From top to bottom: Making the dough. Kneading the dough. Semi-drying the sheets before cutting. Drying the noodles. Nesting leftover noodles for freezing. All photos taken with my iPhone (and very floury hands).
I am instantly, deeply in love with the KitchenAid pasta-making attachments (and drying rack, and cookbook) I got from my parents for Christmas. Like the ice cream attachment before them, they are instant game-changers. Life-changers. I am an instant pasta snob.
(It's funny that I keep using the word "instant," because one of my favorite parts about making ice cream and pasta is the long, involved, multi-step process you have to go through each time. Tedium!: the Virgo in me almost craves it.)
Last night I made fettuccine, to be served with a decadent homemade alfredo, shrimp, mushrooms, and roasted Brussels for our anniversary dinner. Seeing these simple ingredients transform into something that not only looked and acted like the stuff I've been buying at stores my whole life, but tasted way better - was magical. I kept exclaiming to Micah, "I made these! They look so... real! I made these! Me!" inbetween stuffed mouthfuls. He put up with it like a champ – though the amazing, homemade, food-coma-inducing pasta probably helped. Homemade. By ME.