1/9/12 Chicken Marinara with Homemade Pasta and Roasted Green Beans

Tonight called for homemade pasta! After this evening I decided that there is no reason for us to buy dry pasta again. Other than the nutritional reasons, maybe it is all in my head, but the dish just tastes so much better when it is homemade. Even better, it is a fun way for Griffen to help in the Kitchen!

Making pasta is fairly easy. It takes 2-5 ingredients depending on the recipe that you use.
Here are some great tutorials on youtube.com to help you get started.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9LHk0AJI7U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dY-GL5FINOA

I prefer using Semolina Flour, specifically Bob's Red Mill. This can be found at most grocery stores in the specialty or organic section. I just use the recipe on the back of the package which calls for flour, salt, eggs, water, and olive oil. Pretty simple! You can even choose to do 50% Semolina and 50% all purpose flour.
I have a Kitchenaid paster roller attachment but if you don't you can always pick up a hand crank pasta roller from craigslist, amazon, or even Bed Bath and Beyond. Although I have the pasta roller attachment I don't have a cutter so after rolling my pasta I used a pizza cutter to create my "spaghetti" noodles. As you can see they aren't exactly thin. The nice thing is that you can make spaghetti, fettucine, ravioli, tortellini, or lasagna. Whatever type of pasta you need you can make!

Once you have cut your pasta it only takes about 3 minutes to cook. I added a bit of olive oil to my boiling water.

In a previous post I spoke about tomatoes not being local this time of year. This is the best reason to find a local farmstand where you can buy a box of tomatoes in the summer. Many farmers do this. We have a bulk buy program through church and I am notified when the different produce items are available. For example, I am able to purchase a 25 lb. box of tomatoes at a price of about $12. I water bath can the tomatoes by the quart without adding anything additional to them. This gives me the option to doctor them up any way that I please depending on the meal that I am making. Don't worry if you don't can, you can also freeze tomatoes to be used later in the year. Either way you are saving by buying in bulk and you are also supporting your local farmer!
I combined canned  tomotoes, garlic, seasonings, and a little Trader Joes Alfredo to make my sauce. Instead of ground beef I chose to use chicken tonight.
I roasted the green beans in the oven with a little bit of olive oil, salt, and pepper.
Where did the ingredients come from?
Pasta - Shannon's Kitchen! Again, you can use all purpose flour or you can pick up some Semolina flour.
Sauce - Canned tomatoes - Tonnemaker Farms, Royal City
Green Beans - Frozen organic from Costco (This summer I will be freezing beans to use for next year)
Don't forget the Cream Top Milk!