For Christmas the grandkids got my husband a Marco Atlas pasta maker...
...in keeping with his resolution to do more cooking in 2013. So yesterday we floured ourselves up (pasta making is much easier and more fun as a team) and made our very first batch of homemade pasta. We took turns kneading the dough, guiding it through the rollers and cutting attachment, and placing the fresh noodles on a jury-rigged drying rack... a dowel suspended between two kitchen chairs. The cookbook we were using, Williams Sonoma's Pasta, didn't mention that the noodles must be separated while drying or they will stick together, and that if you let the noodles dry for more than 30 minutes (the book says they can be dried for up to 3 hours) they begin to break. Fortunately, we managed to separate them before the stickage got too bad and we only lost a few. We broke many more on their way to the pot of boiling water and a mini-panic set in. But not to worry, the minute the noodles hit the water, they softened. Immensely long anyway... almost a yard... next time, I'll just break the noodles m in smaller lengths on purpose. It only took a few minutes to cook, fresh noodles cook very quickly.
We tossed them with savory Kalamata Olive Pasta Sauce and topped it with a little grated fresh Parmesan. Silky, tender, and melt-in-your-mouth delicious they were the best noodles I have ever eaten.. Below is the recipe for the sauce, which would be excellent on whatever kind of pasta you like, even if you're not inclined to go whole hog homemade. Click here for the recipe.
