Homemade pasta with a fresh sauce made from tomatoes out of our garden. It does not suck to be us.

Some meals are over-the-top because of their exotic ingredients. Others are over-the-top because of their simplicity. Tonight’s dinner was definitely of the latter.

Fresh pasta is flour and eggs. It does not get much more basic. We use Italian flour, but all-purpose will do. We also add semolina – but you can still make a good pasta without it. Don’t let the lack of a specialty ingredient keep you from making this.

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.

The sauce was another lesson in simplicity.

Fresh tomatoes – not peeled or anything – with fresh leeks, green onions, a bit of anchovy paste, tomato paste, wine, garlic, zucchini, crushed red pepper, and salt and pepper.

Some freshly grated parmigiano reggiano on top.

Rich and silky-smooth, bursting with flavor. Absolute perfection.

And while we’re talking about tomatoes from the garden, we added to our sauces…

We now have sauce from Black Krim tomatoes, San Marzano tomatoes, Green Zebra tomatoes, and Brandywine Yellow tomatoes. Hopefully, we’ll get another dozen or so quarts before we head to California mid-month.

Pretty awesome…