My wife recently spotted a pasta maker at the local Goodwill store, and she decided to invest a few dollars in the appliance. The difficulty in making pasta, though, is in locating a stable supply of semolina around this city. We had to visit quite a few stores (and eventually use the Internet) to locate a purveyor, which ended up being Bassett's Health Foods on Secor.There is no price advantage to making one's own pasta, as semolina sells for at least two dollars a pound around here, and homemade pasta is probably going to be at least double the cost of purchasing manufactured pasta. Yet the aroma of the fresh pasta quickly filled the house, and the delicious taste of homemade pasta is distinctive and worth the effort.
I was surprised at how doughy the pasta was coming out of the pasta maker. My wife was tempted to say "duh" when I shared this observation, as of course a flour-based product would achieve a doughy consistency when mixed with water and eggs, but always the good sport she refrained from piling on after my could-not-be-more-obvious statement suggested I needed to learn more about the process.
Add some homemade puttanesca sauce, and Buon appetite!
