Second Time Around

 

I can’t believe how much easier it is to make pasta with the right tools and appropriate ingredients. It’s more like play than cooking. Thanks to my little sister, I am now in possession of a Marcato Atlas 150 pasta roller. My life is immeasurably better! I also used appropriate ingredients.

Semolina from Dean’s Mediterranean Imports at Cincinnati’s Findlay Market, and Swans Down that appeared in my kitchen one morning after the bf went shopping.

I used 3 oz of each with just enough water to make it stick. I probably should have used more, but that’s what this process is about. Figuring out what works and having fun with food.

When the dough was made, I cleaned the machine with a bit of dough I wasn’t going to eat, and learned a rule of pasta machines. Never put clay-dough in a machine you want to use for food… I can’t complain, though. This lovely Italian job is third-hand and free. I got out most of the big pieces with the scrap dough and enough of the small pieces that the finished noodles didn’t have tiger stripes of orange and black clay.

I had so much fun with the cleaning, I almost didn’t want to make the noodles. Then when I made the noodles, I wanted to make another batch of dough. But I’m up too late already (job interview in the morning. Yay!) so I had better make this short and sweet.

Here’s the rolled dough.

Here’s the dough in the cutting process.

And here’s the finished product. In thanks to my sister, this is officially named Marian Fayettuccini. It went much faster and with a lot less hassle, but it wasn’t as tasty as the “rustic” egg noodles from my first try. I want to use an egg recipe on this roller very soon. Lunch tomorrow after the interview? I think that’s a fantastic idea!

Ahead of Myself

Ok, so I did what I do. I got excited about something and started before I had what I needed. I was bored today, and hungry, which somehow led to creating a pasta blog. It's not really about Platonic Pasta or Noodle Perfection. It's about having a friendlier relationship with food. I make very little of what I eat. Too much of it is boxed, bagged, or frozen. I wanted to have more fun, but without getting into something so far over my head that I quit before I started. And I decided to blog it so I wouldn't just do it once and quit. My goal is to make pasta and post weekly. It may turn into more if I have enough fun.

Anyway, this afternoon I set up my blog account, and tonight I decided that it would be too easy to quit before I started if I didn't make my first batch of pasta and post tonight. A few hours and several improvisations later, I HAVE HOMEMADE NOODLES! And a blog entry. With pictures!

Here's how it went:

I wanted to start with something superbasic since I hadn't prepared for the adventure. I figured I'd use what I had and see what happened. So, I found a basic egg-pasta recipe and got started.

It seemed simple enough. One egg, 3/4 c. flour. Here goes nothing.

So it looks kinda like I know what I'm doing, right? Ring of flour volcano, beaten egg lava, fancy stuff. But I'll admit that it's bread flour ( I don't even know if that makes a difference) and a questionably old egg.

I mixed it all up and dumped it on the floured counter, assuming I could knead it like bread dough. Not quite. It was tougher than any kind of dough I've ever made (which really isn't much to compare to) and broke instead of stretching.

I tried to squish it around a few more times before I got the bright idea to roll it out. Did I mention I didn't have a rolling pin? But, as this was experimental, and I hate losing to inanimate objects, I found something that worked. I also realized that dough is not as inanimate as I thought, but more on that later.

Yup. That's my rolling pin. A full, 2 liter Pepsi

bottle, cleaned with Simple Green, rinsed, dried,

and floured. It worked both better and worse than I expected. The weight of it and the diameter flattened the dough quickly, but not having spinning handles really hurt my wrists. A real rolling pin is on the list for the next pasta trial.

Now, as far as pasta dough being more animate than I expected...that darn dough ball stretched and flattened nicely under the Pepsi-pin. But as soon as I stopped rolling, the dough would creep away from any hint of a noodle shape and return to a neutral lump.

Finally, I managed to get a reasonable oblong, and, with my patent-pending-noodle-cutting process, turned out TEN lovely noodles!

Not bad! Since I didn't have a pasta dryer (probably wouldn't have even if I'd planned ahead, I mean, really...), I wound up four bunches of noodles into little "nests" and sprinkled them with flour. I had to transfer them from the working counter onto a plate on the tiny useless counter because the cats tend to avoid that space. I was too tired to try to cook them tonight, but I think they're going to be lunch with olive oil, salt and pepper, and maybe a little garlic. I can hardly wait!