Fresh pasta! So very good and cooks so fast. If you make your own pasta – and we’ll show you how in this article – just think of the variations you can make and the ingredient control you have. For instance, we use only local, farm raised and free range eggs from Meadowlark Farms (they are at the Saturday Boise Farmers Market at 10th and Grove.) Even your flour source can be local.
The recipe we use is an adaptation of Chef Anne Burrell’s. We use garlic infused olive oil and semolina. Both of which are not in her recipe. Here is the recipe for Pasta that we have adapted. There are several pasta makers on the market. Some relatively inexpensive and others somewhat more expensive. We have and have used a manual one like at this link – and pictured here – from Walmart, which we still have. About $30.00. Some people have this “thing” about Walmart. No problem. You can get a good one from Bed, Bath and Beyond that is still a manual one and works very well. These sell for about $35. This one is a slightly different construction and design, but you will end up with the same product when you are finished. You can also get one direct from Italy for around $500.00 and others that are commercial grade for around $1900.00. But why when the home Chef can get a good quality product for much less, unless you are into brand recognition.The one we use nowadays is an attachment to our KitchenAid, as pictured here and I love working with it. With this package you get a set of three presses: a flat one for lasagna or the beginning press for spaghetti or fettuccini; a spaghetti die and a fettuccini die. About $150.00. So your choices are wide and varied. Get the one that suits your needs. Now on to making the pasta. Enjoy! I have placed a link to the Pasta Recipe above. Print out a copy and follow along.

Basically four ingredients: Flour or semolina as pictured here and eggs with oil, salt and water. You will need a clean and fairly large working area. I like to pre-mix the eggs, water, oil and salt in a bowl. Then I don’t “splash” the eggs mixing them in the “well”.

The semolina “well” The process is the same if you use flour.

Pulling the semolina into the egg mixture using a fork. Work carefully.

The dough is starting to form.

The pasta dough is ready to knead. Notice the pastry knife used to help in the kneading process.

The pastry dough is kneaded and ready to rest for at least 1 hour.

Spaghetti noodles from the dough. Dust with flour to keep them from sticking.

Spaghetti Carbonara Recipe and pictured here, made from the pasta dough we made. Except for the pancetta, most of the other ingredients are all from the Boise Farmers Market. Serve this with a 2012 Sawtooth Winery Trout Trilogy Petite Sirah. Awesome!