Homemade Pasta

I was talking to my sister on the phone last night.  I told her I made pasta from scratch on Saturday.  Her response was this: "why?"  Why, indeed.  Well, here's why:

• I had never made it before and wanted to try it
• I had nothing better to do, except for clean the house (boo)
• I already had the ingredients on hand (there are only two for heaven's sake)
• I have always heard it is soooo much better than regular dried pasta
• It didn't seem too difficult

So there you have it Rachel. That's why!

And the verdict?  It was well worth it.  Brent said so.

Of course I will always, always, always keep varying degrees of store-bought dried pasta on hand and use that when I'm in a hurry (which is most of the time).  But when I have the time, you better believe I'll just make my own.  Maybe you'll do the same next Saturday when you're looking for something to prevent you from having to do your housework.  Pasta making beats housework every time, trust me. 

Homemade Pasta

Ingredients:

1.5 cups All-Purpose Flour
3 Eggs

Note:  this makes enough to serve 4, so you can adjust the recipe depending on how many you're serving.  Use the ratio of 1 egg per 1/2 cup of flour.

Measure flour into large mixing bowl.  Dig a little well in the center of your flour.  Crack your eggs into the well.

With your clean hand, poke the yolks to break, and start mixing...

And mixing...

And soon it will look like a giant mess, like so:

But keep on mixing with your hands until a sticky dough forms.

On a floured surface, knead the dough until it's smooth and no longer tacky-looking.  It will probably take 10 minutes or so. 

Here's how it will look at first:

Still tacky, not done yet. Keep kneading.

Here's how it will look when you're done.

Then stick in a ziplock bag and leave on your countertop.  Allow dough to rest at least 30 minutes.

When it's pasta-makin time, get your dough back out onto your floured surface.  I just used my countertop.

Now roll it thin, thin, thin.

Get it as thin as you can.  You want to be able to see through it a little bit.

Once it's rolled super thin, grab your cutting device of choice.  Some people use a pizza roller, but I feel like I have better control using my very sharp pink chef's knife.  Now I'm not totally sure the pink part matters, but it certainly doesn't hurt.

Cut your noodles into thin strips.  Remember, the pasta will swell when it takes a dip in the boiling water, so cut it smaller than you want it to end up.

Kinda like this.

Very carefully...

Keep on cutting...this is the part that requires me to summon all the patience in my entire body.  Spending 10 minutes cutting pasta into tiny strips is just about all that I can handle.

Brent is very patient.  I should get him to do this part next time...he would probably get out his tape measure and they would be perfectly uniform and tiny the next morning when he finally finished.  Nevermind, I'll just do it.

Done!  Finally!

Now, bring your water to a boil in a large stock pot.  I don't know how much, just guess.  Enough to cook however much pasta you made.  Salt the water generously.  Once it's boiling, add the pasta.

Boil two minutes.  Drain and serve immediately.

And there you have it.  Real, live, homemade pasta.  And it didn't even take all day.  Serve with your favorite meat sauce, alfredo, or with Chicken Parmesan that looks like THIS!

Boom!  Glorious.

Recipe coming soon!