How long you been married? I'd say he's a keeper.

That R is a sweetie!

I'm asking...I'd love to have his recipe, and instructions. I'd ordered durum wheat berries from the co-op and was excited to finally try pasta, but it was backordered. :-( But I did get arborio rice, so I can try risotto.

We want to see pics of your weaving, too!

suzanne...41 yrs this coming February 8. He is definitely a keeper. No sweeter man walks :)

hey E !! You know he is for sure .

I would be glad to send the recipe to you...check your email. We do risotto all the time. DS1 gave me some tips and it has made it a lot easier since I do it his way. Weaving pics are on Home Deco in the conversation side. c

On the heels of your tasty pasta, I'd like the lasagna recipe also. I made traditional meat lasagna as well as a mushroom and spinach version this weekend for DS's 6th bday. I love lasagna!

Breezy do you make your own pasta ? I can give you a very easy recipe that DH uses...I just sent it to Rhome. I will cut/paste it here and you can ask if it is confusing. Glad you like it . It is so much lighter than store bought noodles. Also the texture is so much better and there is less filling but lots of thin layers

Eggplant Lasagna with home made noodles

1 1/2 c white KA white flour and 2 beaten eggs , a good pinch of salt and about 1 TBSP water. He makes a well of flour and pours the eggs and salt into the center. As he kneads and works the flour into the dough he sees if he needs some water. He added the TBSP as he worked the dough for about 10 min. He lets it set wrapped in plastic wrap on the counter for about 20 min to rest. He then passes it through the different roller settings on the pasta machine till it is velvety and for lasagna he went down to "5" .

He uses flour as he goes along to make sure it isn't sticky but he says his is never really sticky except at the very very beginning of rolling. He lets them dry after he cuts the rectangles on the counter for an hour. He then dusted them lightly with flour and stacked them...nothing between the layers, and weighted them with a plate so they wouldn't curl up.

He broiled 1/2 thick slices of eggplant till crisp..brush with olive oil and salt and pepper both sides.He had 18 slices...so 3 spaced out for each of 6 layers.

He put sauce ( home made by me the other day) uncooked pasta sheets ( they take up the liquid from the sauce so you needn't cook them ) brush the pasta lightly with ricotta ( I put 1 egg and salt and pepper and dried basil and oregano in 1/2# ricotta) then lay on a 3 slices of eggplant and then pieces of fresh mozzarella and then drizzle sauce. Don't use too much sauce. I was amazed at how little you need with the fresh pasta. About 16 oz for the 8x8 pan. This is an 8x8 pan and he made 12 oz pasta. Each sheet was 1 oz. We used them all for 6 layers. So you are doing very thin layers and very small amounts of filling and after each layer you pressss....down and kind of pack it in the pan. Top with grated parmesan and cover tightly with foil. Bake at 350 for 30 min and then uncover for 15 more. Let set for about 15-20 min to let it settle..

Looks yummy, yummy!

Hi R!!!! (yes, you too, C!)

trailrunner - got you beat. We'll hit 41 on Dec. 19. Mine's a keeper too.

R says HEY to you and J too ...there were NO peppers in it just for you cat !!

suzanne congratulations !! c

I've wanted to make my own pasta for years. I received a pasta machine as a gift 20 years ago. DH got tired of us lugging around the unopened box for 10 years so he donated it to the Arc. Needless to say, I wasn't happy. About two months later I changed jobs and had so much more time to cook. Woulda made fresh pasta! ;). Need to plant a bug in MIL's ear for the holidays. She loves to get me cooking related gifts.

Thanks for the recipe! I usually use no boil noodles in lasagna so if I can't make my own noodles, I'll use my regular and adjust.

I am so going to be making this C. Thanks to DH and to you for posting!

Just looking at these photos is making my mouth water! The lasagna looks divine, and homemade pasta tastes so, so good! Thanks for sharing the recipe.

You are really fortunate to be married to such a great guy -- and I'm sure he is, too, with you :-)

Yay for no peppers!!!!

