First of many a cooking experiment

I haven't been here long enough to miss food from home, but I think Boaz mentioned wanting for decent pasta. So for the second time in about 7 years I am making pasta from scratch. There is dried, shaped pasta available at the store, but not any brands I recognize. And what's the fun in that anyway?


I guessed at 600g, which wasn't too hard since I knew that I had 2kg of flour. The well I made however would not accommodate the 6 eggs called for in my recipe.



Indeed, I only used about half the flour to create what seemed to my naive hands to be a proper ball of dough. We are only two so I figured this would be enough. Now it rests for about half an hour.


Then the dough is rolled out, folded over itself, rerolled, repeat and repeat to activate the gluten. I have only a wine bottle at my disposal today, but it is going pretty well. Thank yous to the prolific and downright awesome Masterchef Australia for berating participants that didn't make their own pasta, providing helpful hints and much needed moral support in the face of potentially utter failure.


To cut the pasta, I folded it over several times and sliced with a knife. Pretty simple and effective. It came out a little kinky, but that's alright.


Then the dough should be dried. The nearest thing I have to an appropriate tool for this task is the racks in the bathroom. I am not putting our dinner in the bathroom.



Of course I could not find basil and oregano, so making due with whatever was handy.

I'm not sure the scale is really appreciable here. That apple is at least as large as any supermarket apple at home and those onions are tiny. All the onions are tiny. So are the garlic cloves.

In the end the pasta was thicker than intended, but tasted like it should. The sauce was pretty good. I also made some okra.