Yesterday, after dinner, Victor noted we had a goodly amount of sauce left from the cioppino, but very little seafood – definitely not enough for another meal. His solution was to make sure there were no shells left – and then he took an immersion blender to it and made a tomato seafood sauce. It looked to be the perfect sauce for a pasta dish – and a really good base for a soup.

First thing this morning, Victor said he had dinner covered, tonight – he had a pasta plan. I definitely wasn’t going to argue with him – Mrs Dineen did not raise a fool!

He had a bit of homemade pasta dough in the freezer, and with a sauce that only needed tweaking, he had a stupendous dinner on the table with relatively little effort – he has pasta rolling and cutting down to a science.

Fresh Pasta

• 1 cup tipo ’00’ flour
• 1/3 cup semolina flour
• 2 eggs
• pinch salt
• 1 tbsp water – maybe

Mix flour, salt, and eggs until fully combined. Knead on a floured board until smooth, adding a drop or two of additional water, if needed.

Let the dough rest for 30 minutes, and then roll out using pasta machine. You can roll this with a rolling pin, but a pasta roller is so much easier!

Lightly dust and then fold the pasta strips.

And then cut to desired width.

Unfold and place on a floured sheet pan.

Cook in lightly boiling salted water for about 3 minutes. Then add to sauce and cook an additional 2 minutes.

He cooked up some roasted red pepper sausage and more garlic and added it to the sauce for a bit more pizzazz, and cut the pasta into a thin fettuccine.

Perfection.

I think I’m going to take the rest of the sauce and make some soup, tomorrow. We’ll never replicate any of this but it doesn’t matter – we’re eating well and waste not, want not!