Crawfish Fettucine

Having an old friend stop by is reason to celebrate!  We used to live near Washington, DC in Arlington, VA and often had get together's, BBQ's, Bar Crawls, etc.  These days, we live in the suburbs, hence the "City 2 Burb" blog name.  Well, when Erika, an old friend from our "fun & lively" days stopped by yesterday, I knew I had to cook up something special for her.

She took leftovers.  Nick is eating leftovers today.  And I can't WAIT to warm up MY leftovers.  This was really yummy, slightly spicy, creamy, pretty (nice flash of color with the crawfish tails) and pretty simple.  I will say that you go through plenty of dishes with this recipe, but the end result is worth it, and while in the final stage of this recipe, you have time to clean the pots!  haha.

Crawfish Fettucine

Here's what I used:

2 lbs crawfish tails (Louisiana, if possible.  Chinese is ok, but not quite the same)
2 medium onions, chopped
1 1/2 tbsp dried parsley
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup butter, unsalted (no, this is not a Paula Deen recipe)
1 tsp jalapeno relish
6 oz Velveeta Cheese
1/3 cup half and half
Tony Chacheries Cajun Seasoning

S&P

1 lb Fettucine

1/3 cup shredded Parmesan Cheese

Here's what I did:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large saucepan, set butter to melt over medium heat.  Add onions and bell pepper and let cook until translucent, about 10 minutes.  Add garlic, parsley and crawfish tails, and stir to incorporate.  Let cook another 5-10 minutes.  Add Velveeta, cream and jalapeno relish and stir to incorporate.  Taste.  Add 1 tsp Tony Chacheries or other Cajun Seasoning, Salt and Pepper to taste.

Meanwhile, set a stock pot to boil, and cook Fettucine to al dente.  Drain and set aside.

Incorporate crawfish sauce and pasta, and then add them to a glass baking dish.  Sprinkle top with Parmesan, and bake for 15-20 minutes.

I served this with warm french bread.  It was really good.

Fresh Egg Pasta (Fettuccine) with Butter and Parmesan

Due to record snowfall and impending cabin fever, I gave Nick his Valentines Day Gift Early.  I figured it would only benefit me if I got some fresh pasta out of the deal.  Amazon was running a special on the Kitchen Aid Roller, Linguine and Spaghetti attachments, so I got that along with a pasta drying rack and the Complete Book of Pasta and Noodles. 

Nick started by reading the entire book of instructions, he likes to take his time and understand his new gadgets.  Once he had tried the attachments on the front of the mixer, he picked a recipe out of the book.

We agreed that he should keep the first go-round simple.  Mainly because during my THREE trips to the nearby grocery store in preparation for the 33" inches that would soon envelop our house, I had forgotten eggs,so we only had 3 eggs in the whole house.  One if the key ingredients to pasta, as well as several other meals that we've not had the ability to make due to our egg-lessness.

Finally, as an impulse more than a necessity, and due to lack of ingenuity on my part, I also ordered a pasta drying rack.  I don't know that there is a prettier culinary picture than fresh pasta hanging from one of these contraptions.  Beautiful.

For the dough, which last time we tried our hands at it, we did by hand with a mound of flour - this time we used the Kitchen Aid mixer. 

Fresh Egg Pasta

Here's what we used:

2 cups all-purpose flour (sifted)
3 large eggs, beaten

Here's what we did:

Using our Kitchen Aid standing mixer and flat paddle attachment, added flour and briefly pulsed to aerate the flour.  Then, added eggs, and mixed for about 30 seconds.  (Nick is a little particular, so he used a kitchen timer).  Removed formed dough, and added flour to our countertop and kneaded dough for 2 minutes.  At this point, we noticed that the dough was a little tough, so we added 1/2 tsp of water - which helped to loosen up the dough and make it more soft/pliable (you can do this by 1/2 tsp until the consistency is what you want).  Then Nick tightly wrapped the dough in saran wrap and allowed it to rest for 15 minutes (you can leave it for up to 2 hours).

At this point, Nick attached the manual pasta roller and set to the widest setting, #1.  He cut the dough into 6 pieces, and ran the first dough ball through, twice at each setting up to the 4th setting.  At this point and thickness, he was able the attachment for the Fettuccine attachment, and run each flattened dough strip through.  Once cut, we carefully moved the Fettuccine strands to the drying rack to rest.

Meanwhile, 4 quarts of water was rapidly boiling, and right before dropping the noodles in, we salted generously with kosher salt and allowed the pasta to cook for 2-3 minutes, until just al dente.  We then drained the pasta and returned it to the pot.

Fettuccine with Butter and Parmesan

Here's what we used:

5 tbsp unsalted butter

1/2 cup fresh grated parmesan (not the powdered stuff in your fridge)

Here's what we did:

Now that pasta is cooked, drained and sitting in the stock pot, add butter and parmesan and cook over low heat for 1 minute, tossing to combine ingredients. 

We divided this among 3 1/2 bowls (little one for Sydney) and enjoyed every....last....bite.  Fresh pasta is divine.  So good...