Dough-rrific

Things to ponder…
if you were ever in a quandary
about what to cook for dinner
or needed a side dish to go along with your meal…
and it just so happened that your pantry
was not stocked to its fullest…
I mean, theoretically...
surely this would never happen,
but MAYBE, just maybe it did one time.

And after much deep thought,
you realize that you might
could make up a complete meal….
if only you had some pasta.

SO, would you rather:
A: Get in the car,
drive five or ten minutes to a store
and pay five dollars for 'homemade' pasta,
then drive five to ten more minutes
back home and spend fifteen more minutes cooking it?
OR
B: Stay in your pajamas (that you’ve had on all day)
and make your own pasta,
basically for free in fifteen minutes or less?
Messier?  Maybe. 
More delicious-er?  Most definitely.

You can decide.
Really, there’s no pressure.
Please don’t hate.

I may have a sickness.

Okay, so maybe I've done this recently.
It was seriously not worth the makeup to go out
and it was seriously worth it when we tasted the pasta.

I hope you'll stay in your pajamas one day
and make some pasta.

I got this recipe from The Pioneer Woman.
Yep, we just chat it up all the time! ;)

WHAT YOU NEED:

2 eggs for every cup of flour

That's it.  That's all you need.
The Pioneer Woman says to figure
1 egg for each person you'll be feeding.
We found that we fed a little more than that.

My first go round, I used 3 eggs and 1 1/2 cups of flour.
Cut the pasta into skinny spaghetti shapes
and it made enough for a 9x13 pan of
chicken spaghetti.

The next go round, I made the basic recipe
and it fed 4 for dinner as a side dish.

WHAT TO DO:

Measure flour into medium size bowl 

and make a well in the middle of it.

Crack both eggs into the 'well'
and with one hand, begin to work in

the flour a bit at a time -

squeezing the eggs to break the yolks

as you go.  Nice and messy.

This is why you just want to use one hand.

Continue mixing the goo together until it is
completely combined.  Mix and knead

until it is nice and smooth -

adding a bit of flour in as needed
to keep from sticking.

Let the dough rest for 10 or 15 minutes.

Using a good heavy rolling pin,

begin to roll dough as thin as you possibly can.

(If you have a pasta machine, even better)
But this is not hard to do.  At. All.

Roll dough and rotate as you go,

adding a little flour here and there

to keep from sticking to the counter.

Using a very long knife, a pizza roller or a pizza cutter

cut the dough into the shapes you would like.

You could even make ravioli!

As the dough pieces sit and rest,

fill a large stock pot with a couple of quarts

of water and a few tablespoons of salt.

Place on high heat and bring to a boil.

Once boiling, slowly add pasta and begin to stir.

When water comes back up to a boil,

lower heat to medium.

Homemade pasta only needs to cook a couple of minutes.

For spaghetti, approximately 2 minutes!

 Drain pasta and eat to your hearts desire.

I really feared this pasta would be too delicate

for something such as chicken spaghetti

but it held up extremely well and was

most excellent I must say.

We also like it with just some butter
and olive oil - it's really great

served up with Baked Italian Salad

shown in the pic below! Yumm.

You could get so creative with this

and your kids would absolutely shout

if they got to participate!

ENJOY!!!