Mmmmm is all I have to say. Nothing is quite like homemade pasta. I bought the pasta maker at an antique shop in Silver City, NM this weekend. A bit pricey at $40 but came with 5 attachments including one for ravioli.
So excited about it that when I got home today I HAD to go get some semolina flour at the coop and try that sucker out. I used the most basic Italian pasta recipe I could find online. It's the same recipe on many a site but seemed to me to be universal.
Pasta:
1 cup semolina
1 cup all-purpose flour
3 eggs
Optional:
pinch salt
some olive oil
You can put it all in a food processor, you can use a Cuisinart or you can do it by hand on a flat surface. If you are doing the latter you must make a "well" in the dry ingredients (or a small hole like the top of a volcano), pour in wet and slowly mix. Otherwise you just dump everything in and hit "on".
After this you run it through the pasta maker at its widest setting and then slowly get thinner and thinner to desired weight. This recipe ended up shredding when I tried my pasta maker's thinnest setting (7). I ended up going only to 5 for fear of the shred factor. I may try it again or try a different recipe because I do like thin pasta.
Boil until the pasta rises to the top. It's fresh so it doesn't need long, 5 minutes max. I let it dry until it feels dry. Others say much longer but if it's fresh, it can be fresh.
The Sauce:
I totally winged this one with ingredients I had in the fridge already. I leave it here to inspire you to do the same with your next pesto.
3 cloves garlic
1/4 cup Gruyere cheese
1 cayenne pepper
4 cups greens
1 handful cashews
2 tablespoons capers
8 black peppercorns
1 shallot
dash maple syrup
salt to taste
I think that was all but I could be wrong. I basically threw it all into the processor and processed it to a pesto-y consistency.
Enjoy.
