This past Sunday afternoon was a perfect day to get back into the beehives and collect what likely will be the last honey of the season. The weather was a bit cooler and the humidity finally dropped. And, bonus, neither of us ended up getting stung.
While the Farm Boy was busy straining out the bits of wax from the sweet, sticky, uncapped honey frames, I got busy making some fresh pasta dough.
I wanted something savory and carb-loaded for Sunday dinner. The hog was back from the butcher and tucked away in the freezers, and I thought a nice Spicy Pork Ragu with homemade egg noodles would be just perfect.
Egg noodles are the easiest thing to make and don’t take as much time as you might think. They’re also a great way to use up your fresh farm eggs.
I can make the dough in less time than it takes to boil water and cook regular pasta. I didn’t let the noodles dry first this time, I just rolled them out and cut them all willy-nilly. Sort of like a serial killer who can’t decide what size pieces to cut the body into.
Fresh pasta takes a mere couple of minutes to cook, so you’ll want to have your sauce ready to go and on stand-by when its time to stir in your pasta. You can even cook your fresh pasta in the sauce for extra flavor, if you want to.
There are a ton of recipes out there for Pork Sausage Ragu, like this one, from the New York Times, which is very close to how I made mine. I used yellow bell peppers and omitted the celery and the carrots – only because I was out of both at the time. No worries! It’s still fantastic!
I skipped making a salad, which was smart, because I was so full afterward that I had to swap my jeans for draw-string pants. HUGE “pasta gut.” Totally embarrassing. But it was an awesome Sunday afternoon and a great dinner… And, a good-bye to the last Sunday of August. ~A
