Homemade angel hair pasta made easy with a sweet as springtime sweet pea shoot sauce;  dinner in under 2 hours, you will never want dried pasta again.

We took a lunch time trip over to the Ferry Plaza and found these beautiful sweet pea shoots.  I loved the little curly vines and the sweet white flowers;  we knew we could make something yummy out of it.  The last time we ate them we were in New York and they were served over a beautiful piece of halibut, it was such a memorable meal.  We also picked up some sweet white corn which was fresh from the farm, there is nothing like it, you can even eat it right from the cob without cooking – perfect!

We picked up a fun little kitchen item when we were in Montreal, a hand cranking pasta machine, we could not wait to try it out.  We have been talking about getting a pasta machine ever since we hand rolled raviolis and now we found one at the perfect price – Canadian dollars!  We could not wait to try it out so we decided that even though we may end up eating at midnight, we would try it out.

It was easy and fun!  After making the pasta dough, in the food processor and letting it rest for 30 minutes, it took less than 30 minutes to roll the dough, cut it and cook it.   It was a great meal to make together – Lenny was our pasta maker while I tossed together a great sauce of shallots, sweet white corn and sweet pea shoots, fresh as spring and very flavorful!  At the end of our meal it was unanimous that we will never go back to dried pasta!

Recipe: Homemade Pasta

2 cups semolina flour

1 teaspoon kosher salt

2 eggs

4 tablespoons water

2 tablespoons olive oil

Using your food processor with the dough hook, combine the flour and salt.  With the processor running add the eggs, one at a time, and then the water and olive oil.  Continue mixing until smooth, about 5 minutes.  The dough will be stiff.  Turn out on a floured surface and knead for about 5 minutes until elastic.  Wrap dough in plastic and let rest for 30 minutes.  Use as your favorite pasta, either in a machine (follow your instructions) or by rolling out and cutting as desired.

Recipe:  White Corn and Sweet Pea Shoot Sauce

1 white corn, kernels removed

1/2 lb sweet pea shoots, cleaned and cut into bite size pieces

2 shallots, minced

1 garlic, minced

3 tablespoons olive oil

1/4 cup reserved pasta water

sea salt, to taste

fresh cracked black pepper, to taste

Heat olive oil in frying pan.  Saute shallots until soft, about 5 minutes.  Add corn and saute about 3 minutes.  Add pea shoots and saute, just until bright green.  Add garlic and saute for about 3 more minutes.  Remove from heat and season with salt and pepper.  Before serving add the reserved pasta water, stir and add to pasta of choice.