Restaurant Recipe Reviews

Ever make fresh pasta at home before? No? You don’t know how easy it really is. You find it hard to be satisfied with packaged pasta from a store after tasting fresh pasta. Pasta ingredients are very inexpensive and easy to assemble. Flour, water, oil and eggs are the only things needed. Is that simple or what?

Put the ingredients together and knead your pasta dough until it starts to shine and become silky. Using a hand rolling pin or pasta machine, make dough into a sheet of uniform thickness. You can choose from many pasta machine manufactures for your pasta maker.

I have an Atlas pasta machine made from stainless steel that I love and use often, probably once a month to produce two meal’s worth of fresh pasta. It only takes 5 minutes to make the dough, half an hour to let it rest, and 10 minutes to put the dough through the pasta maker to flatten it to the perfect thickness. Then I use the cutting attachment on my Atlas pasta machine to cut the pasta into the right noodle.

The next step is to drop the pasta into rolling, boiling, salted water and let it cook for about 5 minutes. That’s it. It is effort very well rewarded, believe me. You will love the looks from your family or guests when you take the time to prepare fresh, hand made pasta.

After trying many pasta machines, I still love working with my Atlas pasta machine. It’s ruggedness and Italian design make it an outstanding tool that is very easy to use. Italians and pasta, who knew? It can clamp to any surface and is easy to operate and clean. You can buy one with an electric motor to make it even easier but I like to use the manual model.

There are many different cutting attachments you can purchase to make other styles of pasta after flattening to your desired thickness. Ravioli or tortellini can be made this way allowing you to add your favorite filling. I use a cutter to make angel hair pasta and soon will buy more cutters in order to do linguine and other pastas.

Making your own noodles proves that you are a dedicated home chef and really can impress your loved ones. You don’t have to tell them how easy it was to make with it’s wonderful taste and texture. Just let them be surprised and amazed.

Making fresh homemade pasta has been a Lauder family event for years. Kids, grandkids, friends and neighbors all take a hand in making the dough and gathering at the table to savor the results. Watch a video on rolling dough through a pasta machine on Geri’s website, browse great cookbooks and pick out a pasta machine for your next family pasta party.