to coat, then top bowl with extra sauce. Top pasta with lots of cheese and pass bread at the table.

FRESH PASTA

Steps:

• Blend all ingredients in a food processor until mixture begins to form a ball. Knead dough on a lightly floured surface, incorporating only as much additional flour as necessary to keep dough from sticking, until smooth and elastic, 6 to 8 minutes. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and let stand 1 hour.
• Set smooth rollers of pasta machine on widest setting. Cut dough into 4 pieces. Cover 3 pieces with plastic wrap, then form remaining piece into a rectangle and feed through rollers. Fold rectangle in half and feed, folded end first, through rollers 8 more times, folding in half each time and dusting with flour if necessary to prevent sticking.
• Turn dial to next (narrower) setting and feed dough through without folding. Catch pasta sheet with your hand as it feeds through rollers instead of letting it crumple at base of machine. Continue to feed through without folding, making space between rollers narrower each time and dusting with flour if it begins to stick, until second narrowest setting is reached.
• Lay pasta sheet on a floured surface and cut into 2 (6- by 4-inch) rectangles. Roll out and cut remaining 3 pieces of dough in same manner to form a total of 8 pasta squares.

CHRISTMAS EVE CONFETTI PASTA

Steps:

• Cook linguine according to package directions. Meanwhile, in a Dutch oven, saute the peppers, onion, garlic and seasonings in oil until vegetables are tender., Add the shrimp; cook and stir 2-3 minutes longer or until heated through. Drain linguine; toss with shrimp mixture. Sprinkle with cheese.,

CHRISTMAS PASTA

Steps:

• Heat a deep pot over medium high heat.
• Add oil, garlic, bay leaf, and pancetta bits and brown for 1 minute.
• Add meats and brown.
• Chop carrot, celery, and onions near stove and add to the pot as you work.
• Cook veggies with meat for 5 minutes and add wine.
• Cook for 1 minute; add stock and tomatoes to the pot.
• Stir in parsley, allspice (or cinnamon), and season sauce with salt and pepper.
• Bring sauce to boil, reduce heat to medium low and cook 10 to 15 minutes before serving.
• Toss pasta with a couple of ladles of sauce to coat, then top with extra.
• Top pasta with lots of grated romano cheese.