The joys of home made pasta

In a quest for living a more simple and intentional life I have discovered the joy of fresh pasta making. Yes, it’s time consuming, yes it’s messy, and yes you can buy fresh pasta for very competitive prices.

But if it were purely those conditions the sale of pasta makers would be on the decline as 1) we are more time poor and 2) have a free market economy to deliver most competitively priced/valued items efficiently. This is obviously not the case.

I kept this idea for making fresh pasta (and baking own bread) as something I wanted to do in 2019 but haven’t really committed. Until that is, circumstance. Great friends of ours (The Brooks) happened to be selling their top quality pasta maker for a really good price, so frugally thinking (buy new versus used) – it was too good an offer to miss. It was a Marcato Atlas 150 Pasta Machine.

 I’d only made fresh pasta twice before, once in Perth and once in Florence so it was back to the noobish beginning for me with a free demo.

 Because rolling out pasta is a meditatively reflective labour it’s quite easy to get lost in our own thoughts while caressing the lightly floured sheets as they pass through the press.

Even the rolling mechanism has brilliant user-feedback when rolling out the sheets with a light thump, thump, thump as revolutions pass through.

“The sound of soft motion and creation.”

Of course one doesn’t need a pasta maker to roll out pasta – a rolling pin would do – but the machine serves as a gateway for the love of food and giving.

I watched Mrs B deftly roll out pappardelle like as if the machine was an extension of her body. Some people have the gift of pasta making – I certainly don’t.

Basic homemade pasta equation is “00” tipo grade flour 100g  +  1 modest sized egg = 1 serve.

We’d like to experiment with organic gluten free pasta flour (as Mrs B is gluten intolerant) and organic Italian “00” tipo flour for me – the lover of extra gluten.

Paired with organic eggs you could almost guarantee if would be the cheapest organic fresh pasta you could get your hands on. Rolling included.