Buongiorno!  I have strong traditional Italian values and grew up in the kitchen. The kitchen is where you played laughed and bonded with your family even if you were not the cook. I was recently reading “The Shoemakers Wife” which I highly recommend reading and they kept talking about how they would make homemade pasta. This sparked my interest and lucky me my boyfriend surprised me with a pasta maker imported from Italy and my very own drying rack! (he’s the cutest)

My family and I decided this will be a great end of the summer project. I come from a line of great cooks….grandma was the bomb.com and passed her cooking skills down to my mom which my sister graciously inherited all of the cooking skills leaving me zero. I am quite challenged in the kitchen…I can make like three things. But what I can cook comes out delicious. Some are natural in the kitchen….others like myself are hazardous to themselves and others around. My sister spearheaded this project with me and I must say it was not as hard as I thought it was going to be. The machine I used was a Marcato Atlas 180 roller. It was easy to assemble and work with and it says “The original” so of corse I had to have it. We decided to make Tagliatelle which is a traditional type os pasta from Emilia-Romagna and Marche, regions of Italy.  Below are the steps that worked best for us. If I can do it trust me anyone can do it!

Ingredients: Flour, Eggs (room temp) and Semolina flour

Step 1. Making the dough:  Measure out 3 cups of flour and make a fort like shape. Place 4 eggs in the center of the flour. Begin to beat eggs with a fork adding a little bit of flour as needed. The dough will start to thicken with each bit of flour. When the dough is no longer liquid began to knead for 6-8 minutes or until “confident”. (the directions kept saying “until confident” so we got a chuckle out of that trying to be “confident” when we had no clue what we were doing) You want to make sure that the dough is not sticky…if it is add more flour. Wrap in Cling Wrap and refrigerate for 30 min. 

Elle wanted to help too 🙂

Step 2. The dough and machine meet:  Flour your work area. Unwrap ball and cut into a small piece. Start with the machine at notch 1. Roll dough through. Fold in half slice edges and roll through. Fold over and roll 4-6 times (folding in half each time) until confident. Move machine to notch 2 and roll through a few times until confident w/o folding this time. Move machine up two more notches and roll dough through 2 times. Move notch up to 6 and roll dough through a final time. Place dough on counter and sprinkle with Semolina flour. Fold in half. Sprinkle more Semolina and fold in half. Repeat the process. When your dough is folded begin to cut. Make sure you cut into the dough and push knife away from the body. This prevents dough from mushing together. Keep in mind the pasta does not have to have a perfect shape its homemade after all….don’t stress. Unravel each piece of dough and set individually on a wet paper towel. Repeat this process until you use all of the dough. Don’t forget to cover the pasta with a wet paper towel as you are working with the dough. 

Step 3. Cooking the pasta: Boil water. When water comes to a boil add salt. Begin to add your pasta. Make sure you individually add the pasta so they do not clump together. The pasta cooks super fast…about two minutes so do not leave the stove area. Place cooked pasta in sauce and mangia!

This was well worth the time, effort and money for my machine. You can definitely taste the difference. I can see myself using this machine a lot in the next upcoming months and can’t wait to try all different types of macaroni!  I guess my boyfriend will be getting his money’s worth by getting paid back in lots of pasta!

Xo

C