The Comfort of Fresh Pasta

My comfort food is chicken n’ dumplins’, biscuit and gravy and coconut cake—shocking, I know, for a Southern girl!  The rest of my family’s comfort food is pasta.   My family simply LOVES pasta—any shape, size, filling, sauce (well, the kids have some limitations on the fillings and sauces).    It is no secret that both Chris and I are very sentimental about where we come from, our relatives, etc.  One of Chris’ childhood stories from his Philly days that he often shares with me and the kids is his memory of making fresh pasta with his grandmother (MomMom) and her sisters on Mom Mom’s kitchen table.  Over the years, he has carried on many of those types of traditions, but for some reason he has only made fresh pasta a handful of times.   Time involvement, ease, whatever the reason.  As I am sure you can understand, I’ve never, ever attempted to make fresh pasta.   I would be setting myself up for disaster, I thought.   How can I live up to that memory and MomMom’s pasta?!

Well, I decided this was crazy talk.  Over the weekend I gave pasta a whirl and made tagliatelle.    

    

I felt sort of silly at first.  How do you drape the pasta over your forearm, crank the machine and pull the dough from the machine---all at the same time?  Doesn’t seem possible!  Thankfully, Chris was there to guide me through this foreign process. 

And, success.  Isn't this beautiful?

While it was definitely time consuming as compared to opening up a bag and poring into water, it was worth every bit of effort.  Fresh pasta really does make a difference.  The pasta was pretty darn good, if I do say so myself.  Chris (and this could be ---definitely is—him being a good husband) thought it was awesome.  I used Lidia Bastianich's recipe (love her!).     Eventually I may even graduate to stuffed pastas….but let’s not get carried away!