(now off to my pepper-free job! If the life skills class down the hall isn't cooking with them today!)

Wow! That looks delicious. Is there anything you two can't do? You sure are productive. You two were definately made for each other. Thanks for the recipe. What type of pasta machine do you have?

breezy: I had 2 of them as I got MIL's when she passed away. I gave it to DS1 and they used it at the restaurant. It got greasy and the idiot dishwasher...replaced me LOL...put it in the dishwasher ! Ruined !! The recipe will be great with the no boil too I am sure. For years I have made lasagna with the regular dry noodles and make the sauce wetter and they still do fine...I never cook even the regular dry ones. You have to bake it an hour covered tightly at a little lower temp...325 and then uncover. I like the way it comes out too.

Elyse: good to hear from you !! Make some Challah to go along with it :) Take pics in that pretty kitchen !!

jm: I sure am . Glad you like the pics/recipe. There is enough left for tonight. I always think leftover Italian is better.

cat: only a few more months !!

oldhouse: yep believe me there is plenty that we can't do :) Lots !! We have an old Ampia OMC. We got it 40 years ago in the French Quarter...we lived there at that time. It has held up perfectly. I see they still make the brand. You can check ebay too for them. My MIL's was an Atlas ( they are made by Ampia I believe) and it was great too. You could just roll it out by hand...there are a lot of you tube videos out there that show how. Glad you like the pasta , thank you !! c

That looks so good - I'm going to try it too.

What the heck is KA flour?

bmore: King Arthur. But I have just started using it. Gold medal unbleached All purpose is what I generally use all the time for everything. i don't use bread flour anymore.

For those that want to use semolina or durum flour...there is a difference..the durum is finer grind. You can substitute half for the white and adjust the water as needed. Just don't make the mistake of getting the dough too soft...there in lies disaster. Knead it thoroughly and allow the dough to take up the liquid. it will be pretty stiff but pliable and smooth..not dry but not so sticky that it is on your hands etc....if this is too confusing there are pics of the dough and rolling out on my photobucket under food pics...you have to go back a couple pages when DH was making ravioli...same process as this just different final shapes. c

You know, I switched to the wet sauce-no preboil method years ago and my lasagnas, on retrospect, became less-good. Recently I basically parboiled the noodles and discovered IMO the dish came out way better -- noodles not flabby and melted into the mix, al dente - perfect, separated the layers better and improved flavor. YMMV and of course this isn't a particularly controlled experiment. Just a recent observation and hypothesis-in-progress. And not relevant, I should think, at all to handmade noodles.

Which, BTW, can be made with no roller at all I'm sure. I think it got made for a few years before the advent of rollers! I have some old cookbooks talking about kitchens strewn with noodles drying on the backs of chairs. I'm not up to either, but ... I am going to have to unearth my mothers' unused one from her now-increasingly-unused kitchen when next I visit! Maybe the machine itself will stimulate the action now that I have space to store it! I made chapatis the other day after all, using my kneeding surface and fantastic cooktop. Good equipment, while not necessary, sure is nice... ;)

Trailrunner -- please send sourdough info. Perhaps you'd be willing to post these recipes and pictures over on the discussion section? I bet we could get some good recipe-exchanges going over there w/o interfering with the kitchen-construction intent of this forum maybe? I don't mind either way, just suggesting...

C, that looks absolutely delicious! I have you beat, coming up on 44 years. I too have keeper though he doesn't make me lasagna he still makes me smile.

We have Italians all over this town - I got some fancy imported pasta flour from one of the delis and now I can use it. dh loves lasagna and eggplant. All I have to do is not goof it up too badly.

I wonder if the difference in cooking is using homemade sauce? All I make is straight-line everyday tomato but it is thinner and more fluid than most jar sauce.

aliris: I haven't used "store bought" pasta in a long time for lasagna so not sure how they have changed the way they make it. So many things are not the quality they used to be. For it to work well with the uncooked noodles at least in the past, the sauce has to really be wet. If not the quality as you say is not the same. Kitchen ( conversation) gets no traffic at all so I don't post there :) I got the sourdough starter info from Wild Yeast blog. She has a great tutorial. I will link below for you.

