I've been wanting to learn to make fresh pasta for a long time. Specifically ravioli. I love all the noodles, but somehow making the filling and putting it in the little pouches just seems like it would be so fulfilling.

One of the chefs here, Nathan, attended a Cordon Bleu cooking school, and his textbook lives in our staff kitchen. I wrote down the important pasta instructions, which it turns out are incredibly EASY. They are:

Ingredients:

One cup flour to one egg
Salt to taste
Smidge oil if wanted (I don’t want, but thanks)


Procedure:

1. Put the flour in a mound on a work surface. Make a well in the center and add the eggs (oil) and salt.

2. Working from the center outward, gradually mix the flour into the eggs to make a dough. (I wonder if you can beat the eggs just a little before adding? But best not to do anything maverick until I've tried it the proper way.)

3. When it is firm enough to knead, begin kneading the dough, incorporating more flour. If the dough is still sticky when all the flour has been incorporated, add more flour, a little at a time. Knead well for at least 15 minutes. (Whose hands are doing this? Can I focus on ANYTHING for 15 minutes? Shut your potty mouths, you.)

4. Cover the dough and let it rest for at least 30 minutes. (Now that's work I can do.)

5. Cut the dough into 3 to 5 pieces. Set the rollers of a pasta machine at the widest opening. Pass the pieces of dough through the machine, folding them in thirds after each pass and dusting them lightly with flour to keep them from getting sticky. Continue passing each piece through the machine until it is smooth. (Mmmmm, pasta.)

6. Working with one piece of dough at a time, decrease the width beween the rollers one notch and pass the dough through them again. After each pass, turn the rollers one notch narrower, dust the dough with flour, and pass it through again. Continue until the dough is as thin as desired. The pasta is now ready to cut into desired shapes and to cook. (Oh goody! I'm going to start by cutting papardelle, then move on to raviolis!)

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Anyone want to suggest ravioli fillings? Come on now, get creative!

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Oh, and thank you, Chef person, for the lovely pasta roller. It was well-timed, arriving as it did just one week before my birthday.

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Also, kids, never give a massage as a trade and expect flakey people to actually hold up their end of the bargain. I was supposed to get pasta lessons for a one-hour massage I did, and instead the person ran off, got married to someone s/he knew only three days, and is now no longer on site. There's $45 down the tubes. But the universe provided a pasta roller, and I'm ALL OVER THE PASTA MAKING once I get settled back at Port-au-Patois #4.