make pasta from scratch

I wanted to learn how to make homemade pasta, so I found a simple recipe and went at it! It’s surprisingly simple. The hardest and most time consuming part was rolling out the dough because I don’t have a pasta machine, but I’m sure it would be much less time consuming if I invested in one. Making your own pasta is cheaper and in my opinion better for you. Next time I’m going to experiment with different whole grain flours to see how they work.

My brand new extrusion pasta maker has been sitting unused in its box since 1995. So today I took it out of the closet only to find the Pasta Express has been recalled due to safety issues :(

A few years ago I convinced my wife we needed to buy a pasta machine for $30 bucks. At least once a month I try to make pasta, and I love it. Pasta is a simple food, just Eggs flour and water, and can be made so many different ways. I know that buying pasta is cheap, but making it is even less expensive. Also, pasta can be frozen or even dried.

I actually have one of these italian pasta machines and have used it a couple of times. But there was always some time between the different tries and I need to do it more often to get a feeling for it. I specially struggle with making ravioli. It is somehow difficult to get the relation between dough and filling right.

It came out so good, I’m gonna do this more. It wasn’t even really that hard. It did take kind of a lot of kneading, but other than that it was pretty quick and easy. We made fettuccine and it was so tender and delicious. Next I think we’ll try some raviolis or tortellini. I can only imagine what wonderful things we could think of to put in them!!

I love love love fresh pasta noodles! Plus I love the idea of being able to stuff whatever I choose into ravioli. I bet me and my bf could get so creative with this. On Saturday we are going to go buy a pasta roller thing. Just a simple one so we can get the dough nice and thin, nothing involving crimping or ravioli making or anything; we can do that ourselves once we have the dough right!

I did this finally on a whim yesterday. Made egg and semolina pasta dough, and made it into (a bit too thick) fettuccine. I find it a little difficult to roll out pasta by myself – I need one extra hand, it seems – but it was otherwise quite easy. I could’ve rolled it thinner but I was just too damned hungry to wait any longer.

Very good. I think I will do ravioli next, or perhaps some flavor that is hard to come by in stores.

She sent me an Atlas pasta roller for my birthday!

I’m so freakin’ excited.

I have a ton of ideas.

I just need this dang semester to be over so I can get some cooking time in!

Good workout great food.
My next party, I’m going to get the guests to help crank. The wine and laughter should add to the pasta!

I bought an Atlas pasta roller when I was in college. I loved the pasta I made. Sadly, I don’t use it much anymore. I’ll have to work it into the meal calendar one of these weeks.