Homemade Pasta (8 of 40)

I’m no culinary expert but over the years I’d like to think that I’ve developed a few skills when it comes to the kitchen. Making meals that my kids enjoy is one of the more rewarding parts of motherhood. I love that there are certain dishes that the kids will always associate with me and that the same recipe made by someone else is just not quite as good as how mom makes it. 

I’m not really a huge fan of pasta so I couldn’t tell you why I felt the need to learn how to make it from scratch. Now that I think about it though, maybe that’s exactly why. Am I missing the true irresistibility of pasta because I’ve only ever had the dehydrated version? Is there a revelation in store for me where I will finally understand the allure of angel hair? SO many unimportant unanswered questions! 

Thankfully I was not alone in my quest for answers. I happen to have birthed a budding sous chef who was willing to take on the task along side me. A Pinterest search for “Easy Perfect Pasta” and an Amazon Prime delivery of a table top pasta machine later and we were in our way.

I should’ve known early on that Pinterest was going to set me up for failure. There was nothing easy or perfect about the pasta-making process we experienced. We gathered our ingredients: a deceptively simple list of flour, eggs, salt and olive oil. Then, we molded the flour into a mound and created a well for the eggs to sit in. 

Everything was going swimmingly until step three: gently break up the eggs and slowly incorporate the flour while keeping the flour wall intact. Whelp, the flour wall lasted approximately 3.8 seconds before Ava and I were desperately mopping up the flood of raw egg running through our fingertips and all over the countertop. 

Once we disposed of the gooey, runny mess, we tried again, this time opting for containment in an oversized bowl rather than the great wide beyond of the countertop. This attempt proved to be more successful and we were able to move onto step four: Knead 8 to 10 minutes until dough becomes smooth and elastic.

Holy Arm Day, Batman! Three minutes in and I was solidly questioning my commitment to the process. At six minutes, I shamelessly coerced the girl child to take over. By minute seven, I found myself regrettably back at the helm. When the timer finally did sound, the dough was more wrinkled and solid than smooth and elastic, but I had done my time and it would get no more action from me. 

Step five was definitely the highlight of the experience: rolling out the sheets of pasta and cutting them into long strands of spaghetti. Now that the grunt work was done, my sous chef suddenly reappeared ready to assist again. We fed the dough through the rolling piece, adjusting the setting smaller and smaller with each pass. We then sent the sheet through the cutter and had our first batch of homemade pasta! 

Thick, gummy, tasteless pasta, but pasta none-the-less! 

I’m sure that with repeated effort, perfecting homemade pasta would be attainable, however I’ve realized that it’s not worth the effort for something I only feel mediocre about anyway. While the final product was nothing like what the recipe intended, my chief taste-tester downed a bowl without hesitation. That feels like a win to me.