<saffron pasta>

As I was walking out the door of my office in mid-February, heading to Rome for a family vacation, I asked Catherine if there was anything in particular she wanted me to do. “Find out what the spring fashion color is this year…it will show up first in Rome. “ This was a new one for me. I am a very visual person and would certainly look for color in the Roman parks and markets. I've noitced before the blue-grey water of the Tiber river, the silver, sage and mustard of the mottled sycamore trunks, the fabulous muted spectrum of yellow, orange and peach colored buildings, the rainbow of colors in Testaccio and Campo di Fiori, the asparagus, artichokes, anchovies, squid, tomatoes, oranges, chicories, ricotta, pecorinos, prosciuttos, rabbits, eggs and on and on. I was excited to add shop windows to the list of things to check out as well.

We arrived in Rome early in the morning and wanted to stay awake so we walked and walked, stopping for cappuccino, cournettes and panini. Eventually we made our way to Via del Corso where I got the answer for Catherine and checked the assignment off my list. The color was yellow. I saw yellow dresses, bags, bracelets and men’s shirts. Yellow was everywhere. Although the weather was still a little wintery, the color yellow and the smooching young people, called out that spring was in the Roman air.

In Italy, fresh, hand made pasta is also yellow. Italian egg yolks tend to be such a rich deep color, that they dominate the white flour and create a warm saffron hue. When I got home to snowy Boston, I wanted to bring some of that cheery sunshine yellow to the table. I wanted to make pasta that color but our Bostonian yolks are typically just too pale so I decided to add a dash of saffron to my dough.

Making homemade pasta is easy. All you need is flour, a liquid and a willingness to make a mess in the kitchen. The basic proportion that I like to use is 9 ounces (or about 2 cups) flour and ½ cup liquid. If you stick with this proportion, you can play around with all kinds of different liquids and flours. Try whole wheat, fine cornmeal, semolina, buckwheat or farro. One bit of advice: be sure you use some all purpose flour because the other flours have little or no gluten. Without the gluten, there is no structure to the dough. For the liquid, experiment with wine, water or vegetable purees. Check out my two-part video for a hands-on lesson followed by a saffron pasta recipe and three easy pasta recipes for dinner. (And a special thanks to Joshi Radin for putting together these awesome videos).

Saffron Pasta

9 ounces all-purpose flour or about 2 cups

3 eggs or about ½ cup

¼ teaspoon saffron bloomed in 1 teaspoon water

For those of you with a food processor, here's the recipe to use:

Put the flour in the bowl of a food processor. Beat the eggs in a bowl with a fork. With the food processor running, add the beaten eggs in a steady stream. Add the bloomed saffron. Process until the dough comes together and is smooth and elastic, about 4 minutes. If the dough seems sticky, add a little more flour. Put the ball of dough in a bowl and cover with plastic. Let rest 20 minutes.

Divide the dough into 6 pieces. Cover 5 of the pieces with plastic. Flatten the remaining piece of dough slightly with your hand, dust it the with flour and crank it through a manual pasta machine with the rollers set at their maximum distance apart, the setting labeled “1”. Now fold the dough in thirds as though you were folding a sheet of typing paper. Run the dough through the machine again, feeding the narrow side into the rollers. Repeat the process of folding and rolling two more times. This process kneads the dough and prepares it for the next step of thinning it. Don’t hesitate to sprinkle the dough with flour as you continue running it through the machine. You don’t want it to stick to the rollers.

Gradually roll the dough to the desired thinness, narrowing the distance between the rollers with each pass of the dough. If the dough tears just patch it back together and roll it through the same setting again, a little slower this time. If the dough sticks to the rollers, sprinkle it with flour. You will soon get the feel for the right speed and the proper level of moisture to keep the dough rolling efficiently. After you’ve rolled the dough through the “6” setting it should be thin enough to cut into any string pasta.

Let the dough dry for 5 to 10 minutes before cutting noodles. Transfer cut noodles to a board or a sheet pan covered with a towel lightly dusted with flour.