Homemade Pasta

Making pasta with a toddler is more of an arts and crafts project than a culinary activity. Sure, it tastes delicious and homemade, but the real prize is that the toddler is engaged and interested in something for a solid 45 minutes. Maybe I just have a hyperactive son who wants me to run around with him for most of the afternoon, but finding a project that truly interests him (other than making train tracks or building towers) is a huge score. Especially when Nana leads the charge.  I had my hands free for 45 minutes AND didn’t have to make him dinner. SOLD! And I don’t even like pasta!

The homemade pasta recipe we used is from Alice Waters’ cookbook “The Art of Simple Food.”

The art of simple food.

A wonderful cookbook that has revolutionized the way Americans eat and cook.

Ingredients:

* 2 cups of flour

* 2 eggs

* 2 egg yolks

dough

This is what the dough looks like after it is made. Admittedly not the most attractive thing in the world!

Directions:

* Mix together the two full eggs and two egg yolks (for those scoring at home, that’s 4 yolks, 2 egg whites)

* With the flour, create a well and pour in the eggs. Slowly mix all together

* Create a disc, wrap it in plastic and let it rest for at least an hour before rolling (we put it in the fridge overnight, but that is not necessary)

* Roll out the dough by hand on a lightly floured board

* Pass the dough through the machine, then make the machine tighter and tighter until the pasta is the desired thickness. Then find the type of noodle setting you want, and cut it!

Equipment needed:

* Pasta machine

pasta machine

Cruzzie inspecting the pasta machine.

* Pasta dryer

pasta dryer

The pasta dryer looks like a clothes line. (Note: these pastas are short and stubby because they were made by King Cruz the Chef instead of the real Chef of the house. Despite the ugliness, still tasty).

Steps:

1st step

Secure the machine

team

Teamwork

put it in the machine

Run through machine

dryer

Dryer

beauties

Beauties

strands

Strands

cook

boil and cook

dinner

dinner is ready.

served

Dinner is served.

Cruzzie ate the pasta with some olive oil and parmesan cheese. He loved every bite. There is something so satisfying about making your own food and eating it right away! This is a better activity than play dough (and more nutritious)!!

Have a great weekend!

Anika Yael Natori, aka, The Josie Girl

Blog Home Page

Josie Girl

12 Comments

    • I know! Sorry to post something that requires a specific type of machine! If you like pasta and have time, it might be a good investment?

  1. Wow…interesting! didn’t realize all the steps involved! Thanks for sharing 🙂

  2. I make my own pasta all the time without a machine and I NEVER dry the noodles. They turn out just a good when using them right away instead of drying.

    • You are right — I should have mentioned that. SOME of the pasta, we didn’t dry (like the ones we used immediately for Cruz’s meal), but we dried some as we were not going to eat pasta until the next day because we had already cooked dinner. That said, either dry or totally fresh are delicious and homemade!

  3. I am a regular member of this site, I always notice that your blog posts are so unique and well explained with deep information. Tnx for the splandid post. I must share your post on my social medias and “my website” for giving you maximum coverage of visitor of the post.

Leave a Reply to Josie Girl Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *