What to do with leftovers

Besides eating them.

Nobody really likes to serve (or eat) the same thing day after day.

So what can you do?  Well, on Monday night I roasted fingerling potatoes as a side dish.  On Tuesday night, I mashed them and added one chopped green onion.

On Tuesday night I made meatloaf.  Aunt Kate would insist that we should have meatloaf sandwiches today.

Tonight I'm making rigatoni and gravy.  This time the gravy will be laced with Italian sausage.

I will mix the leftovers with some mozzarella and assorted other cheeses and freeze for a future meal.

Sometimes I actually plan the leftovers into the original meal.  Nifty, eh?

That's what I'm cooking; how about you?

happy cooking

Pasta

So Aunt Kate (the one who is cooking with me on Monday) gave me a pasta attachment for my Kitchen Aid Artisan Stand Mixer.  I was very excited to try it.

But the recipe in the book didn't strike my fancy.  I had just seen Emeril Lagasse make fresh pasta.  (I told you I watch a lot of cooking shows.)  I wanted to make it as close to authentic as I could get.  I had already purchased some semolina flour, so last Monday I rolled up my sleeves and got started.

My technique definitely needs some honing.  My "well" of flour didn't have steep enough sides.  I was chasing eggs all over my counter.  I felt that I needed to add a little water before the dough came together.  And an additional egg.  I fear this may have made for a "gummy" dough.  It sure looked pretty though when it came time to wrap and refrigerate.


So I wait my 30 minutes, attached my attachment, and start to feed small  balls of dough into the feed.  I was so proud of myself as I fell into this rhythm where I could cut the pasta and feed more dough into the apparatus all without turning the machine off.  Problem was, as you can see from the photo, I wasn't separating the strands.  And consequently, the buccatini fused together.


All in all, the pasta tasted fantastic.  I just renamed it "blob-sta" as no amount of flour on the board or olive oil in the water could un-fuse the noodles.  We couldn't even save the leftovers.  I mean really, who wants to need a knife to eat their pasta.

So, I will try again.  I will use a different technique.  I'll try mixing the dough in my food processor.

Do you have any experience with this that you could share?  I'd appreciate any tips I can get.

happy cooking