homemade pasta

I've been wanting to try this for ages and this morning presented a relatively calm morning to give making our own pasta a go.

Recipe

1 1/2 cups semolina and wholemeal flour mixed

2 eggs

1-2 tspn ground black pepper

1/2 tspn salt

2 large eggs

2 tbls extra virgin olive oil

sift together flours and salt and pepper then make a welt in the middle. Crack in the two eggs and add oil to middle. Gently mix in flour a little at a time until you have a dough too thick to mix with a fork..then get your hands in... Kneed the dough for 10 mins of so until elastic and smooth then let it sit for 20-30 mins.

Roll out the dough on a floured board to about 1/8th of an inch. allow to dry out a little for 10 mins or so.

Fold over a few times and cut into thin strips. These can be allowed to dry for storage or cooked in boiling salty water for 2-3 mins.

We served ours with tomato and onion sauce. I had intended to go into the wood and gather some wild garlic and make a pesto with it (then I know Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall would marry me :-)) but the kids didn't feel like it and in my new 'slowing down' mode I just shrugged and chopped the tomatoes.

I really enjoyed it (the others didn't) and I think they would be divine in a soup.

We spent most of the morning making bread and pasta and playing outside. It was a glorious day. When Benny had his nap Rebe and I went to the library and chose her some new books. We got the Mrs Pepperpot cd for her to listen too. Love those stories, I'd forgotten about them.

And finally...

Here is Benny wearing the unicorn hat I made for the kids. I made it from a fleece top that was passed to us and we weren't wearing, some wool scraps and some white felt. The kids like it, especially Benny who thinks it's a dog costumes.