Pasta maker!

I finally used my pasta maker this weekend and it was a lot of fun. After taking a pasta-making class at the Kitchen Conservatory earlier this year, I decided that I would be a person that makes her own pasta. But how time escapes me. Anyway, I came home today from a workout and errands and thought, why not now?

So to make a recipe that serves six (think leftovers!), you use a large bowl and measure 500 grams of flour. Make a hole in the middle of the flour, then add four eggs and mix it together with a fork until you get dough that is neither too wet nor too dry. Add a bit of water or more flour if you need to do so. Then knead the dough until it no longer sticks to your hands and cut a piece off to use in your pasta maker - you might even want to save some of the dough in a plastic bag for the next day.

Then piece by piece, you feed the dough through the pasta maker quite a few times until it is paper thin; then your pasta maker will make noodles (spaghetti and/or fettuccine) out of the thin dough. Also boil a pot of semi-salty water while you do this. Finally, drop the noodles into the hot water and let them boil for just a bit, then add shredded Parmesan cheese and a dab of margarine to a bowl (or a tomato sauce if you prefer). Voila! A very early Sunday supper.

Altogether with the measuring, kneading, and feeding the dough bit by bit through the pasta maker many times, I probably spent 1.5 hours in the kitchen (so lovely on a weekend, but a bit time consuming for a weekday). So I won't likely be making this a few times a week like my cooking instructor said she did. But oh so tasty! It's also nice to know exactly what you're eating:)