Dinner of Homemade Pasta Bolognese

When contemplating moving to another country, if you’re at all like me you wonder about the food.  After exploring a few local delicacies, my attention shifted back towards pasta, my favorite comfort food.  At first, things did not look good.  Semolina, a critical ingredient for high-quality pasta, is not widely grown in Chile.  As a result, most  pasta here does not contain it, resulting in depressing gray, chewy pasta.   With limited options and unable to decrease our family’s pasta consumption, we decided to make our own pasta, and have been delighted with the results.

We recently incorporated pasta making into our daily routine, and it is essentially a fun new hobby for the entire family.  We hadn’t made pasta since leaving San Francisco, but found that it is both faster and easier than we remembered.  Together with our 2 year-old helper, we’re making the pasta traditionally but with a Chilean twist, using all local ingredients.  We have been amazed by how different and delicious fresh, home-made pasta tastes.  We plan to continue making pasta ourselves since nothing hits the spot like pasta prepared by hand, with love.

Pasta Ingredients with a Chilean Twist

We follow a classic pasta recipe, using one egg and one cup semolina flour per person, adding in a touch of olive oil, salt, and water if warranted.

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs
• 2 cups semolina
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• pinch salt, if desired
• dash of water, if needed

Yield:  2 servings

Method:

• The first step in making fresh pasta is to build a flour and egg “volcano,” so to speak.  Our two year old enjoys piling up the semolina to make a “volcano,” sifting it through her fingers as she uses two hands to form it into a mound.
• Make a large well in the center of the “volcano” for eggs.
• Remove all toddlers from the vicinity (eggs are too tempting for them, and will likely end up on fingers!)
• Add eggs, and then olive oil, salt (optional), and water (see Tips, Tricks, and Tidbits below.)

Pouring Eggs into the "Volcano"

• Use a fork, and later your hands to fold the ingredients together, softly bringing the semolina into the eggs until the ingredients are evenly mixed together.
• Begin working the sheets of dough through the pasta machine, folding and re-running it through the first two settings until you have a smooth sheet of dough.

Folding in Semolina

• Once the dough is rolled to your desired thickness, let it rest for a few minutes before cutting it into pasta.
• Sprinkle a bit of semolina on the sheets of pasta so avoid sticking, use a sharp knife, and cut the pasta.

Transforming Dough into Pasta

• From here, the pasta can be quickly cooked (think two minutes), then it’s ready for a sauce and immediate consumption.

Pasta Ready for Cooking

Tips, Tricks, and Tidbits:

Since semola (Spanish for semolina) flour is not common in Chile, it is a bit tricky to find.  Our naturista was out of it, and tried to sell us couscous instead.  Although couscous is essentially little balls of semolina, it is a processed product so is much more expensive than the base ingredient of semola in Chile.  We eventually found several brands of semola in the grocery store, not in the flour row, but next to the sauces!

Prior to adding the eggs, the first critical step is finding good eggs, and we’re fortunate to have access to Araucana eggs which are blue-green in color and contain bright yellow yolks.  There are a few unofficial vendors selling these eggs at the Feria Fluvial on Saturdays and Sundays, sitting right next to the market but not actually in specific stalls.  We’ve found these ladies have the good stuff, and are our go-to people for eggs as well as for Peruvian potatoes.

We’re using a Chilean extra-virgin olive oil, which seems to work well with the Chilean eggs.  There are various quality levels of olive oil produced in Chile, and you can find everything from high-end to low-end olive oils at the supermarket, for relatively affordable prices.  I generally find them a bit more full-bodied and floral than their Italian counterparts, which contrasts nicely with the wild, gamey character of the Araucana eggs.  The Araucana eggs are delicious but small, so it is important to add a little bit of water to the dough.  When using larger eggs, water is often not necessary.

Anyone can make pasta, even beginning cooks like me!  Fortunately, I have help from my toddler, who debates between wanting to be a chef, winemaker, president, llama, or kangaroo when she grows up.  She enjoys “helping” me turn the pasta crank and providing musical accompaniment, singing “roll, roll, roll the pasta gently through the machine…” to the tune of “row, row, row your boat.”