In the last few years I have been really interested in nutrition. It all started my first year of college when my Composition professor had us spend half the semester researching Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) and writing argumentative papers on whether or not we thought our food should be labeled for GMO's. That semester sparked my interest in food science and nutrition. I started exploring blogs which informed its readers about what is actually in our food and what illnesses are linked to all the additives in processed food. If this is something that interested you too I highly suggest checking out Vani Deva Hari's blog Food Babe. Vani has fought the good fight against a lot of big chain fast food restaurants to get their shady ingredients exposure as well as improve what ingredients they use. Remember when all the News broadcasts were talking about Starbucks' Pumpkin Spice Latte having no actual pumpkin? That was Vani and her 'Food Babe army!' Another blog I turn to for food information is Annie Lawless' blog BLAWNDE. Annie is one of the founders of the crazy, popular, local juice company Suja (which is amazing and you should try every one of their juices). She has a really awesome series on her blog called "You think its healthy but its lying" that takes food you think is a good choice and explains why those "healthy" foods are actually needed in moderation if not at all. So what does this have to do with ravioli?Part of the reason I am really interested in making ravioli from scratch is controlling what I choose to put in my body. I am deeply interested in how our body breaks down certain foods and how that effects us in other ways. When I started to look into ravioli, I wanted to know what exactly goes into making pasta from scratch. I found a lot of amazing recipes on Pinterest and one that actually led me to a really interesting blog post about making pasta from scratch. Niki Achitoff-Gray over at Series Eats did a lot of the dirty work when it comes to making pasta from scratch. She basically spent all day in her test kitchen, playing around with ingredients until she found the best combination of ingredients for fresh pasta. Not to mention, she has some series food photography skills for each step by step instruction. Something that I wish to mimic when I actually get into making it myself next week. In case you're wondering why I didn't start this week, I wanted to work on researching my topic thoroughly at first before creating a mess in the kitchen. Also, this weekend was my Mom's 50th birthday and that took over my "play" time. Lets Breakdown the Ingredients!FLOUR, EGGS, WATER, SALT! OH MY!The first ingredient that pasta has to have is flour. When you mix water with flour you get gluten! According to Achitoff-Gray, gluten is, "the network of proteins that gives pasta its stretchy texture and bite." There are 3 staple flours when it comes to Italian cooking: All Purpose (AP), "00", and Semolina. AP is the most widely used in home kitchens because it is widely available. "00" is a finely milled flour that is often used in pizza dough due to its powder like texture and ability to create a delicate dough. Semolina flour is a heartier texture of flour and allows for the sauce to grip the noodle. Those sandy little bits on the bottom of your pizza are often Semolina flour! Some recipes call for a mix of 00 and Semolina but Achitoff-Gray didn't test that out in her experiments, she only used AP. Looks like I found myself something to experiment with! According to the blog, the flour and water pasta was a sticky, worthless mess, and the flour and egg white pasta was not that much better. The Egg yolk pasta was too stiff to roll out a pasta that would be stuffed (big no go for ravioli). The author said, "Unfortunately, that high fat content complicates things a little bit. Though not exactly scientifically accurate, you can think of that fat as making the gluten proteins all slippery, preventing them from building a strong network—when I tested this using different amounts of olive oil, I found that, sure enough, more oil made for softer, mushier, less elastic noodles." She found that by using both whole eggs and egg yolks, the pasta dough would come together easier and make for a nice, flexible dough ready to be stuffed with whatever my heart desired! PRO TIP: Mixing by hand guarantees that you can fix your dough as you are mixing. She also played around with salt, water, and proportions but I'll cut to the good part and share the recipe for pasta dough:
Okay, so next week... It is pasta making time!! I plan on making a classic cheese stuffed ravioli with tomato basil sauce. In addition to making the pasta, documenting the process through pictures, and taste testing, I will provide fun history factoids about ravioli! Buon Appetito!
4 Comments
Caitlin Eichlin
3/8/2016 10:02:33 am
Sarah,
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Sophia Monaco
3/9/2016 10:42:38 am
This is an awesome post packed with great information! There are some many resources just in this one post, I can tell you really spent a lot of time researching this topic. I now know where to go if I ever need to look up information about pasta! I can't wait to see how this research helps you make your ravioli.
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Morgan Conroy
3/22/2016 02:24:27 pm
Wow! That is some great research! It so interesting how slight changes can make such a big difference!
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Sarah Hunter
4/27/2016 01:20:42 pm
This was a really great read! Who knew there could be so much to this! I'm pretty sure I've only ever had cheese ravioli with the occasional spinach mixed in. So many cool possibilities!
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