Seaweed Pasta #2 with dried wakame

I made pasta with fresh seaweed recently, but it wasn't a success: the wet seaweed reduced the structure of the pasta too much. This time I tried dried seaweed, like Maria Finn posted in 2014: it worked quite well, though the flavor wasn't as dramatic as I'd hoped -- something to amp up next time. The sauce we improvised was really tasty and also worth repeating.

Seaweed pasta with anchovy butter sauce, with stuffed squid

This makes enough for two dinners for two people as a substantial side. We froze half of the pasta so we can make a quick dinner later. 

100 g Flour

100 g Semolina Flour

  2   Eggs (103 g without shells)

 20 g Wakame dried Seaweed

I pulverized the Dried Wakame in a coffee/spice grinder and passed it through a sieve because I didn't want large chunks to absorb water and interfere with the structure of the pasta; it gave me about 3 Tbs of powder.

The pasta is made fairly conventionally: whisk Flours, add pulverized Wakame, make a well, then whisk in eggs. 

When it gets too stiff, knead on a counter to bring it all together. 
I had to add a few drops of water to make it workable and collect all the flour. 
Wrap in film and refrigerate a couple hours or overnight to hydrate.

It turned out pretty stiff and I didn't need to add flour to run it through the Atlas pasta roller/cutter; it was a little too dry and threatened to crack, but worked well enough. 

Dust the rolled sheets and cut into fettuccini, let rest on cloth while assembling a sauce.

I wanted to feature the fishiness so I made a simple but rich sauce, but you could use anything you like; this amount was enough for the half-portion of pasta made above.

 25 g Anchovies from a jar, minced

 55 g Butter, softened

  7 g Parsley, minced

1/4   Preserved Lemon (home made), minced

Use a fork to mush the Anchovies with the Butter, Parsley,  and Lemon.

Boil the Pasta until al dente, drain.

Add the Sauce to the hot pot, then the Pasta, and gently toss to coat.

We served this with Squid stuffed with Shrimp that our grocery store made (living in Barcelona has its perks!).

The Pasta texture was great, it never threaten to fall apart like the one with fresh seawead: the Wakame didn't absorb water like I feared.  

I failed to pay attention to its flavor before saucing (sorry!) but the combination with the buttery/fishy sauce was great.

Next time: Amp up the seaweed taste with twice the Wakame; add a bit more of water to make the dough more pliable. Back out the butter just a bit in the sauce, maybe 50 g. Higher quality, more flavorful anchovies would be better, now that we know the sauce works well.

That sauce really is good, it could go on almost anything: baked potatoes, vegetables, fish, even good toast. I hope I can get a pasta with enough seaweed intensity to do it justice!