Adventures in Pasta-Making 2

It took me a couple of tries to make a pasta dough that I dare use for my Kitchen Aid mixer and Antree pasta 3-in-1 roller’s maiden voyages. Homemade pasta uses a really simple list of ingredients: 2 cups flour, 3 eggs, a pinch of salt. That’s it.

I just used regular flour from my pantry because I am still on a self-imposed moratorium from ordering on Amazon. Plus it was $14 for 2 lbs. of 00 flour. Alternately, I could have gotten King Arthur’s flour, but decided not to. Again, trying to be minimalist here (read=whatever is in my pantry will have to do).

Could that be why the first batch didn’t come together, staying crumbly? Maybe. Someday, I might try the more expensive kind, to compare. Or maybe for a special occasion.

In my impatience I added another egg, which made it super sticky and yeah…not usable. So I dumped that and then started on a new batch, asking my hubby to google pasta-making tips. The recipes mostly said to knead for 2 to 5 minutes and then it would form a pasta dough. Mmm…15 minutes later, it was still crumbly. Finally, Drew found a recipe that recommended to add water as needed, so I did that. Still no go.

I tossed the crumbly mixture into my new mixer and attached the dough hook. The process kind of pressed the dough together but didn’t really produce the right consistency. I sprinkled a bit more water and finally got the dough into a ball. Hooray!

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The recipe said to rest it for 20 minutes but I started handling it in half the time. And then braced myself to use my new appliance (Kitchen Aid Mixer) that warns that “you can be killed or injured if you do not IMMEDIATELY follow instructions.”

I got the Antree 3-in-1 pasta maker from Amazon and apart from the fact it wasn’t stainless silver to match my KA accents, it was white, which is my favorite color. Definitely a good omen.

After I passed the pasta through the roller (Yay, it did not break! And the KA did not kill nor injure me!) several times and successively thinner each time, my pasta roll-ups looked pretty and smooth. Very organic. I almost imagined myself living in a farm in Tuscany with my apron dusted in flour and wiping the perspiration off my brow with my forearm except I was in my regular kitchen.

Let me just say, the 3-in-1 is briliant. No need to switch out the roller/cutters! I cut the sheets into manageable lengths and then ran them through the spaghetti cutter. As I watched in open-mouthed amazement at the beautiful noodles coming out, my hubby came to the rescue and put a plate under all that pasta goodness to stop it from further falling onto the floor. Oops.

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The pasta cooked much faster than store-bought, something quick like 4 minutes, though the fetuccine noodles took a little longer. Homemade pasta’s texture is thick and hearty. I balled them into little pasta nests for looks but in the pot they cooked separate. Like large ramen noodles.

For my photo, I did a cacio e pepe, without the expensive pecorino cheese Amazon is selling for $41. Instead I tossed it in a Parmesan-Romano cheese blend and ground pepper on top. It was good, but the pasta was kind of sticky. I think next time I will butter it or toss it in olive oil before enjoying. At any rate, there was something primally satisfying about making food you are about to eat and I was happy.

I served the noodles with our homemade spaghetti sauce which my family said was very good and now my life is complete having made pasta from scratch. 

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