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Ingredients Pasta Fatta in Casa/Fettuccini*
Directions "Put the flour on a bread-board. Make a hole in the middle of it, and break the eggs into it. Add the water and the salt, and mix all together with a fork until the flour is all absorbed and you have a paste which you can roll out. Then take a rolling-pin and roll it out very thin, about the thickness of a ten-cent piece. Leave it spread out like this until has dried a little. Then double it over a number of times, always lengthwise, and cut it across in strips about one-half inch wide. Boil two quarts of salted water, and put the ribbons into it, and cook for ten minutes, then drain. Serve with the meat and sauce as in receipt for Macaroni with Meat and sauce, or with the tomato sauce and cheese only, as desired." Notes This recipe was taken from "Simple Italian Cookery" written by Antonia Isola (pen name for Mabel Earl McGinnis) and published in English in the United States by Harper and Brothers in 1912. It is believed to be the first American cookbook that contains Italian recipes. For the complete cookbook see www.archive.org. For a variety of recipes from this cookbook see Italy Revisited/"XXX Italian Cookbook by Antonia Isola".... P.S. This is a very good recipe for making pasta dough. It avoids those cursed words which indifferent home cooks like myself dread: "as much as is needed." Any old recipe (as is Isola's) that includes exact measurements is a real find. Also, it's interesting to note that of all the six major Italian cookbooks published in the English language at the turn of the 20th century only Isola and Daly give recipes for making home-made pasta, and sadly, neither of them make mention of the fact that the majority of Italian citizens living in the in countryside generally made their home-made pasta dough without eggs. Poor people's food, until recently, did not hold much interest. Photo and notes: Mary Melfi. |