Trying out the new pasta machine
I was lucky enough this past Christmas to get so many new cooking gifts that there was one I hadn't tried yet. While I've made a lot of fresh pasta (mostly ravioli) and pizzas, breads, etc., I had not tried spaghetti or fettucine from scratch. The surprising part of the experience was how much the kids enjoyed it - it entertained them all afternoon and well into the evening.
The history of pasta
As part of my exploration into this new toy, I learned a few things about pasta I found fascinating. The first documented recipe for pasta comes from a cook book written around the year 1000 in Sicily. Before pasta machines came along in the 17th century, pasta dough was kneaded by foot! In 1740 Paolo Adami was issued a license by Venice to open the first pasta factory and by the mid 1800s one pasta factory actually offered 200 different shaped pastas....making pasta much more affordable. Not until the 1800s was tomato sauce used to flavor pasta - before that it was either flavored with cheese or eaten plain. For many years, tomatoes were used strictly as a decorative plant and were actually believed to be poisonous by some people.
The pasta drying on the counter
I guess my next gift request needs to be the wooden drying rods - it takes much longer for the pasta to dry on the counter. We actually only let it dry about an hour before making our dinner (and fresh pasta cooks much more quickly that dried or packaged pasta). However, we did make the mistake of storing the extra pasta in zip closure bags before they were dry which resulted in clumping the next time we cooked it (you always have to learn at least one lesson when making something new).
The master chefs
Leah and Madison were so excited about our venture into homemade pasta making that we took it to the next level, setting up the dining room with beautiful table settings, donning their aprons and "server towels" and putting out beautiful glassware - even for their orange Pellegrinos!
This is how you get the family to eat together!
We ended up making two versions of pasta (and we also flavored all of the pasta dough with fresh garlic). For the girls, we used the fettucine noodles, and made a sage and butter sauce, with plenty of freshly grated parmigiano reggiano cheese. Derek and I had a basil and mint pesto sauce and added grilled shrimp to our spaghetti noodles. Now that the pasta machine is "primed" and ready, I'm sure we'll be experimenting with new recipes, especially as the cooler weather moves in. Definitely a major "yum!"
