Tossed macaroni

This is another recipe out of the kitchen aid recipe book/manual. Again, not my favorite recipe, but better than the last one. Duncan really liked this one. It was actually pretty good if you got a bite of bacon, but I thought it needed more bacon. We actually fried up the rest of the pound of bacon for people wanting seconds. I did up the peas a bit because my package was either 12 oz or 16 and the recipe called for 10. I also had to laugh at the recipe's instructions to crumble the ricotta with a fork??? Does ricotta crumble? Never in my experience. I just mixed it. I took a few extra pictures of this one because I actually made my own macaroni noodles using the pasta attachment for my kitchenaid. I'd never used that attachment before, so that was kind of fun. The noodles by themselves were pretty good - a little salty for my tastes, but not salty at all in the recipe. I've included the noodle recipe here as well.



Noodle ingredients

• 4 large eggs (7/8 cup but I didn't measure mine - probably should have because I had to add water.)
• 1 tablespoon water but I needed 2 maybe a little more
• 3 1/2 cups flour

Directions

1. Place eggs, water and flour in bowl. Attach flat beater. Turn to speed 2 and mix 30 seconds.
2. Change to dough hook. Mix at speed 2 and knead for 2 minutes. (at this point mine looked like bread crumbs, so it didn't really knead. I went on to hand knead, and could get it to stick together, but decided it needed more water, so put it back in the bowl and added water until it would actually stick together in the bowl.
3. Hand knead 30 seconds to 1 minute. Cover with dry towel and let rest 15 minutes before extruding through Pasta Maker.
   
4. For Macaroni I put it through the machine, and stopped it when it was 6 to 8 inches long. I then layed those noodles on towels and tried until I could break them apart.

Tossed Macaroni instructions

• 1 1/4 pounds ricotta cheese or small curd cottage sheese.
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1/2 pound bacon, cut into 1 inch pieces - definitely use 1 lb.
• 1 package (10 oz.) frozen green peas, thawed
• 1/3 cup Parmesan cheese (I totally forgot this. It probably would have been way better with it in. That's what happens when you cook with your spouse I guess. You forget steps and/or think the other guy has done them already.)
  
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1 pasta recipe of macaroni or flat noodles, cooked and drained

Directions

1. Place ricotta cheese in a serving bowl and crumble with a fork. Add butter and noodles; toss two or 3 times -we stirred the ricotta, and stirred in the butter and noodles to coat.
2. Cook bacon over medium heat until crisp. Add peas and saute 2 minutes. Drain fat.
3. Add bacon and peas to noodles and toss (stir.) Add Prmesan cheese, salt, and pepper. Toss again and serve immediately.