Cultural Recipe

In the art world, some can paint a masterpiece landscape, or perhaps an image of a person so realistic it appears to be a high-resolution photograph. Some can write perfect poetry; you cannot stop reading. Writers of fiction use their artistic ability to immerse the reader in a world created entirely in someone’s mind, and the reader can envision that reality simply by the movie playing in their mind’s eye from the words on the page. A true master chef can make a beautiful plate of food. The design of the food, laid out in intricate order and precise placement, is truly an art form unto itself.

Personally, I feel that I am a culinary artist. My food is good! Flavor and design are of my own creation. But hey, when I think about my creations, my design, my form of art, it’s the scribble drawing of the culinary world. Yes, scribble art is a sincere form of art, and it does hang in museums around the world. Look at the creations of Cy Twombly. His scribble paintings have sold for up to $70 million! If that is the case, my form of scribble art, my cooking, can go for as much as a dollar!

Years ago, my grandmother taught me how to make pasta dough. She showed me what to add to achieve the proper density and how to form it into the desired pasta shape, also known as macaroni. Do you know that the shape of the pasta was created for specific meals? This shape will cling to the gravy (another name for the red sauce) better, or this one will allow the garlic and butter to be transported to the diner’s palate in the proper amounts.

I start with a pile of double zero flour, the best, on the table. I add a healthy pinch of salt and some oil and mix it. To that, I make a well in the center, pour in a couple of beaten eggs, and begin mixing the ingredients into the dough. Yes, I use my fingers. They were invented LONG before the fork!

Before long, the dough forms, and you cover it for a bit, letting it rest. After that time expires, there are a billion things you can do with it. It all depends on what you are looking to eat, or, more precisely, on the meal you are creating.

My wife watched me make this pasta dough for the first two decades of our marriage, and in 2005 she asked for the amounts of each ingredient so she could make it on her own. After all, she never met my grandmother. I had absolutely no clue!

Yep, you guessed it: the next Saturday, I picked up the proper flour. She stood there at the kitchen table with a pad and pen. Each step of the way, she had me stop. Together, we measured each ingredient, and she wrote it on her pad of paper.

The oil was rather interesting. I just knew how much needed to be added, so she poured the oil in a milliliter measuring cup; the other side had ounces, of course, and she filled it to the known amount. When it was all done, she subtracted it from the starting amount, and we know how much I used.

As for the salt, I pinched it and filled a 1/8-teaspoon measuring spoon multiple times. So, I used eight-eights of a teaspoon of salt! I mean, one teaspoon. Sorry, I forgot I needed to math the heck out of that measurement for you.

We determined that a 5-pound bag of flour contains roughly 18 cups. That is way too much for a recipe unless you run a restaurant, so we trimmed it down to a family-meal size. I poured that amount of flour on the table and stopped. Measuring it, it is almost exactly three cups. Since flour density depends on a ton of factors, it is a scoop-and-dump amount, so each cup was a tiny bit heaping.

For this quantity of oil, I decided to fill and pour from a 1-teaspoon measuring spoon until I felt it was sufficient. It worked. My preference is to use a high-quality, cold-pressed Extra Virgin Olive Oil, or, as Rachael Ray calls it, EVOO. It has a fresh, grassy, and slightly peppery taste, making it reminiscent of family gatherings when I was a kid growing up on Cleveland’s far east side, in the all-Italian neighborhood of Collinwood.

On Sunday, the entire family showed up at my mom’s for dinner. Sometimes 30 people. My mother started cooking on Sunday at 5:00 AM and did not stop until she sat down to eat. Adults, older people, and kids are all eating and drinking the same thing. Pasta. Meatballs. Braciole. Mild-Sweet-and-Spicy Sausage. Not to mention, there was a huge salad made with only vinegar and oil, red wine vinegar if you must know. Of course, there were the ever-present few giant bowls of pasta.

At the end of the meal, I really enjoyed dipping bread into the salad remnants; the bread soaked up the dressing, and it is a memory very near and dear to my heart.

We all drank my grandfather’s wine, even the kids. The kids got a shot glass of wine and some juice, but regardless, my grandfather always had a toast at the beginning of the meal, and you had to salute with wine. So, I drank wine from an early age and loved it!

But I digress into my past, a place of comfort and warmth, back to making homemade pasta.

Once you have the 3-cup pile of flour, add 4 eggs, EVOO, and salt to a large measuring cup and beat until smooth. My test is to lift the whisk and see if any egg whites are stuck to it. If not, you are ready to continue.

Make a well in the flour, then pour the contents of the measuring cup into it. Slowly incorporate the flour into the egg mixture using a whisk, and once it reaches the point, feel free to use your hands. It does need a bit of work. When it comes together and no longer sticks, cover it and let it sit for a while. I like about 30 minutes for this; it gives me time to clean up any mess left behind.

If you are making long noodles, you can roll them out pretty thin and coat them with a nice layer of flour as you fold them in half a couple of times. Using a very sharp knife, slice it, unfurl it, and let it dry on the table for an hour or so.

Personally, I have my grandmother’s Cavatelli machine. They were married in the early 1930s, and she told me she got it as a wedding gift. It is a Model 50 from the Vitantonio Company of Cleveland, Ohio. Yes, it still works just fine. Looks old, but back then, they made stuff to last. I am using it less and less these days, but when I do, I make 10 pounds of cavatelli, or, as we called them in my youth, cavadills.

I lay them on a paper-lined cookie sheet and freeze them overnight (as in solid), and the next morning I measure out 1.1 pounds per Ziploc Freezer Bag. Enough for 5 people to have seconds.

I could say they will last half a year in the freezer, but they never do.

Here is the actual recipe. I hope you give it a try and enjoy it with family.

Grandma DiLillo's Homemade Pasta Dough

INGREGIENTS:

>>> 3 Cups of Double zero flour

>>> 5 tablespoons of oil (olive or canola are my go-to)

>>> 1 teaspoon of salt

>>> 4 lightly beaten eggs

DIRECTIONS:

----> Dump the flour in a pile in the middle of a large table.

----> Make a hole in the middle of the pile and add ALL of the ingredients.

It should look like a really strange pool.

----> With a fork, begin at the center of the pool and slowly mix in the flour, cutting

in a small amount at a time.

----> When everything is mixed in, knead the dough for a while until it is fully

incorporated (smooth, uniform color and texture).

----> Now you are ready to use the dough. You can roll it out thin and cut it into

strips (like for lasagna), or cut it into small squares (about 1 inch).

This is called tacots (taa-kotts) in my family.

----> If you own a pasta machine, go for it!!

Now, make pasta,

sit around the table with your family,

eat, and talk.