Holly...you got me beat in LOTS of ways :) Give him this recipe and let him get to work :) :) c

bmore: I WISH I had pasta flour...I would really cook your sauce down before using it for the homemade pasta. It will be a soupy mess otherwise. And I want to stress that it takes way less sauce with the homemade pasta ( 16 oz for an 8x8 dish) . DH did a great job and this was his first lasagna this way. The beauty of this recipe ( which I got the idea for from 101 Cookbooks blog --http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/001386.html) is that you use lots of very thin layers and very little filling between the layers...it makes a totally different product than the way we usually think of lasagna. I told him to press pretty firmly down on each layer...made 6 in all that is counting the last one on top that only had a splash of sauce and the parma.

Take pics !! Post pics !! Here is the link to Wild Yeast's blog. You can go to her recipe section to see the sourdough tutorial . c

Here is a link that might be useful: grow a sourdough starter

You're killing me with all your food porn! LOL! You're one lucky girl but you probably already know that. ;-)

Lisa...we ate the last tonight. Leftovers were even creamier. Now I have to wonder what he will make tomorrow ! Thank you and I am lucky. c

What a man! Does he clean up after himself too?

That looks delicious and I'm not all that interested in spicy foods. You are a very lucky woman.

DH drooled when I showed him the pics of R's culinary creation!

I will never understand why people think homemade pasta is so hard to make, especially with a machine. It's hard to make it perfect, but pretty easy to make it perfectly fine. Blob of flour, add your eggs, and the eggs tell you how much flour you need. You may be adding oil, salt or water depending on which part of Italy you're ripping off. Give it plenty of resting time and follow the damn directions on the machine package.

I bought a pasta attachment for my KA mixer and I really should try it. I've always been lazy and made it all by hand, although I could never accordion-fold and cut the noodles with finesse like my mom's. Anyway, I think this thread is inspiring me to try out my machine. Wish me luck not ending up with twenty fingers.

Oh, you should clean pasta machines with a purpose-bought small paintbrush, not water.

Great. Now I'm hungry.

Here is a pic of him rolling out :

this is ravioli he made but you can see thickness here...this is how he rolls for the lasagna too setting 5 on ours ( different machines have different numbers) :

And YES marti he does all the cleanup too ! It can be any filling you like...think spinach and a bechamel sauce or artichoke hearts and pesto...you can do anything you like. The very thin layers really make it more creative. So no it doesn't need to be spicy.

Marcolo is right. DH used to mix it up in the food processor but the last few batches have been a pile of flour on the counter and by the time it is kneaded the counter is clean...he uses the butcher block top on the island. Works great . There is a fine line on how wet you make the dough. If you don't get that right then it really is hard to roll/cut. Better to be too firm than too wet...so says the former not as good at making pasta DW !

cat: next time we are up there R says he will make this for J...that's a promise !!

pta mom : come on over...we will feed you . Or better yet make the lasagna :)

Marcolo- try the kitchen aid attachment. I spent 3 hours making pasta the other day (only because of the amount I made, not because of the difficulty). It is a great attachment. I made ravioli and went to the thickness setting 6 which works well. The hardest part was just waiting for the pasta to dry a little so I could put the ravioli together! I actually find it therapeutic because I like the challenge of seeing how long I can let my pasta get while running it through the machine:)

Oooohhh, that looks beyond yummy! He's not just a DH, but a DDDDH :) Thanks for the recipe.

I am from the camp who has been afraid to make homemade pasta. But, that said, this post has inspired me. This weekend, I'm going to give it a go. Thanks for the tips!

briana sure hope you took pics or that you do next time. A tutorial for those with the KA attachment would be great for them. I have the pics for the Ampia so together we have it covered.

celtinNE: great. You have to take pics and show what the steps are as you go and then others will learn too. and as to whether this appropriate to this "side" yes. As we are using our countertops and small appliances and our sinks....and....c