Handmade fettucini with sautéed greens, feta and mint

Fresh, zesty pasta.

Today I decided that I needed to learn how to make bread. And pasta. Bread = another post. Pasta = this post. 

I bought a pasta machine yesterday, so I was keen to try it out. It wasn't too tricky, just a question of making sure that the pasta dough had the right balance of flour and moisture. It's pretty cool when the pasta rolls out of the machine and actually looks like pasta!

Real pasta!

The next test was seeing whether or not it would hold when cooking. I was worried that it might all fall apart, but it boiled up nicely. 

For the pasta "sauce", I used olive oil, Sangiovese verjuice, lemon juice, lemon zest, garlic, salt, pepper and ground Nigella seeds. 

Nigella seeds are the little black spots you sometimes see on Turkish bread. They have quite a strong, earthy, salty taste and added a lot of flavour to the dish. 

To go with the pasta, I prepared some sugar snap peas, broccolini sprouts and fresh mint from my garden. These were sautéed in order to keep a bit of crunch and their bright colour. I then added some crumbed imported Greek feta that I splurged on today (I love my IGA!). It was worth it - absolutely delicious. 

Last of all, I added shaved parmesan and some extra mint leaves as a garnish.

The result was a light and tangy pasta with a nice kick to it. The mint added a few extra highlights and kept it nice and fresh.

My new pasta machine, now covered in flour.