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Interested in making your own homemade pasta, here’s how from the best NJ Italian restaurant – Basil T’s Brewery and Italian Grill.

Homemade pasta is like a fluffy white cloud: light, soft, tender and delicious. Good pasta makes the sauce come to life and if done correctly, forms a beautiful harmony like a great Beatles tune. About 10 years ago during a visit to Italy, I stopped at the Bottene factory in Vincenza then at Molino Caputo in Napoli. After seeing the facilities with my own eyes, I knew I could make homemade pasta, gnocchi and ravioli with the same ingredients and machines used in Italy.

All the pundits told me it could not be done, but I would prove them wrong and succeed in making the best homemade pasta, ravioli and gnocchi in New Jersey, and possibly the entire East coast.

Pasta has been made by hand “fatto a mano” for many, many centuries with one simple recipe: flour, water, salt, and eggs, if desired. But its simplicity has inherent complexities. What type of flour? Why that flour? How much water? Eggs or no eggs? Then comes the choice of machine, of which there are plenty to choose from, but only a few that process the dough with hand-like movements.

So I am going to reveal some of my own research to help pasta lovers around the world.

1. Use Caputo flour. I use Caputo “00” pasta fresca e gnocchi flour mixed with Caputo semolina flour. Based on your water, mixer, etc. you will have to judge what’s best for you. Caputo has many flours, with different millings and protein contents.
2. The machine: clearly doing it by hand with grandma’s Imperia hand crank machine is the preferred method, but when you are making pasta for busy restaurants you need something automatic. I love the Bottene machines (we own 6) because they are made very well and priced very fairly. Bottene machines are workhorses and they have a 100 different dies. The magic here is the dies (the piece that the pasta extrudes from) are all brass, a very soft metal that dings and dents and gives the pasta its identity, and more importantly makes the pasta rough so the sauce sticks to it, yummy.
3. Always use sea salt.
4. Don’t be shy, an egg or two makes great pasta better.
5. Leave the dough wet, it is hard to handle and work with but makes lighter pasta.
6. When making gnocchi use impastata ricotta. It is drier than regular ricotta, so you need less flour, and use less flour for lighter gnocchi. My trick: use 1 egg per 3 pounds of cheese. Please only use Caputo gnocchi flour.

The sauce choices are unlimited: pesto, pomodoro, puttanesca, bolognese, marina, alfredo, carbonara, norma… Sit down and decide to do it right! Bring some wholesome goodness to your family and friends. Make some homemade pasta with your favorite sauce, open a bottle of wine and float up to pasta heaven.

And of course if you would like to try this amazing pasta without making it yourself, you could always order some at the best NJ Italian restaurant – Basil T’s Brewery and Italian Grill. Whether you’re hungry or thirsty, or both, Basil T’s is the perfect place for you. The mouthwatering Red Bank restaurant is conveniently located at 183 Riverside Avenue and can be reached at 732-842-5590.

For more recipes and cooking tips visit the Basil T’s Brewery and Italian Grill YouTube channel.

To celebrate their 25^th anniversary, Basil T’s, a Red Bank Italian restaurant, is offering month long savings and specials.  To commemorate this special event, customers can enjoy roll back specials- the prices on select favorite menu items will be rolled back to what they were in 1986.

From Monday through Thursday during the entire month of March, customers can take advantage of special pricing at the popular Red Bank restaurant.  These roll back specials include drinks, appetizers, entrees and desserts, making a complete meal affordable for all.

Red Bank Italian Restaurant

Drink specials during March include Vini di Casa for $4 and house made micro brewed beer for $3.

Customers at the Red Bank restaurant can enjoy select antipasti and insalate specials for $6 or $7, including Caesar, Mesculino, Mozzarella e Zucchini Grigliate, Melanzane, Zuppa, Calamari Fritti and Vongole.

Selected entrées include:

• Spaghettini Pesto- $12
• Rigatoni Melanzane- $12
• Cozze Marinara- $14
• Lasagna al Forno- $13
• Costata di Manzo- $14
• Pollo Francese- $14
• Salmone- $15
• Pizza Napoletana- $10

To complete the meal, specials on desserts are also available at Basil T’s, including Cannoli, Tiramisu and Torta di Mele for $5 and espresso for $1.

Italian food lovers can enjoy these great specials at the leading Red Bank Italian restaurant all month long to celebrate Basil T’s 25^th Anniversary.  For a full list of menu items, visit http://www.basilt.com/menus/specials.php.

The New Jersey brewpub Basil T’s would like to give thanks to all who supported them and the Garden State Brewers Guild in their brewing collaboration with Tun Tavern.  Their version of the beer, Cocoa Fuoco, was introduced on February 7. Basil T’s had a great turnout, with a good mix of Mug Clubbers, beer aficionados from around the state, guest brewers, and beer writers. Response was very positive; in fact, many people were surprised how drinkable a chocolate-chili pepper- cinnamon beer could be! By the way, it’s still on tap if you want to try some.

Also currently on tap is their traditional February seasonal, Iceboat Ale, a malty, well-hopped Scottish Ale. Don’t worry — this is the first of several batches master brewer Gretchen Schmidhausler will be brewing this winter. Alas, the Porter is gone . . . but, how would you feel about a reprise of Snow Wiesel IPA?

Tun Tavern calls it Cocoa Fuego, while the Italian Basil T’s calls it Cocoa Fuoco.  In English, the new beer is Chocolate Fire.  Cocoa Fuoco perfectly blends the taste of chili peppers, cinnamon and chocolate. The two versions were extremely similar but still contained slight variations of the recipe.  The pubs use different numbers of barrels and different types of hops during the brewing process.  Nevertheless, both Cocoa Fuego and Cocoa Fuoco can be considered the same beer by casual New Jersey beer fans.  The packed crowd at Basil T’s gave their hearty approval to both unusual blends.

How NJ Brew Pubs Made Cocoa Fuoco and Cocoa Fuego

Tim Kelly of Tun Tavern says a candy bar that was made from chocolate, chili peppers and cinnamon inspired him to create Cocoa Fuego.  He later pitched the idea to Gretchen Schmidhausler, head brewer of Basil T’s, at a brewer’s conference in Camden.  After 6 months of toying with ingredients, they had successfully developed a perfect mix of Dutch chocolate, ancho, cinnamon, chipotle and guajillo peppers.

Visit http://www.basilt.com/ for more information on hours and specialty craft beers.