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.”
Ingredients:
* 2 cups of flour
* 2 eggs
* 2 egg yolks
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:
Steps:
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!
Looks fun. Wish I had a pasta machine!
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?
homemade sauce recipe next time please!
OH GOOD IDEA FOR A POST!
Cool!! Aww..reminds me of my Play-Doh fun factory dayzzz!!
HAHA so true.
Wow…interesting! didn’t realize all the steps involved! Thanks for sharing 🙂
🙂
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!
Do you have to have a pasta machine to make pasta? Or can you roll it out by hand?
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