Lotsa Pasta!

I did it, I finally did it! I was going to try and get an electric motor, for my hand cranked pasta machine, but mine was an older version from Italy and the motor would not fit on it. That little problem would require me to buy a newer version hand cranked machine (silly) as well as the motor, which would have cost about $200.  And, I still would only be able to make 3 types of pasta noodles without buying extra attachments, that of course cost more money. 

I tossed and turned with my decision to purchase a newfangled, total electric pasta maker/machine, and I have to tell you, I should have done it sooner!  No fuss, no mess, the machine does EVERYTHING for you. It weighs, mixes and extrudes the pasta all in about 15 minutes! All you have to do is cook it and enjoy eating it, it's A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! No more sore arms and hands from kneading dough or long hours of cranking out homemade pasta for this girl.

This is the old hand cranked machine, I'm still keeping it just in case I get nostalgic.

This is the new electric machine, I love it! I am so happy about this purchase because we eat a lot of pasta in this house.

 This is the dough hopper. Pour flour in, it weighs it and then tells you how much liquid to add.

 The machine came with 8 different pasta shapes to make pappardelle, spaghetti, thick spaghetti, angel hair, fettuccine, tagliatelle, penne and lasagna. It came with lids that fit over some of the presses to clean them.

 The machine also came with a recipe book, measuring cups for liquid and flour, two other cleaning tools and a pasta dough cutter.

I used a combination of semolina flour and unbleached white flour for my pasta. I didn't use eggs in my dough, just water and flour.  You certainly can use eggs as most recipes do call for them.The machine will work the same with eggless pasta dough.

 Drying on the pasta rack.  My daughter and I made about 2 lbs of fresh pasta. You don't have to dry the pasta, we just made this earlier in the day and decided to dry it.  You can toss it right into the boiling salted water as soon as you make it.

 Ahhhhh.....and the homemade sauce with San Marzano tomatoes and sweet Italian sausage

 is the best.

 Pasta cooked and sauced up, don't forget the cheese, it's always better with cheese.

WOW that was soooo good!