10 Things I learned from making pasta from scratch.

Today it snowed, not just a little but a significant amount.  Enough to make it seem like winter was well on its way and you just wanted to stay warm indoors.  So I decided it was a perfect day to make pasta from scratch.  I had never done this before but ever since I found a how-to article in Canadian Living in January I have been meaning to do it. Note; this was my very first time and I have never watched anyone else do it either.  So I really didn't know what I was doing. This is what I learned.

1. Good intentions can wait a long time.  Since I've already mentioned that I have been intending to do this since January, it is safe to say that you can put off or at least I can put off a good intention for considerable time.

2. Motivation can come in strange shapes.  In this case, Moe (my husband) put aside a small amount of hamburger in the fridge asking me what I could do with it.  He was making hamburger patties--something that I can't do because the meat is too cold!  I told him I would use it in spaghetti sauce. A great reason to try to make my own spaghetti.  And then it snowed today and I was staying in anyways.

3. You can find a video demonstrating almost anything, especially for cooking. The videos are great and they are not only on youtube. In this case I used the Canadian Living video that matched the recipe to demonstrate how to make the pasta dough. http://www.canadianliving.com/food/fresh_pasta_dough.php

4. The video works much faster than you do!!  I needed to replay the video so often I lost count.  In fact, I replayed it for every tiny step of the process, which was still easier than reading and rereading the recipe to work it out.

5.  Watch the video first and follow it.  The well in my flour did not hold.  I had bits of egg white escaping and sliding down the sides of my well making a dash for freedom at all points.  I had to scoop that up repeatedly and that prevented me from breaking the yolks until I had the whites under control.  Next time, I follow the video exactly and start with my flour in a bowl so that I can form a perfect egg trapping well.

6.  Canadian Living thinks you know stuff you don't know. (To be fair other recipes act like this too)   The video was just about making the dough.  It wasn't all that clear about telling when you had kneaded the dough sufficiently.  ( I got that from another video) and it didn't tell me anything about how to roll and cut the dough.  Again other videos for that.

7.  The cutter for spaghetti I bought at HomeSense doesn't work even if it is made in Italy.  I wanted to try making pasta before I invested in an expensive roller or attachment for my Kitchenaid mixer so I thought I had things well under control by investing in a $5 rolling pin that promised to cut the dough.  Haha, maybe it would work for someone who knew what they were doing but not for me.

8. Cutting spaghetti by hand is time consuming but also rather fun.  I rolled out my dough until it was almost transparent and then used the supposed cutter--all it did was score the dough rather well.  I then used those score lines to cut the dough.  Once I tried a tri-fold (most videos demonstrate this method) and then scored and then cut but I still needed to unfold the cut spaghetti and as I worked toward the center, the pieces became less willing to separate. So the next piece I cut it strips of individual spaghetti--I'm glad I had lots of time and patience.

9. It really does taste great!

10.  I am going to invest in the attachment for my Kitchenaid since it will roll and cut!  I want to make pasta from scratch but I don't want to cut it by hand.  The rolling part was actually fun because the dough keeps springing back after you roll it.

Although my adventures in pasta making took up a lot of time, and I did manage to get flour in places it didn't need to be, I still want to do it again.  Next time will be so much easier.  If anyone wants to try my spaghetti rolling pin let me know.