Mangia mangia mangia!

I have a love for all things Italian. The Italian landscape is beautiful, the cities are historic while the countryside is idyllic, the wine is wonderful and continually flowing, and the food, in my humble opinion, is perfection.

The hubs and I went to Italy for the first time nearly 9 years ago and sadly have yet to go back. We hit all the major spots, Rome, Florence and the Tuscan countryside, Venice, and our final stop, the Cinque Terre.

There was no part of Italy I didn’t enjoy. Walking Rome at night trying to find the ultimate slice of pizza while marveling at the city’s history and monuments was a dream. Working our way through farmers’ markets and enjoying some of the best restaurants in Florence was bliss. Exploring Venice’s alley and waterways felt like a step back in time. Hiking through the Cinque Terre gave us a glimpse into the love of wine and seafood that this region did so well. Alas, this is not a post about our Italy trip, but the memories have stayed with me all these years and pushed me to “up my Italian” food game. Case in point…..homemade pasta!

So my hubby knows me really well. Well enough to safely give me gifts that are kitchen centric since he knows I will be delighted and will not be offended thinking I should be a “women in the kitchen” kinda thing. It was shortly after our trip to Italy that I mentioned, in passing, I wanted to try my hand in homemade pasta. Well guess what was delivered to our doorsteps a few weeks later? Pasta making gadgets! (Did I mention he’s really good at listening and gift giving when I talk food!)

He bought me the Imperia Dal 1932 pasta making machine, the drying rack, and a few attachments to make various noodles. After I got the hang of it I bought a few more attachments to make even more variations of noodles, including ravioli. I’ve yet to master the ravioli, but once I do I’ll be featuring that recipe too!

Now I need to be honest about this process. It’s a bit time consuming and I tend to get flour literally everywhere, but it is very rewarding. Also my marble counters are made for this stuff; they beg to have dough formed and kneaded on their ever cool surface.

For this recipe I kept it simple and very basic. The one thing I do recommend is to get the proper flour, which is finer than normal flour. Luckily we have a large Italian community in San Diego (Little Italy) so 00 flour is easy to come by. Actually even some specialty markets carry 00 flour used for homemade pasta making and, as usual, the web has numerous options for finding the right flour texture.

Ingredients (makes approximately 1 lb. of pasta):

2 cups of 00 flour (I used Anna’s Napoletana Extra Fine Flour Unbleached)

2 large eggs

Shape the flour into a mound and make a well in the top center. Crack the eggs into the well and begin mixing the flour and eggs together with your hands. Keep mixing until you have a nice consistent dough. If the dough seems dry you can always add some lukewarm water until you have the right consistency. If the consistency is too gummy add flour to the surface or on your hands to knead a pliable dough.

Once the dough is done begin stretching the dough out through the pasta machine. Set the pasta machine at the widest position and run about 1/8 of the dough through the roller. I usually run the pasta through the same roller size twice. After the second roll adjust the pasta machine to the next lowest width setting and run the same sheet of pasta in again, twice. You continue running the pasta sheets through the machine reducing the width until the lowest setting and thinnest pasta sheet is achieved. Place that sheet aside, sprinkle with flour, and continue the process with the remaining dough.

Once all the dough has been passed through the machine you can either slice the pasta into long strips by hand or run the sheet through the pasta attachments. I’ve made noodles by hand and with the machine; the pasta comes out great either way.

Bring salted water to a boil and place noodles into pot. Since they are fresh they don’t take very long to cook at all. Test at 2 minutes to see if pasta is cooked and strain once done.

Since the noodles are homemade I think they can be simply dressed with some good quality olive oil, parmesan cheese, and black pepper. That doesn’t mean you can’t throw the kitchen sink at it either, please go that direction if you’d like. Either way I think you’ll appreciate the difference in taste and consistency that fresh pasta has over the dried stuff you buy at the store.

Wine to pair?

Well this really depends on the topping you choose for your pasta, but let’s keep it consistent and stay with an Italian varietal. If you’re going with a seafood based pasta try a Bosco or Albarola from the Cinque Terre region, for a simple parmesan with pepper a Vermentino is a good choice, and red based sauces go well with Chianti or Sangiovese.

So pop a bottle and pour yourself a glass to celebrate your hard working pasta making skills. Don’t forget to say cheers before you take that first sip…better yet say it in Italian; Saluti!