Homemade pasta!

 

Not just sauce.  PASTA.  NOODLES. 

Let’s set aside my love of Cajun food for a moment.  Because my first food love, aside from “Mom's cooking”, was Italian.  My grandpa (Pawpaw) used to make spaghetti all the time when we visited him—it’s actually the only thing I remember him cooking, since my Grandma (Nana) typically did most of the cooking.  It was the only way I would eat mushrooms—in PawPaw’s spaghetti.  When we ventured into the big city & went out to eat, Olive Garden was always my top choice—and ALWAYS fettuccini alfredo.  ALWAYS. Ravioli, fried or canned?  LOVE.  There’s just something about carbs & meat and tomato sauce in a big bowl that sets one’s mind at ease. Or maybe that’s just the carbo overload.

Anyway… my friends Jenn & Paul gave us the Kitchenaid pasta roller attachment as our wedding gift…but up til now, we hadn’t had a chance to use it.  But there’s no time like the present—especially when you have half a jar of Prego in the fridge.

Though it took a few tries to get it right & get the hang of the roller, here’s the nice thing about making your own pasta—it’s very forgiving.  It’s meant to be kneaded & rolled & rolled again to get it to the perfect thickness & consistency.  So if it doesn’t come through your roller nicely the first time, just fold it over & pass it through again.

Ingredients: (makes enough noodles for 4 servings)

1 cup all purpose flour (some recipes call for durum flour, but it’s not cheap, and AP worked just fine for me)

1/2 tsp garlic salt

1.5 tbsp water

.5 tbsp olive oil

1 beaten egg

 

Directions:

Add your dry ingredients into a large bowl & mix.  Then make a slight indention in the center of the flour & add the beaten egg.  Begin the mixer, and then add the water & oil.  Continue mixing until well combined and it forms a ball. 

Lay some wax paper on your counter & lightly flour it.  Sprinkle some flour on the dough as well & knead.  The oil should help it from being sticky, but you can sprinkle with more flour as needed.  Then, set up your pasta roller (you could probably also roll out with a rolling pin if you don’t have a pasta roller) to the thickest setting, and roll through. Pass through a few times till you get a good even sheet.

Then, start thinning it down.  Move the setting down a notch, pass through again, and so on. If it starts to tear or weaken, no worries, just fold over & pass through again.  Continue to ratchet down one level at a time until you get to your desired thickness.  For the record, I stopped at a “4”, on the Kitchenaid roller, 1 is the thickest, and 8 is the thinnest.

Once you’re happy with the thickness, lay it out on the wax paper & sprinkle w/a bit more flour so that your cutter won’t stick when you start slicing into noodles.

I don’t have the Kitchenaid cutter attachment because I just can’t seem to justify the cost.  Rather, I have a hand roller like this one, that I got for 75 cents at the thrift store.

Works just fine & makes a lovely pile of noodles.

If you don’t have either of these, a pizza cutter also works just fine.

Then all that’s left to do is whip up a quick sauce:

(1/2 jar Prego, 1/2 lb cooked turkey sausage, 1/2 package fresh sliced mushrooms, 1/2 onion, 1/2 bell pepper, 1 tbsp minced garlic, & Italian seasoning to taste)

Set a pot of water to boil, and add a pinch of salt & a tsp of olive oil.  Once the water boils, add your pasta.  The oil will help keep the noodles from sticking together.

Boil for 1-7 minutes—it’ll depend on the thickness.  Taste them to check for doneness.

Then mix with your sauce & serve!!!

 

NutriFacts:

Calories 378.6  

Total Fat 15.3 g   

Saturated Fat 4.0 g   

Polyunsaturated Fat 0.7 g   

Monounsaturated Fat 3.0 g  

Cholesterol 86.3 mg  

Sodium 1,332.1 mg  

Potassium 137.0 mg  

Total Carbohydrate 39.1 g   

Dietary Fiber 5.1 g   

Sugars 9.2 g  

Protein 21.9 g