My sister's Christmas present finally arrived on Friday. It wasn't her fault that it arrived 3 weeks late. She had asked me what I wanted for Christmas early in December last year and after a few denials of "I have everything", I hinted that it might be fun to add a pasta machine to my already extensive kitchen equipment stash.
Since she lives in Australia I suggested for her convenience she use Williams Sonoma's online to order my present. Pasta machines must have been the hotest gift this Christmas. There were no more in stock for Christmas delivery and my sister's order, my gift, was put on back order.
My last attempt at making pasta at home was a taste success but a total texture failure. Making the dough by hand without a machine was hard work, especially since I did not add enough liquid to the dough. I was pounding away at the hard, super elastic ball for ever. It resisted any shape I tried beating it into, returning immediately to the shape it was when it had been removed from the fridge. Hard work indeed. After an hour of "rolling" the only thing I was able to produce were beads of sweat, sore arms and a peice of rubber for pastry that I was determined would hold the beet and parmesan filling I had made earlier.
Having come this far I wasn't ready to give up. I proceeded to create the raviolis. I cut the rubber into strips, spooned beautiful mounds of alternating yellow and red beet fillings, washed the edges with egg, folded and sealed the parcels using a pastry wheel. The end result looked impressive - little yellow and red raviolis.
Lets just say that the beet fillings were tasty and worth the effort of roasting and mixing different colored beets separately. The pasta dough, on the other hand, was like eating the sole of my Campers. Joe politely ate a few with the much needed "mmm, this is tasty" but then couldn't finish and to be frank, neither could I. I feared that more than 3 of those puppies in my stomach would have me tossing and turning in pain in the middle of the night.
With the exception of the electic motor (and who really needs that?), the pasta machine came with all the attachments, spaghetti, linguini, fettucine, and of course the ravioli maker. In time I can't wait to try each variation out, but tonight I have some ricotta and spinach just begging to be wrapped inside fresh, soft pliable pasta and cooked until al dente.
Posted by dvenuto at January 19, 2003 07:59 PM