Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Homemade Pasta

Our household Master Chef journey continues.  Last night we made homemade pasta.  Pasta is a staple in our household.  We often have angel hair pasta.  We unfortunately have mixed success with prepared ravioli.  The girls don’t care for the offerings at our local market and I believe they can taste the difference between Olive Garden and Carrabba’s.  With that in mind and seeing 13 year old Alexander using a pasta machine on Master Chef Junior, I bought a pasta maker from Bed, Bath & Beyond.

The dough recipe consists of really simple ingredients (2 cups unbleached flour, ½ teaspoon of salt, and 3 large eggs).  The whisking takes forever and the kneading is really messy.  I am hoping I get better at this.  After letting the dough rest for 30 minutes, we had to throw it in the fridge and start again after piano practice.

The pasta maker worked pretty well.  You basically just take a small piece and flatten it to your desired thickness progressively.  Then you can use attachments to make fettuccini, spaghetti, or any other type of pasta you desire.  Make sure you have a rack or something to keep the noodles on or you will have a big dough ball in your container (yes, I made this mistake).

The fettuccini turned our really well.  The spaghetti had a tendency to stick together.  I am not sure what that was about.  I was pleasantly surprised that our raviolis turned out.  The trial ravioli was just straight ricotta cheese.  The second one added some spinach and basil.  I am anxious to look for some recipes as I think we can really dial in the perfect ravioli for our family.


In terms of taste, I can convince myself it is better, but I really don’t have a sophisticated palate.  It was more about doing something fun and trying something new.  The next time I make pasta, I will include some photos. 

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