It’s been over 5 years since Jenn and I first cooked together in one of our Weekly Challenges, along with a video of our results.

A few weeks ago I watched an episode of Masterchef where the pressure test was fresh pasta. Each contestant was assigned a pasta and they had to create a dish with it. I became obsessed with wanting to create my own pasta and I did a lot of research. I read several different blogs and watched a good number of youtube videos. The best post I found was the Serious Eats: The Science of the Best Pasta. I used the recipe from there to start my nomswithroms Homemade Pasta adventures.

The Marcato Atlas Wellness 150 Pasta Maker is the pasta maker I decided to go with. After doing a bit of research, it seemed to be the best in the price range we were looking at.

My first attempt resulted in pasta that wasn’t as firm and there seemed to be issues with it going through the pasta maker. I think the biggest issue was that I didn’t knead the pasta dough long enough. If you’re making your own pasta be sure to knead for at least 6-8 minutes. I’m not 100% sure but I think this is to help get the gluten activated. Be sure to cover your pasta and let it rest for at least 30 minutes before rolling it out.

And here were the results of the first batch of nomswithroms Homemade Pasta:

And Simcoe obviously wanting to help:

I cooked it with a bit of butter and parmesan cheese and it wasn’t too bad. However,  I think the pasta was a bit thinner than what I was expecting and stuck together when I cooked it.

Later that same evening, I decided to give it another go. This time making sure I kneaded the pasta longer and letting it rest again for at least 30 minutes.

The results were significantly better! The pasta dough was closer to what I was expecting as well as a bit easier to work with.

Instead of doing the butter sauce again, I tried a tomato sauce instead.

I’ve been trying out different types but I, unfortunately, don’t have too many photos of those except the ones I posted on my instagram story. I will most likely be making them again and will post them when I do.