Beetroot Pasta Disaster

fx

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 08:10:45 GMT

Kimberly, thanks for visiting, yes indeed potatoes might have helped!

Kim

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 17:44:36 GMT

Fx, I just found your site and love it :)big time foodie and your site is lots of fun..How about mixing in some potato in the dough? It gives it body and sturdiness, and tastes great with the beets.mushrooms are good to add also; they aborb the liquid and give good flavor.Neat recipe..hope all of us can tweak it . great idea.Kimberly

CKfusionist

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 08:00:43 GMT

Hmm , i never like beetroot. Guess the taste is a tad too strong for me. My housemate from Germany seems to enjoy it though....Beetroot with tuna anyone ?

fx

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 09:30:40 GMT

Carolina, if you can be content with beets straight out the oven you should not complain, this is great food and very healthy! Perhaps you might cook a gallon at time to make sure there is some left for whatever recipe you were planning?

Carolina de Witte

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 09:45:48 GMT

I love the idea. I am with the others who suggested roasting the beets first. The problem I would have is that the minute the beets come from the oven, I want to eat them all right away. I have lost several salads I meant to make from a variety of beets, because I ate most of them while hot with butter and pepper...told myself I was just having a "sample" to make sure they were edible...LOL!! I am really loving your site, thanks for sharing this all.

fx

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 15:38:35 GMT

Emma, thanks for your kind words! I"ll try to make my next article about a success though!

fx

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 15:26:49 GMT

Traci, thanks for your praise! Unfortunately when the pasta starts looking like a pie crust, it stops being digestible. Ah, but what fun I had!

fx

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 15:23:43 GMT

Christey, thanks for visiting and congrats for the pictures too! Seems you are having fun down there in Florida with the husband cooking and you taking the pictures like a pro! Cheers

fx

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 15:12:00 GMT

Callipygia, thanks, I"m glad my beetroot tribulations turned into something enjoyable by other people!

fx

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 15:05:56 GMT

Gayle, I"ll be posting more about the photo-taking, there is much to be said about it! But the light is really the most important part.

fx

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 15:03:41 GMT

Paul, I ate it all right, just wasn"t all it promised to be!

fx

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 15:01:54 GMT

Orme, thanks for visiting! Yes pasta dough needs kneading, and if you use the macchinetta often you tend to forget this as it does it for you. Very hard to knead pasta dough!

fx

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 14:59:46 GMT

Patrick, thanks for visiting, this is indeed praise from Caesar!

fx

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 14:57:15 GMT

Nick, I don"t know where I can rent an Italian mama, but definitely roasting the beetroots sounds like a great idea within my capabilities!

emma p

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 05:01:53 GMT

Sorry the dish wasn"t successful. Your blog is incredibly entertaining, even when the recipe doesn"t quite turn out. I really enjoy all of your adventures.
I look forward to your next plunge.

Traci ~ Soup of The Day

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 01:55:30 GMT

I have no idea what you"re talking about, it looks delicious to me! I know, I wasn"t there.... but to me the pasta looks almost like pie crust! Which sounds really good right now, at 11:30 pm., even if it was stuffed with beets.

christey

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 19:07:10 GMT

wow! that is quite a setup you have there! looks good! I am not so sure about beets, but this looks so good, and I can"t imagine anything with that much cheese could come out otherwise.

Callipygia

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 16:20:40 GMT

FX- first, your kitchen is beautiful! Second, the beetroot pasta baby is so funny, the floating pasta sheet, the lipstick smeared bonbon. Must have made a memorable evening, you"re still the best!

Gayle

Sun, 15 Jun 2008 01:01:46 GMT

Enjoyed your story and liked seeing your camera setup. I wondered how you took your great photos.

