Fresh Pasta

Saturday I made fresh pasta. In my mind there is really no comparison between fresh, home-made pasta and boxed pasta. The texture and flavor of what we can make at home far exceeds what would be possible to buy. The only thing I could think of as being remotely as good would be some type of specialty pasta that was in a vacuum container or something.

I have made fresh pasta a bunch in the past but not for many months. I always find that I loose my edge with making things like doughs when I haven't done it in a while. For instance, last year I was on a pizza kick and I would make fresh home-made pizza several nights a week. I included all types of healthy ingredients such as roasted chicken, red peppers, onions, spinach, mushrooms and artichoke hearts to name a few. When I first started to make the pizzas it was very difficult for me to get the consistency of the dough right. Every type of dough has to have a certain elasticity to it as well as the correct moisture level. I was so annoyed with the first few times I made the pizza dough that I told myself I was going to make pizza dough every night until I got it right. After a few weeks I could make a pizza dough to perfection.

In terms of pasta dough, I lost my touch. The pasta came out great but took some tinkering. I used a recipe of two cups Double Zero pasta flour and three eggs. if any of you have made fresh pasta I would love to hear what recipes you've used and if they worked. Let me know.

I tend to get a bit worked up and sometimes flustered when things don't go my way or as planned in the kitchen. By the time I was finished tinkering with the dough, pressing the pasta and creating the home-made Italian sausage tomato sauce I was a bit amped up. To make a long story short, I had lost my appetite, which put me even more on edge. I had gone to all this work and when I finally sat down to eat I was not even hungry. I forced myself to eat some of it anyways haha. The meal proved to be a wonderful breakfast on Sunday morning!