Homemade pasta

I have been wanting to make my own pasta for a long time. Partly because its something I eat everyday and partly because I have this dorky desire to learn how to make more italian food from scratch. And partly because it feeds my need to buy more kitchen gadgets. But I decided to take a stab at it now even before acquiring a pasta maker. I've been trying to cook at home more and I ran out of things to cook. I was staring down another night of pasta, so I thought, what the hell...

Pasta dough:
2 cups of flour
3 eggs
1/2 tsp of salt

I emptied my flour out on my wooden cutting board and made a cup for the eggs in the middle. After adding the salt, you use a fork to slowly fold the eggs and flour together. My board was too small so I quickly moved to just working the dough with my hands. I didn't know what texture I was looking for, neither the Mario Batali recipe or the other one I was consulting said much other than "dont let it stick to anything." Ok.

I kneaded the dough for 4 or 5 minutes until it kept as a firm ball. Then stowe it away in a bowl under a moist paper towel for 15 to let it rest. Batali says the kneading and resting are key parts of the pasta process, so I'm gunna listen to him on that.

After the wait, I brought out a larger cutting board to roll out my dough. I didn't have a rolling pin (college house = hodgepodge collection of cooking utensils) so I used a clean wine bottle, a helpful hint a read somewhere. Well, I had to separate the dough into 3 sections in order to roll it all out to then hand cut into strips. It was a little thick in some parts and some of the pieces broke while drying. The recommended drying time varied widely amongst alot of the recipes I came across... I went with about 15-20 mins, or about the amount of time it took me to finally roll and cut the whole batch.

When the pasta was just sitting in the strainer ready to go into the pot, it looked like a pathetic amount of food. When I tossed it in the boiling water, it all immediately puffed up huge and slimy. My roommate that was helping me looked at me clearly thinking "gross, I do not want to eat that anymore."

Well, I figured, why waste it... let it cook and see what happens. I let it go for about 3 minutes before trying it and thought it was done on the first try. After straining it, I served myself a rather small portion, a little worried about how it would taste. I doused it in olive oil, red pepper, black pepper, salt, and some italian seasonings. OH and the best part... a lot of bacon. I fried up a whole package because we ran out of plastic bags to keep the extra in (again, what happens in a college house). This also helped me bribe Sean to eat some of the pasta with me.

It was GOOD. Looked like hell, but tasted awesome. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures. I assumed it wouldn't be even worth writing about. But thats OK because it will encourage me to try it again very soon.

Next time I gotta roll the pasta thinner... and come up with some interesting way to dress it.