Fresh Pasta

A few nights ago I tried my hand at making fresh pasta. The dough is easy enough to make (just a 1:1 ratio of flour to eggs with a little olive oil and some salt), but using the pasta machine took a little getting used to.

I got a simple, hand-cranked pasta machine that you clamp onto your counter and it rolls the dough into sheets. You adjust the rollers to be closer and closer together each time you pass the dough through, to make the pasta see-through thin.

The problem I had was that the dough is kinda sticky. I had to thoroughly flour the dough between each pass, or it would stick to itself as soon as it had passed through the machine. After doing about four rounds of dough, I think I finally got the hang of doing it.

I ended up making paperdelle (which I think must be Italian for "rough and unevenly cut, yet tasty." I laid the noodles on a sheet pan until I was ready to boil them, and then cooked them for about five minutes. They ended up looking...odd, but tasting pretty darn good.

In the future I think I may save the homemade pasta for things that call for sheets of noodles, like lasagna or manacotti.

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