Paul Mckenna

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 14:35:02 GMT

So did you eat it because you had made it.
Or did you chuck it and go for a takeaway ?
And if so what takeaway,

Paul

Orme

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 07:54:28 GMT

Hello FX, a mighty pink disaster! I agree with Kate that perhaps folding in the beets would work better visually than the puree, maybe a bit of green as well? But I would oven roast you beets first to caramelize and dry them out a bit--they just rendered too much liquid. Also, as I think you already know, looks like you didn"t knead your pasta long enough...thanks, as always for your high tech postings. Your kitchen sun is something!

Patrick

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 00:15:59 GMT

FX
A quick note, one: thank you for you web site, I really enjoy it and your regular updates. Two: I am a chef based in Hong Kong and have had a similar dish on my menu before(except as many have suggested, I had it as a ravioli filling. I used to roast the beetroots, un-wrapped in a fairly hot oven and I also used to put the cheese in a fine mesh strainer for a few hours. all this helped reduce the slop factor...!Happy cooking fella and keep up the very enjoyable work!

Paulina C. L. Tognato

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 20:18:27 GMT

It isn"t look so good, but your photos are very beautfulls!
I learn with your mistakes,too.
I think you used much beetroot fresh.
Sorry, my english isn"t "the best of"!
What you think about make the beetroot pur�e, reduction a half , and them, additionaire the other ingredientes?
You will have less water in your stuffed.
Thanks for all!!!!!!!!

Nick

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 14:01:00 GMT

Two suggestions which might help:
i. Buy the pasta sheet. The pasta makers have large pasta rollers which do a great job producing a very thin large sheet. alternatively rent an Italian grandma for the day, she"ll probably do a great job too.
ii. Roast the beetroot. It concentrates the flavour.

Saxit

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 11:37:18 GMT

Instead of making pasta of the eggs, just use the whites, whip them up, turn them gently into your beet mixture, and make a suffl�... not sure if it would taste good though, and it would probably need some additional work than what I just mentioned.

FoodieFest

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 10:59:44 GMT

Hello!

Now that everyone"s favorite Tastespotting is gone, we"d like to pick up where they left off! Please submit posts at foodiefest.tumblr.com and help spread the news!

Thanks!

FoodieFest

fx

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 03:06:52 GMT

Kate, thanks for your suggestions, I"ll try again one of the many traditional beetroot recipes from Italy. The colors are too striking not to!

fx

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 03:06:00 GMT

Vicki, in the 5th pick it is a black plastic chopping board from IKEA, they sell them for a couple francs and I bought a dozen. Very handy, you can peel and trim onions on one, throw it in the washer, take a fresh one to slice the onions, and so on. No need to stop and clean the dust off between steps. Warmly recommended even though I"d like them bigger.

fx

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 03:03:35 GMT

Thuan, only too many knives are enough when it comes to cooking. These are just the small, regular knives, I have the really nice ones in a drawer and boxes.

Kate

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 00:09:25 GMT

fx, perhaps you could just finely chop the beetroot, then fold into a drier cheese/egg mixture? I would think that the beets would have liquefied when they were blended, which might account for the runniness. (Runnyness? Is that even a word?) The filling, with a few more eggs added, could make a very interesting baked pie, something along the lines of a quiche, but violently pink and incredibly delicious!

Thanks for posting this, it"s a new-to-me way of preparing beets, a vegetable I"ve loved since I was a kid.

Vicki

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 21:27:41 GMT

Sorry it didn"t turn out like you wanted! What kind of cutting board is that in the 5th pic?

thuan

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 19:42:47 GMT

i have to say, your recipe for the lamb w/ lemon & potatoes went terribly for me - visually and in taste.
at least in this one, the colors are spectacular!

on another note, how many knives do you need?!?! good sir!

fx

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 16:40:14 GMT

Alys, I think you could definitely stuff ravioli with this and serve with lemon rind and butter. Good idea!

fx

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 16:39:41 GMT

Ahmad, thanks for visiting! Yes the lamp and rail was not the cheapest thing in the kitchen, but you can have a fairly descent light with a tripod, umbrella and small remote flash for a reasonable price with similar effect!

