My Italian Kitchen

This week of meals were pretty Italian, I do have to say that. But, I guess when I look back at our meals, most them at least have some sort of Italian flare in them. Yesterday, I started questioning if I was maybe reaching a point of being "too Italian" in my eating and cooking. This idea hit me as Jon and I were eating at Applebee's and the waiter brought me my pasta and I said to Jon, "This needs more garlic. These are the times that I wish I carried either fresh garlic or garlic powder in my purse." Seriously, I said that out loud. But, it's true, so many times, I want more garlic added to my meals and really, so many dishes are often lacking in herbs and spices anyways. Well, I didn't get extra garlic at the restaurant, but let me tell you, I added both minced and garlic powder to my leftovers. I had the most lovely garlic breath-EVER! I'm glad Jon doesn't mind garlic breath (or at least that's what he says).

In Korea, both of us always had garlic breath because it was so heavily used in all Korean food. So, maybe I have reached a crazy Italian-garlic stage, but so be it, just don't get too close

to me if you don't want garlic breath!

Anyways, on Wednesday, our snow day, I decided to make a very Italian dish called Pasta e Lenticchie. I got the recipe online from Buddy Valastro, he's TLC's extravagant Italian Cake Boss who also has a new show called Kitchen Boss. (I did add beef broth instead of water, which I think he may have mentioned on the video). But, I figured after shoveling so much snow, a nice, warm Italian meal would be great for dinner! Lenticchie is Italian for lentils

and although they haven't been my favorite in the past, I have learned to work with them better and create some tasty dishes. Jon really enjoyed the full-flavored dish, so I think it'll be making another appearance before winter is completely over.

The other Italian thing I did recently was make pasta. I don't have any finished pictures yet because my dough is actually resting as I write this. But, you can see the beginning process pictures to give you a better idea. Today, coincidence or not, I made a green and gold pasta. It's actually herb pasta, but we'll just call it Packer pasta.

Here, you make a well of flour and then put in

eggs, olive oil, salt, and fresh herbs.

Mix it all up and slowly bring in flour from the outside.

Kneading process, it's actually kind of fun-unless I had to do it for hours a day...

By the way, take a look at this picture, it really couldn't get more Italian, unless I threw some sausages hanging from the ceiling and a bottle of open wine (which is actually just outside the picture...). Can you spot... Nona's pasta machine from Italy, Nona's Country House

birthplace mug, semolina flour, olive oil, Italian apron, wooden spoons, wooden pasta board, dried pasta, "romantic" Italian lights (that's a stretch), and a little northern Italian ragazza. Did you find them all? I will update you later with more pasta pictures! Yum, yum!

To add more to this Italian post, I will show you my makeshift pasta rack. Tools: wooden spoons & cook books (both Italian of course). I asked Jon's grandpa if he could make me a pasta rack with his great woodworking skills, but until then, I'll be using my homemade one. Now to let my fresh pasta dry, yay!