Waiting out the storm with a homemade pasta experiment

Well, Hurricane, um, er, Tropical Storm Irene has pretty much come and gone. In our area, there isn't much sign that she was here. Our lights stayed on and our trees are still standing. We saw plenty of rain and it's still a little windy, but all in all, it was a low key day at home. We watched plenty of Instant Streaming on Netflix - we started watching 'Scrubs' from the pilot episode. Everyone needs a little mindless comedy.

Since we had so much time on our hands and the electricity was working, I decided to experiment with homemade pasta. It was inspired by a show on the cooking channel with Mario Batali. He was visiting a few restaurants where they were making homemade pasta. I decided to give it a shot - I had time and I wasn't going anywhere.

Handmade macaroni was a specialty of my grandmother's, and my mom is an expert at homemade ravioli. They spent years rolling out pasta by hand - no pasta machines necessary! That's the method I used as well. To go along with the handmade macaroni, we needed sauce (gravy as my husband would call it) and meatballs. Both made from scratch, too. The sauce and meatballs were my husband's contribution - they are his specialty.

The end result was absolutely delicious. I highly recommend that everyone try making pasta from scratch - it has a flavor and texture that can't be replicated through mass production.

Here's the recipe I used for the macaroni dough:
1 1/2 cup flour
1 egg
1 egg white
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp water

Combine flour and salt in medium size bowl. Combine wet ingredients in separate bowl. Create a small well in the center of the dry ingredients. Pour wet mixture into the well. Begin mixing the wet ingredients with a for slowly incorporating more and more of the flour until incorporated. Finish mixing with hands.

Move dough to floured work surface and knead until shiny and elastic. Add small amounts of flour during kneading if dough is too sticky. Form a ball and place dough ball into a bowl. Cover with plastic wrap. Let rest for at least 10 minutes at room temperature.

When ready to roll out the macaroni, remove from bowl and place on floured work surface. Flatten ball into a small disc with hands. Using a rolling pin, roll from center out, repeating until thinned. Occassionally turn disc so as to thin equally. Add flour to surface should dough begin to stick. Roll out until dough is paper thin.

Once dough is thinned and not sticky, roll dough onto itself lightly from one edge to the other, until completely rolled. Beginning at one end, begin slicing 1/8 inch sections - chiffonade style.

Shake out cut pieces into long thin strips. Lay out on wax paper to dry. Macaroni can be placed in freezer to store.

When cooking the pasta, the pasta will cook quickly - within 5 minutes in boiling water. Drain and then top with your favorite sauce and enjoy!

The pasta can be used for ravioli as well. Instead of rolling and cutting, leave the thinned pasta in the sheet form.