fx

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 16:38:44 GMT

Wandering Taoist, I am very sorry to hear that my Rag� Bolognese kept you off the path of the Tao, where one must forget the difference between good and bad, between yes and no!

fx

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 16:37:48 GMT

Katy, yes absolutely this could be baked, but in several smaller rolls. Thanks for your visit!

fx

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 16:37:16 GMT

Jennifer, thanks for the visit and good luck if you try this with manicotti or plain bought lasagna rolled like canneloni!

fx

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 16:36:00 GMT

Sofia, thanks for visiting. Yes I think by making smaller and thinner pasta sheets and rolling them like canneloni/enchiladas, then baking them, that would have worked better.

fx

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 16:34:43 GMT

Peter, I"m afraid my pasta did not taste like much, way too thick. like chewing edible cardboard. The beetroot cream is OK but needs some support.

fx

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 16:34:03 GMT

Cookery, thanks for enjoying this article!

Avi

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 15:36:51 GMT

Great site and what an amazing kitchen setup.

I"ve spent many afternoon filling kreplachs (ie perogies) and my mom always looks at the filling to ensure that they are of "the proper consistency". Your filling it seemed to be a bit on the runny side...my recommendation is more of a binder whether additional egg yolks for setting or perhaps even some bread crumbs, ground crackers, potato starch.

Avi
Canada

Paul Mckenna

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 15:10:09 GMT

Beetroot ravioli is Bruno Loubet"s signature dish. I ate it at Isola in London and was unimpressed. Maybe beetroot isnt my thing. Maybe for you if it was a hearty meat sauce it would have worked.
Or perhaps the pasta was too much. Few of us have to practice cucina pauvre because we have to.

Thankyou for publishing your mistakes. We all make them so we are all in the same club.

Keep on keeping on

Paul

Alys

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:55:35 GMT

Thanks for the pictures and blow by blow.
I think that beets often need some acid to brighten them. Lemon, Balsamic vinegar, or ...?

From the ingredient list it could have been a wonderful ravioli ... then you wouldn"t get the "ooze".

Ahmad

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 12:58:15 GMT

"Our bonbon does not look all that impressive now that the makeup is gone." Haha! You make me laugh so much.

Beetroot kinda looks like taro. And your kitchen is just so amazing O_O. That photography set up must have cost a fortune!

WanderingTaoist

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 11:43:50 GMT

Same question here: how did it taste? I think I"d go for baking it in bechamel as well, canelloni-style. I have a feeling that boiling the roll with stuffing inside would make it rather bland. In baking, on the other hand, the tastes would concentrate I believe.

By the way, your serious ragu bolognese has become a legendary dish in our household, I literally have to make a new batch every month or so, we freeze it and use for lasagna, canelloni or just plain pasta. It"s fantastic. So don"t give up, please!

katy

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 10:24:59 GMT

i actually think it looks delicious! but i also really like the idea of a pasta roll -- do you think you could bake it instead of boiling it in the dishcloth?

Jen

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 10:21:18 GMT

I"m inspired by your near-impossible kitchen adventures! I love beets, though. Perhaps the mixture could go in some manicotti or other (pre-made) pasta for us less hard-working food bloggers? Overall, a very visceral post. Good work.

Sofia

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 09:54:00 GMT

Maybe it might work better if you baked the roll instead of boiling it, for example with a bechamel sauce on top, and a sprinkle of herbs after baking.

By the way, thank for all the beautiful photos and info. on your site. Keep up the good work!

AlexFalk

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 09:21:50 GMT

#2, Agreed.
Although a pretty dish is a great and wondrous thing, the taste is the most important thing.

Looks good to me though, very rustic. I would not hesitate to dive right in with fork, knife and a glass of wine.

Peter K

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 09:09:36 GMT

Well how did it taste then?