On Christmas Morning, I gleefully opened a heavy box that I knew was my coveted pasta maker I had asked for repeatedly. Later that day in putting away my new treasures, the pasta maker made its way to the floor in my bedroom — where it stayed. At first it sat there happily enough, knowing that I would come for it. As the weeks clicked by it became a little panicked, it didn’t trust that I was coming. Then it knew the truth, I was afraid I couldn’t make the pasta and I was avoiding my poor little pasta maker. The fantasies of home made pasta were overtaken by fear of failure. What if it was too hard to make, what if I just ended up making lumps of dough? I began to avoid even looking at the pasta maker on the floor because I knew it was mocking me.
Yesterday that all changed. We had our first rainy Sunday of the season. I had some home made sauce left over from a catering job I did on Saturday and some Italian Sausage. PERFECT for dinner!
I should point out this is the second time I’ve made pasta dough and run it through the machine — but the first time you run dough through the machine you have to throw it away because it picks up bits of metal.
The first time I made it by hand, piling the flour on the cutting board, making a well for the eggs and bringing it all together with my fingers. I had researched many recipes, but found the info on the King Arthur Flour site to be the best. This was messy, but satisfying for some reason it just smelled like cooking — the unique transformation of base ingredients into something special.
The second time I made dough I used the Kitchen Aid Recipe and the standing mixer. The dough was not as soft. I’ve heard people talk about over working dough and making it tough — I never understood what that meant until yesterday. The dough resisted being kneaded — it had attitude. That said, it rolled out nicely using the attachments and made very tender pasta.
I’m looking forward to another rainy day soon where I can make pasta. Which I will mix by hand. I wish I had taken a picture of the finished plate, but we forgot this time … Next time!
Dawn
