Edible! Not Too Mangled! Success!

Yes, the Great Pasta-Making Adventure was successful, in that we all ended up eating and enjoying the pasta made by our own little hands. Oh, there were a couple of mishaps (small child falling off a high chair in the kitchen, the dog snatching some drying pasta when no one was looking . . .), but overall, easier than I thought.

It took a little while for my friend Alyssa and me to figure out the dough, the best way to position the pasta roller on the counter, and the easiest way to do the rolling. In the beginning, there were a lot of comments like, "Is the dough supposed to be this dry?" and "Am I turning the handle the right way?" Yes, it takes two brains and four hands to make pasta for the first time. Because we were using my very own chickens' eggs, which are about medium-sized, instead of the huge ones from the grocery store called for in recipes, we had to fiddle with the dough a little, adding a little more flour here, incorporating another egg there, until it was the right consistency. But then we got to roll it.

The very first roll-out. You can't see my face, but I'm pretty sure I had a look of intense concentration on it at about this point. Also, everyone say hi to Alyssa! And her kitchen.

One recipe we had said to let the dough rest. One said to roll it out right away. So one batch rested, and one batch went straight to the roller. I don't see the point in the resting, frankly. I would eliminate that step in the future. Also, there was a lot of discussion in the recipes about folding the dough in half every time you put it through the roller again. We did that a couple of times, and then stopped. In addition, we were not particularly careful about making the pieces of dough to go through the machine perfectly rectangular. So that when they were cut, some strands were longer than others. We Fail at following directions. But you know what? In the end, it didn't matter.

Exactly like a Play-Doh machine. Except the end result is much more palatable.

Then we hung them up to dry, on a clothes drying rack conveniently placed just outside the kitchen. Unfortunately, it was also conveniently placed for the dog, who was later let into the kitchen unattended and decided to be our official taste-tester.

Of course she grabbed the longest, nicest-looking bunch there on the left. A discriminating dog, that Lulu.

Anyway, when WE finally got to eat some, the consensus was: good pasta. It had a much different texture than the dried stuff. More chewy. Although the sauce I made for it had two cups of heavy cream in it (I doubled this recipe), so I think we could have poured that over some twigs and everyone would still have stuffed themselves.

And THEN, our hosts made us crepes with all kinds of sinful fillings. (Would it be possible for me to just run away with Nutella? We would definitely live happily ever after.) And then we waddled off home.

So, in conclusion, I would say: If you have access to a pasta roller, go ahead and use it. It was not at all daunting once we finally got down to it. The machine in particular is stupid easy. And it was a lot of fun. Of course, that might have had something to do with the fact that we were swilling these cocktails while we were working. Which brings me to the teaser for tomorrow's post . . .

Tomorrow on Going Country: The winning cocktail name! Stay tuned.