I often say that I don't like cooking that much, but when I think about it I realise that this is not the case. I like to cook, I just don't like to do it so often. That's why I always try to eat quick or simple meals on a daily basis, but I enjoy it when I feel like making my traditional lentil stew or gnocchi on the 29th. When I was in Ushuaia I tried not to cook so much every day, but there were some days when I had to put my hands in the dough and invest a little time in eating something delicious 😃.
When the weather in Ushuaia was sunny or the temperatures not so freezing, I would definitely take advantage of those days to go trekking. I didn't even think about it: I would buy a sandwich at the corner kiosk and head for the mountains without wasting any more time. But when the day was cold and cloudy, I felt like staying in the hostel with everything heated. It was at those times that I would take the opportunity to cook something different, or make a lot of food to freeze and have it ready for another day.
On one of those cloudy days I had plenty of time, as the weather was not inviting to go to the mountains, so I started trying to make noodles. I had the theory, 100 grams of flour for each egg, so all that was left was to make it concrete. As there was no one else in the hostel to share lunch with, this was just the amount I made. Afterwards I spent a lot of time stretching and stretching the dough with the stick, trying to keep it from breaking, but the ratio of ingredients was perfect so it was easy to manage.
As I was stretching, I remembered a technique for cutting the noodles, one of those tips you see on the reels and think you'll never use. It consisted of rolling the dough from both sides towards the centre and cutting the strips to the desired thickness. This technique worked very well, but you had to be careful not to flatten the dough during cutting.
As for the sauce, my past self had already made sure to have one ready and frozen to use at that moment when I didn't feel like peeling an onion. If there is one thing that is never missing in the freezer wherever I am, it is frozen sauce. I like gravy with meat, so I mix onion, garlic, pepper, carrot, seasoning and ground beef plus tomato puree to make a lot of it. This container of frozen sauce has lasted me for meals for over a month, and I only had to cook once.
Once everything was ready, this pasta and the sauce combined perfectly, but not before adding the final touch of grated cheese. The pasta tasted good, although I think that if the thickness of the dough had been even thinner, they would have tasted even better. Nevertheless, I ate it all. I'm always eating dry noodles, so having a fresh pasta was nice. I've never made this before and it was so easy to make, I said I'd make it again in the future (spoiler: it's been 6 months to the day and I still haven't made homemade noodles again).
In conclusion, accepting that I like to cook but not all the time changed my perspective on my relationship with cooking. I now think that I like to save myself for special dishes, which when I cook them with gusto, they turn out well. Hopefully I'll be able to repeat these noodles one day, although I'll be sure to stretch them more next time. It must be very difficult for this recipe to go wrong because there is no margin for error, but until everything is served and ready to try, you never know 😂.
With lots of love. / Con mucho amor.
Lau 💕.
