Pasta-fazoo

I’ve been meaning to make pasta from scratch for a while. For some reason I just never got around to it. It’s so much easier to just grab a box of dry noodles — they’re always around the house, super convenient, and honestly, I don’t even know if they ever go bad?

I also don’t own a pasta machine to flatten or cut the dough nicely.  I thought that was a prerequisite to making pasta. But I figured: I have a rolling pin, and every recipe I found made it look surprisingly simple. Honestly, even simpler than making my own bread. And you don’t actually need a machine — just roll it thin and slice it with a knife.

I was home by myself, there was a Leafs game on tonight against the Canes and not feeling overly hungry, and pasta is always a good, simple meal.  It's also a nice distraction in case the Buds stink the rink.  So I decided, okay, today’s the day. Let’s make pasta.

All I used was:

• 00 flour
• Eggs
• Fancy salt
• Olive oil

That’s it.

You mix everything together right on the counter. (Still not sure why it can’t be done in a bowl like bread — but it ends up on the counter to knead anyway.  So clean the counter before you do this) Once it comes together, coat it lightly with oil, cover it, and let it rest for about 30 minutes so the gluten can relax.

After resting, I split the dough into quarters. Rolling each piece out flat actually wasn’t hard — just a bit of patience. The video I watched suggested lightly flouring the sheet, folding it gently, and then slicing so you get more even noodles. It worked great.

Start to finish — mixing, resting, rolling, cutting, and cooking a portion — it was about 90 minutes total.

Fresh pasta cooks fast. Just three to four minutes, since it doesn’t need to rehydrate like dried noodles.

I tried a piece after about three minutes, and honestly… my eyes lit up. It was astonishingly good. I wasn't sure what to expect. The best pasta I'd ever tasted was in Italy, it was melt in your mouth. This wasn't that. But it was very good. Every other pasta has been the boiled dried packaged variant.  Everyone I asked beforehand said homemade pasta tastes way better than dry noodles, and they were right. 

It was tender, delicious, almost buttery — even without sauce. But I did add some sauce, grated parmesan, and freshly cracked pepper.  Simple meal.  And simple to make.

I even made that board. Ha. Honestly, I did.