Homemade PASTA!

I had a hankering.  Home school is fun, exciting and challenging.  It's the best decision we could have made for Connor.  I'll be honest, I am sort of feeling run down.  We have chickens now too, 2 wk old chicks to be exact. I had a hankering for pasta and I didn't feel like vacuuming the stairs (ya, the connection worked in my head) so I figured I'd make some pasta for lunch for Connor and I.


In a bowl combine

1 cup of all purpose flour,
a little salt  (1-1/2 tsp kosher)
a drizzle of olive oil
2 eggs (I used extra large)

Mix with your fingers until you can knead it.  Knead until smooth, 2-4 minutes, easy. Keep your board floured so it doesn't stick.

When it's a smooth ball, let it rest a few minutes.

Run it through a pasta machine, start on 1, the widest setting until it's very smooth then increase one number per roll.  Lightly dusting between rolls.  I went to #6.  If you don't have a pasta machine, just roll it with a rolling pin thin thin thin.  I have cutting bars on my machine but don't use them, I like cutting by hand.  Roll, stack, cut, toss with flour and leave to dry until you want to eat it.  You can cut it as wide or thick as you'd like,  just leave them uncut to use in lasagna or any layered or rolled pasta!!  I leave mine on the board, dusted with flour, uncovered until I'm ready to eat it.

Boil in heavily salted water about 1-2 minutes.  Toss with a little olive oil, butter, pepper and fresh herbs.

Perfection.  Here's the beauty shots:

                









Bring a big pot of water, heavily salted, to a boil, throw in pasta (this is one of the piles) Put a pat of butter, a little cream, a little chicken stock and some pepper in a pan beside the pasta. Stir the pasta quickly, this is the pasta at 1 minute!  It's done in 2 minutes.
  

Ahhh, cook for a few moments...lift out of the water and into the waiting pan...toss it around on relatively high heat to allow the sauce to reduce a bit and the pasta to absorb all that yummy goodness.
  

Toss in more pepper, more cheese and some fresh herbs, toss it just a moment longer.  Tip into a serving dish, grab 2 forks and sit with your son and talk about fresh pasta, sustainability and enjoy.
 

It takes 5 minutes to make, 5 minutes to cook and you'll never be able to cope with store bought pasta again :)

/enjoy