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!