The Joy of (Kitchenaid) Cooking

Christmas. The word alone brings tingles of excitement; especially since this was my first Christmas in the United States as Mrs. Kristy Jewett. It was also the first Christmas that I was more excited after Christmas Day than the days leading up to it. As Matt and I left his parents' house late Christmas night, I surveyed the large pile of gifts in the back seat of Matt's Pathfinder: a spice grinder, microplane, oven thermometer, funnels, and, the largest box, the pasta roller/cutter attachment for my Kitchenaid mixer.

Oh, the dishes I could make now! My 10-square-foot kitchen quivered at the thought of the new additions. Where to put it all? That didn't matter, homemade pumpkin ravioli with a butter sage sauce was begging in my ear to be the inagural recipe for my new Kitchenaid accesories.

With the Los Angeles rainstorm loudly announcing its presence outside, I gleefully mixed the flour, salt and eggs for my pasta dough, with full intentions to make ravioli for each of my dear friends. Humming to myself, I passed the dough through those magical rollers for the 20th time, and then I couldn't help but wonder how the fettuccini and spaghetti cutters would shape my precious dough. With all of the willpower of a 13-year-old boy in a video game store, I immediately pulled the other two Kitchenaid attachments out of the box and watched as beautiful long strings of spaghettini and fettuccini came tumbling out. Now the dilemma remained: use immediately, dry, or freeze the pasta for later? Hmmm, I thought to myself, I will freeze this first attempt at homemade pasta so that I can reuse it later.

Two hours later, I decided that the ravioli would have to wait; I should use a portion of the pasta I was planning on freezing, for lunch. As I attempted to separate the strands of gorgeous homemade spaghetti, it all began to stick together as if some sick junior high joke, forcing me into a full temper-tantrum and to throw the entire batch into the garbage. The remaining fettucini, my most recent attempt at cutting pasta, now fell subject to my hunger. Fettuccini with pine nuts and brown butter . Mmmmmmm. I eyed the delicate strips of pasta laying on the dishtowel. "Should I even attempt this?" I thought to myself. "Why, of course!" my darling new friend on my shoulder replied. "You will never know if you don't try."

And on his recommendation, I tossed my last remaining precious strings of fettucini into the boiling water and began to heat my pan of butter. As the butter melted and the fettucini cooked, I examined my creation: what wonders it contained! The dark specks of browning butter, the pinenuts getting browner by the second as theyt happily bathed in the butter, the incredible strings of fettuccini beggining to float in the pot of boiling water. Ok, so no pasta was going to be frozen for future meals, but this lunch was going to be pretty incredible. And boy was I right. Here is the recipe for Fettuccini con Pignioli e Burro, one of my new favorites.

Fettucini con Pignioli e Burro

1/2 lb Fettuccini
5 T butter
1/2 C pinenuts

Add fettuccini to 4 cups boiling water. For fresh pasta, boil 4 minutes. For dried pasta, boil 8-10 minutes, or until tender with a bit of a bite ("al dente"). In a small fry pan, melt the butter. Turn heat to medium high, add pinenuts, cook until pinenuts are golden brown. Drain pasta, add butter mixture. Serve immediately.