Snipped noodles in vodka sauce

"It’s far-fetched to include a homemade pasta dough recipe for a Monday night, but a) you’ll rejoice at knowing this super slack and utterly satisfying shape-making technique, and b) you can just sub it out for some perky little favourite shape on Monday, and have this beauty up your sleeve for showing off on the weekend with friends and/or enemies." – Lucy Tweed

1. For the noodle dough, place the flour and salt in the bowl of a standmixer fitted with the dough hook and set the speed to low. Add
the water and oil in a slow, steady stream, mixing until a ball forms, around 1–2 minutes.

2. Increase to medium speed and mix for 4–5 minutes, or until the dough is soft and elastic. Wrap in plastic wrap and rest for 20 minutes (pasta is lucky with the amount of enforced resting it goes through!).

3. This is the fun/precarious bit. Holding the rested ball over a semolina-dusted surface, begin snipping small slivers of the ball with scissors. You will gain momentum. Just remember to adjust your fingers away from the snipping zone as you do. Little eye shapes will fall to the bench and they will have an organic rib or curl along their edge, which makes for the perfect sauce boat.

4. If you realise your snipping has been somewhat irregular, just snip the larger ones in half. There’s no rule to how big they should be – you can make them tiny if you like! I have made 1.5 cm (5/8 inch) ones for this recipe.

5. Cover them with a cloth until ready to use or freeze them for anticipated postclub dining. Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F)
fan-forced.

6. For the sauce, massage the tomatoes, leek, oregano, salt and pepper with the oil in a bowl. Spread out in a flameproof baking
dish and roast for 25 minutes. Transfer the tomato mixture to a large jug or bowl and blend with a stick blender until it becomes a smooth purée.

7. Push this mix through a sieve so it’s extra fine. ( I understand this is excessive. This step is possibly more for those who discotheque. You can, of course, opt for the tracksuit version and not sieve at all.) You should have about 2 cups (500 ml) of sauce, which is about what you would get in a bottle of bought passata (this is an ultimate shortcut hint for you!).

8.  Place the baking dish over high heat, pour in the vodka and boil, stirring to deglaze (but not for too long – this is one time you don’t want the booze burning completely off).

9. Add the tomato purée and bring it to a simmer. Stir through the cream and remove the dish from the heat. Bring a big pot of salted water to a rapid boil and add the pasta.

10. Once the pasta floats to the surface (about 2 minutes), use a slotted spoon to scoop the pasta from the boiling water and place straight into the vodka sauce. Add a scoop of pasta water and toss well before covering in an 80s discotheque level of snowy parmesan.

Extracted with permission from Every. Night. of. the. Week. by Lucy Tweed. Published by Murdoch Books.

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