Sunday, September 22, 2013

Perilous Pasta


Have you ever made homemade pasta?

I read that it’s so easy. And once you try it you will never buy the dried stuff in the store again.

So, I was really excited to find this pasta roller at the thrift shop for $2.


And the recipe only called for like 3 ingredients. And I use organic flour and have the freshest eggs on the planet. So, what do I have to lose?

Part of the fun is mixing up the dough right on the board.


You make a well in the center. Then go find those fresh eggs!


Or use the ones in the fridge J

Break them right into the well in the flour. Add the olive oil.


Then stir to mix.
 
 
 


 

 I used my bench scraper, it made this much easier.


Once it comes together, roll it into a ball and flatten slightly into a disk.



Wrap it in plastic and chill.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Now this is when it all went wrong.

After I chilled the dough, I removed it from the fridge and sprinkled some flour down into my new pasta roller. Then I carefully divided my dough with my bench scraper and started to feed the pieces into the roller while cranking with the other hand.

Maybe I didn’t get enough flour down in there. Maybe I didn’t clamp it tight enough to the counter. But pasta rolling turned ugly!

The roller kept shifting. So I had to feed the dough, turn the crank and stop to grab the evil thing from time to time.

Then, I think the dough stuck. The sheets that came out of the roller seemed to have bubbles . The pictures I was seeing on the internet showed lovely sheets of smooth pasta coming out. Then they cut them with the bench scraper into perfect rectangles. Mine? Not so much.

By now I forgot all about the camera and blogging and was just trying to dig my way to something of sustenance that my family could eat for dinner. So I cut them into ugly, odd shaped sheets and set them aside to fill.

The results were actually not bad. I rolled the filling up in them and laid them side by side. By the time I completed the recipe, all the ugliness was covered by sauce and cheese. So much so, I remembered the camera.

All in all, it was actually kind of fun. My family loved the meal, so I will probably try this again. But I think I need more practice with that pasta roller!

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