HOMEMADE PASTA!

We watched a few videos to mentally prepare ourselves for the endeavor. Then, ignoring most of the advice, here's what we did. Plop:

1 1/2 c. flour

sprinkle salt

in a pile on the counter. Make a lil' well, and crack two eggs into it. Whisk up the eggs a little with a knife, and slowly mix in flour from the edges until the mess is controlled enough to use your hands. Then, keep adding in and kneading flour until a stiff-and-springy ball is formed. This may not require all of the flour; we had quite a bit left over. Then, knead the ball for about ten minutes. When it's nice and elastic, and a uniform yellowish color, put it in a bag and let it rest away for 20 minutes.

Now the real work starts! With no pasta machine, we rolled out the pasta by hand, and therefore couldn't get it too thin, but it was still under a millimeter. When you're satisfied with the thickness of it, roll it into a loose coil and slice into small strips. This gives you a fettucine-sized pasta. Quite obviously, the pasta can be cut into any shape, length or thickness you see fit!

And then simply stick the pasta in some boiling water; cook it for less time than store-bought pasta of a similar size, because of its freshness.

Rarely has any meal been so satisfying to prepare, and so scrumptious. I mixed the thick (oh-so-thick, but upliftingly un-rubbery) pasta with steamed asparagus, tomato, grated Romano cheese, and pesto, and a rum & coke for good measure.

Oh Man(icotti)

Bean and I made manicotti last night. Because, of course, who doesn't like cheese? And more cheese! We bought block Parmesan and Romano cheese, and they were the most scrumptious taste-tests I have ever done.

This was an interesting experiment, as it was our first attempt at such a dinner endeavor.

The instructions, vaguely, were this:

1. Cook manicotti tubes like normal.

2. Simultaneously steam spinach.

3. In bowl, mix:

1 container of Ricotta cheese

Parmesan and Romano cheese, grated

Parsley

Basil

Pinch of salt

2 eggs

4. Chop up spinach and mix into cheese batch.

5. Fill a plastic bag with the mixture, seal it, and cut off one corner.

6. Squeeze into one side of a cooked pasta tube until half full; squeeze in from other side.

This is one hell of a messy procedure, but once I got the technique down, it was easy. Plenty of opportunities to lick your fingers clean of ricotta during preparation. I ingested nearly a meal's worth, in fact, before the damn dish was even baked!

The filled noodles were laid out on a tinfoil-covered pan, for easy cleaning purposes. Then they were covered with a thin (we're not huge tomato sauce fans) of Newman's Own marinara sauce, and sprinkled with way too much (never!) Parmesan and Romano.

Bake for approximately one-half hour! And they were delicious.