Matcha noodles with basil cream and giveaway winner

Well, the long-expected moment of revealing the winner of the giveaway has come. I'm sure you've been biting your nails the whole week long... Thanks to all participants! Also I'm giving in this post my first pasta recipe in the blog... I'm not a great pasta lover. It's not that I dislike it, but it's never among my favourites. I find it a bit boring (I feel your hatred coming my way...). But let's get to the point...


First to the giveaway winner: Tsue of That's what she said. Congrats, Tsue! I hope you enjoy your giveaway. To all the non-winners, thanks for participating, it's always nice to see there's someone out there. You can make the matcha pasta to help you get over the mighty blow of not winning...



And now to the recipe. As I said, I don't eat pasta myself that often. I make it for my kids, which are great pasta lovers like most children are. They're the reason for me to buy a pasta machine a year ago (or maybe the excuse for more experiments?). I must admit though that fresh homemade pasta has a far superior flavor and a texture than store-bought pasta. And I especially like stuffed pasta, it allows you to play with really crazy fillings, although making it is quite time-consuming. This time I wanted to try and add some matcha tea I still had left from this cake.

Homemade pasta with matcha tea
Yields 3-4 servings

• 260-270g hard wheat flour
• 3 heaped tsp matcha tea
  
• 3 medium eggs
  

The ratio is usually 100g flour to 1 egg, but I prefer to add less flour and add more later if needed. It depends on the size of the eggs and the hydration capacity of each flour.

1. Break the eggs and put them in the bowl of a stand mixer or food processor. Add the flour and the tea.
   
2. I use my Thermomix, 15 seconds mixing on speed 6 and 1 minute kneading. The mixture will be crumbly at the beginning but it starts to become more cohesive at a certain point during the kneading. Make a ball with the dough, wrap in plastic foil and leave to rest for half an hour. See this link for some tips on using the food processor for making pasta dough.
   
3. You know a pasta machine makes things a lot easier, although it's not really essential to make pasta. You can roll the dough with a rolling pin and cut it with a knife. I dry the pasta on a floured tray and freeze it in small portions when I'm not going to use it immediately. Boil the noodles for 4-5 minutes in salty water. Drain and add the cream.
   

My noodles were indeed very cute, but the tea flavour was hardly noticeable. Next time I will add more tea.



The concept for the basil cream comes from a book on Medieval cooking by a modern cook, Mincka, that I bought in Provence 2 years ago (how cool of me!). It's just a mixture of good olive oil, a lot of fresh basil and garlic.

Basil cream

• 250ml virgin olive oil
• 2 large handfuls of basil
• 2 cloves of garlic

Separate the basil leaves from the stems, peel the garlic cloves and throw everything with the oil in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until it gets the desired consistency. Transfer it to a nice bottle or container. This mixture lasts for very long in good condition, there's no need to keep it in the fridge. Only the basil loses its green fresh color through time, turning brownish. Just a drizzle of this cream on any pizza or focaccia is enough to give it a delicious basil aroma. It's so delectable that I like it plain spread on a warm toast...