For my very first attempt at mastering the new pasta machine, I decided to make it fun by bringing my gear along on vacation! Don't worry, I haven't lost my mind...we were staying with my parents in their condo. It ended up being a fun family adventure! Although I think that their kitchen may forever have a lingering dusting of flour in the wake of our experiment.
When it came to picking my initial pasta recipe, I knew exactly where I wanted to start: Lidia! Lidia Bastianich has an incredibly authentic (as if I would know?) Italian cooking series on PBS called Lidia's Italy. I've been known to be semi-obsessed with it at times, and my own half-Italian man surprised me with one of her cookbooks last year. Of all people, I figured she would be the one to go to first for homemade pasta wisdom!
Actually, there were two homemade pasta recipes in my cookbook, but I opted for the Egg Pasta since I hadn't yet bought any semolina flour. Well, let's just say that I guess I should have realized that "Egg Pasta" was probably pretty similar to "egg noodles"...not the semolina pasta that you and I are used to eating. Incredibly long story (and process) short, I guess the pasta actually turned out pretty well, but it just wasn't what I had mistakenly been expecting. It did make a ton! In my opinion, I would make something similar for homemade chicken soup or maybe some type of flavored noodles, but not as a main dish paired with a traditional Italian marinara. Maybe I'm too used to American-ized Italian food!
I did learn a few tips for next time, and got lots of much-needed practice in handling the dough. The most important lesson learned from our first experiment? I need about six hands to properly pull off the rolling, cutting and drying! Looks like I'll either have to stick with making it when we have visitors, or quickly train the two cupcakes to be my trusty assistants :) Looking forward to Attempt #2!
I was informed by Lidia to make a nice well in the flour for my eggs.
The dough passed through the machine many times!
We were feeling pretty good about our nice sheets of pasta on the drying rack at this point. It wasn't until after we finished that I realized that it wasn't actually required that I keep passing the dough through until reaching the very thinnest position! We had a little drama when it came time to cut the super thin sheets.
Um...I had some sticking issues :) Note to self: Not so thin, use a bit more dusting flour!
In the end, a decent bowl of pasta, but one that could definitely
benefit from a bit more experience from the chef!
But it was so much fun!! Thanks for letting us in on the action. It did make a HUGE amount (there was a second bowl like the one pictured!) It was very good, and even had leftovers to bring home to share with the rest of the family.
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