basic pasta

This is a simple recipe for home made pasta.

Everyone loves pasta, even people who can't eat gluten love pasta. But that's a sore subject, and we should leave it alone.

The beauty of this recipe is that it is easily changed and altered but maintains great results. Why haven't I been more specific? What kind of flour? What kind of oil? Eggs from free range, or caged and abused chickens? It's all up to you. Experiment a little. It's a forgiving enough recipe that you can get decent results from minimal attention, but it looks fancy enough to where you can feel like a fancy chef.

• 2 cups of flour
• 3 large eggs
• TBSP oil
• pinch of salt

Pile the flour on the counter. Make a depression in the center of the flour, and place in it the eggs, oil, and salt. Use a fork to whisk the egg mixture, while slowly bringing in more flour from the outside edges of the depression. (Note that in this picture I have added spinach leaves which have been chopped to teensy mushy bits in a food processor, used whole wheat flour, olive oil, and eggs from abused caged chickens.)

Continue whisking till it is no longer a viable option, then use your hands to knead your dough until it is firm and doesn't want to accept more flour; then knead in more flour. This should be a very stiff dough. You should be able to move it to a non floured surface to knead it without it sticking to the table.

Then if you are lucky enough to own, or be close friends with someone who owns a spaghetti roller, you can use the roller to finish kneading the dough. Roll it through on the thickest setting folding it and turning it, six times or so, until the dough is undoubtedly uniform. Then feed it through the roller decreasing the thickness setting one notch at a time until at the desired thickness. Then use the cutting attachment.

If you do not have access to a spaghetti roller, then

knead it till your hands hurt real bad and you can't

avoid a cuss under your breath. Then using a non

tapered rolling pin or even a dowel, flatten the

dough on the counter, and use a pizza cutter to cut

it into spaghetti or fettuccine. A possibly easier way

to do this is to flour the flattened dough and roll it

up and then cut it with a knife.

Then boil it.

Sauce it.

Share it.

Eat it.

Make it again, but this time try something different,

like adding tomatoes or spinach.