Imagine sitting at your desk, thinking about what to make for dinner, when your husband walks in and says “I just made pasta. Do you want Spaghetti and Meatballs or Spaghetti with Sausage for dinner?”
I said “Meatballs.”
I know I have said this many times, but it does not suck to be me!
Victor was trying out a different pasta recipe. His go-to is one from Alon Shaya. Alon, a 2-time James Beard Award Winner is the son of the woman who was Victor’s mom’s caregiver when she lived with us in Pennsylvania. It’s a small world, after all…
This time around, he went for a recipe that is basically 100 g 00 Flour and 1 egg per serving – with a tad bit of water and olive oil. as needed.
Simply make a well with the flour and add the eggs, Slowly mix in the flour and knead until smooth – adding just a touch of olive oil and water, as needed. Let rest 30 minutes before rolling to desired shape.
The concept is pretty basic. The skill level – as with bread baking – is the feel of the dough. You learn the feel every time you make it and eat it until it simply becomes automatic. He’s perfected it.
The pasta was more of a Linguine fini than spaghetti since he used a pasta cutter rather than an extruder to get the completely round noodle, but since there are somewhere between 300 and 600 types and shapes of pasta out there, I’m not going to argue semantics.
What I am going to say is that it was freakin’ awesome!
(As an aside, I bought a Ron Popeil Pasta Maker back in the ’80s. I do not remember how much I paid for it but it wasn’t cheap and it was pretty gawd-awful.)
There really is something about fresh, handmade pasta… and no need for gizmos or gimmicks. Get a spouse who loves to cook!