Homemade Pasta

That's right, peeps. Get excited... I got a pasta machine! After the pasta making challenge on My Kitchen Rules this week I got super excited and headed down to ye old Mitre 10 to get me some o' that. It was a day and a half until I actually got to use it and it seemed like forever - I was like a kid at Christmas. So, this is the story of how it all played out :)

Nervous...!

THE RECIPE
Okie dokie! We start by sifting 2 cups of 00 flour (you can use just plain flour but they reckon the 00 stuff is the go so I decided it was best not to risk it!) onto a clean working surface (ie the bench) and make a little well. You need to fit 4 eggs at room temperature in there so make sure the sides are pretty tall... the recipe stressed that the eggs shouldn't be able to run out of the well but mine definitely did and I freaked out a bit! Anyhoo... gently give the eggs a whisk with a fork and then start working the flour into the eggs with your fingertips. Keep working it until it forms a dough. And then the fun part begins - you gotta knead it for 6-7 minutes until it all comes together and is nice and smooth.



After 6-7 minutes kneading. Ergh... but so worth it!

 Then we cut it into 4 pieces and wrap it in glad wrap to rest for a little while. The recipe says 10 minutes but I left it for about an hour and a half while I went and Zumba-d so I could enjoy my carbs good and proper!

Cut the dough into 4, wrap and rest

And then it's time for the fun part! I pulled out the pasta machine, attached it to the bench (with my Mummy's help!), dusted the rollers with some flour and got to work. You'll want some better advice than mine to try it yourself but basically you have to roll it out a couple of times on each setting until you get down to number two... they say the last setting can be a bit too thin and the pasta can get stuck - messy!

This part was so much fun!

Then we lay it out on a cloth while we do the other sheets and then get to cutting it. I couldn't get a photo of that part unfortunately! Dad helped me with this... for those of you who know my dad - can you imagine!?!?! I fed it into the machine as dad cranked the cutter and away we went.

Oooo my goodness. I was so incredibly excited!
My first batch of homemade pasta :)

I boiled a big pot of salted water and dropped it in. It only took about 5-6 minutes to cook (excellent because Rosie and I were starving after Zumba!). I made a pretty simple bacon, tomato and rocket sauce and folded it through the pasta and then topped it with some parmesan. Perfect post exercise food!