FKN-Systems

Title: Nona Dora's Red Chile Fettuccine with Cilantro Pesto
Categories: Main dish, Pasta, Salsa/sauce, Tex/mexican
Yield: 1 batch

======== PASTA ========
1 1/2 c Semolina flour 1/3 c Olive oil
1 c All-purpose flour 2 Eggs
3 tb Ground red pasilla (heaping) 2 tb ;Water
-- or Anaheim chile

======== CILANTRO PESTO ========
4 Well-washed bunches cilantro 1/2 c Pine nuts
-- including stems 1/2 c Olive oil
-- but not roots 1/2 c Grated Parmesan cheese
6 Garlic cloves

======== GARNISHES ========
Toasted pine nuts Whole cilantro leaves

Sift the flours and ground chile into a mound. Make a well in the
center and add the olive oil, eggs and water. Work the flour and
liquid into a dough and knead until it feels like your earlobe. (Add
more water if dough needs to be softer, more flour to make it
stiffer.) Gather into a ball, then let dough rest in a lightly
floured bowl for 20 to 30 minutes.

While the dough is resting, combine the pesto ingredients in the bowl
of a food processor fitted with a metal blade and puree. Set aside.
(The cilantro pesto can be stored in the freezer or topped with a
thin film of olive oil and stored in the refrigerator.)

Roll the dough out by hand to a thickness of 1/16", or put through a
pasta maker; let rest another 10 minutes. Roll up jelly-roll style
and cut into noodles or put through pasta maker on fettuccine
setting. Cook the noodles in a large pot of boiling water until just
tender, about 2 to 3 minutes. Drain.

Pour sauce over the pasta and toss thoroughly. Garnish with toasted
pine nuts and fresh cilantro leaves, if desired.

Yield: 4 to 6 servings.

The authors write: "As a young child, Kathy Kagel stood on a chair in
front of the stove at the family's summer house in Maine to help the
housekeeper cook. Now she stands at the stove of her own restaurant,
the informal and lively Cafe Pasqual's, in Santa Fe.

"Kathy first saw Santa Fe in 1969, as she drove across country, but
she didn't return for good until ten years later. Her first endeavor
was a catering business specializing in Chinese food, but when a
small restaurant in the center of town became available, Kathy bought
it. She named it Cafe Pasqual's, after the folk saint of cooks and
kitchens - a monk who, according to legend, was so bad at prayer he
was banished to the monastery kitchen, where he turned out to be a
splendid cook.

"Kathy was drawn immediately to Southwestern cooking. Natives
working in Cafe Pasqual's kitchen became used to her lifting the lids
of the pots or asking how their families made a particular dish. 'I
worry that with the chic and trendy interest in Southwestern cooking,
tradition will be lost,' she says. This traditional cooking style,
developed by the hard-working poor, is based on simple ingredients
such as red and green chiles, pinto beans, garlic, onions, blue and
yellow cornmeal, and white cheese. 'And they never use ground beef,'
she adds, 'it's always shredded.'"

From Kathy Kagel of Cafe Pasqual's/Santa Fe, NM in "Cooking with
Herbs" by Emelie Tolley and Chris Mead. New York: Clarkson N.
Potter, Inc., 1989. Pg. 55. Posted by Cathy Harned.
Submitted By CATHY HARNED On 10-04-94