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Making pasta from scratch is a rewarding enterprise. It's you, the ingredients and the machine. The pasta machine. The pasta machine I use has been in my family for decades. It's had a lot of use and its loud and has the funk. I learned the love of fresh pasta from my Nana. She was born in Calabria, Italy and moved here in the late 1920's during the Great Depression. I watched her make the pasta as young boy. You see in Italian homes there are 2 kitchens, the one in the basement and the one upstairs. The basement kitchen is the production kitchen, the laboratory. This is where the magic happens. My Nana would make the pasta and dry it after it was made into those long lengthy linguine of tasty generational goodness. She hung the pasta from laundry wire and it was like curtains of gladiatorial victory. I would often snack on those dry semi-crunchy morsels at my mom's chagrin. She would cry out about how it would upset my stomach, but Nana would smile and say in Italian to go ahead and have a little more and don't forget to give some to my little brothers too. Mickey and Tommy loved the pasta too. The same went for my cousins as we rejoiced in the new creations my Nana made us. It was like consuming and tasting the soul power of my family's legacy. It was the best pasta I have ever tasted, hands down. She made this pasta ever since i could remember, decades. It was always delicious and the sauce she would make from the tomatoes and basil from the organic garden behind her house was so rustic, authentic and bursting with flavor. The feeling i got from watching her make fresh pasta was a calm, focused blissful elegance. She would knead the dough with precision and purpose. She was in complete meditation and my family was rewarded with the product. She inspired me as my cooking experiences and career began to take a purpose and direction. We would gather around the kitchen table, with anticipation as we awaited the main event, the main course, the star performance. My Nana was an artist, mother, a grandmother, a teacher, an American. I would later make the pasta with her right before she passed and I filmed it. The recipe is so simple, but I still can't make it taste like hers. Everytime I make pasta from scratch I still reflect on those memories, the dinners, the fellowship, and the love of family. Love is food. Especially, hand made pasta.
The recipe is simple and easy: 4 cups flour
6 eggs
pinch of salt
Tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Create a well in the middle of the flour and break the eggs into the middle, add the salt and olive oil. Use a fork and mix all together. Then form into a dough ball and knead the dough 8-10 times. Cover with plastic for about an hour or towel. Then cut the dough into smaller discs and push through your pasta machine and then through your fettucine attachment. Bam fresh pasta. Bon Appetito.
The recipe is simple and easy: 4 cups flour
6 eggs
pinch of salt
Tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Create a well in the middle of the flour and break the eggs into the middle, add the salt and olive oil. Use a fork and mix all together. Then form into a dough ball and knead the dough 8-10 times. Cover with plastic for about an hour or towel. Then cut the dough into smaller discs and push through your pasta machine and then through your fettucine attachment. Bam fresh pasta. Bon Appetito.