My brother Erik and his fiance, Catherine came into town last Monday for a visit with the nibbling. I had intended pasta making to be a fun "let's all cook together in the kitchen" project. Then they were delayed and so I thought I'd better get a head start on dinner during Charlie's nap ....and it turned out to be the little nudge I needed to try something so daunting on my own. I was surprised when it turned out to be so completely do-able and even repeat-able! (I need things like this every once in a while to remind me that I don't have to simplify everything just because Charlie is in our life now. )
Charlie and I mixed the dough.
Then Charlie helped admirably by falling asleep and not waking up to the squeaking of this hand crank turning outside his bedroom door.
This pasta maker belonged to my mother. I have delightful memories of using it with her when I was young. And later memories of making pasta on it with my closest girlfriends.
You roll out the dough several times in the flat roller to get it to the elasticity and thickness you want.
Then you put it through the cutter blades....
Presto, linguine!
I dried it on our laundry rack. (Jonathan was worried our pasta would taste like fresh washing, but it didn't.)
Paired with a bottle of wine we saved from our wedding, some halibut and fresh green beans, FRESH PASTA was the perfect way to celebrate our 6th anniversary and Erik and Catherine's engagement! (And yes, Charlie's face IS shiny from eating olive oil, lemon and basil coated fresh pasta!)
Mmmmm!
4 comments:
YUM! And it makes me happy to know that you can also make something complicated with a babe :-).
You know, I used to have a pasta maker exactly like that when we lived in Edinburgh. I got it at a charity shop and didn't know how to use it properly though...I didn't know you were supposed to flatten it in there first! No wonder I got so frustrated with it. I sure wish I'd kept it, I think it was quite a nice one.
And happy anniversary to you guys!! :)
You are making pasta and Jon's making cream cheese coffee cake with Zanna... Must be the "Let's do some of the things mom used to do" week.
I'm glad you used the mixer for the dough! And I'm glad you have the machine. When I remember that I used to do it by hand before someone gave me the machine... It takes a LOT of rolling pin work, and it's terrible for carpal tunnel...
yum friend!! i've been wanting to make fresh pasta... maybe you can give me a tutorial with our 3 kids underfoot. that sounds like a recipe for a good time.
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