Breaking Bread By New FYB Writer Alison H. Fleck
Do you enjoy cooking? What about cooking with your significant other?
When my husband Collin and I were dating, we’d cook together all the time. I think this was partly due to his awesome roommate who loved to cook and try new recipes. This started us off cooking small things together like pork chops and chicken and rice. Soon we were inspired to try more difficult recipes like Blue Cheese Crusted Fliet Mignon, yum!
But years later with jobs and our busy schedules, cooking seems to be more of a hassle. And sometimes it can even be a stress inducer in our marriage. Not good, right? In fact, the question of “what do you want for dinner tonight?” has become a bit of a sore spot.
Usually the situation is…no one has had time to go shopping, both of us work late, and by the end of the day we’re just flat-out hungry. And the thought creating anything other than a microwaved meal seems utterly impossible.
Does this sound familiar?
For us, although I’m a bit embarrassed to admit it, we’ve compiled a few easy go-to dinners like brats, hamburgers, pizza, and cereal to quickly make…eek, I know. In fact, the other night I actually ate half of a baguette for dinner. #carbs.
Ew…yuck!
What happened to the fillet mignon and blackberry cobbler?
Now, I’m not so naive as to think those time consuming meal options of the past are possible to have every night, but we would like to start moving back in the “better eating” direction.
Collin and I aren’t ones who can just pull stuff out of our pantry or fridge and magic something together on a whim. As with most things in our lives, we aren’t so intentional. But with cooking, you sort of have to be, you know?
So when our good friend Annie Middlebrooks of The Makers Table invited us to share in an evening learning how to make fresh pasta, we were definitely all in!
But to be honest, the thought of making fresh pasta was never something I was interested in. I thought it was something people with real cooking skills did…not me.
Low and behold the pasta making class with Chef Elyse Fisher was incredibly inspiring and a wonderful way to get out of our cooking/eating rut. On my own, I would have thrown in the towel during various points in the process…simply because I’d be asking, “is this right?”.
It was great to have Elyse there to walk us through the surprisingly simple steps of making homemade pasta, recipe included at the bottom of the post and here as well.
Another exciting thing, besides reintroducing us to the world of cooking, we ended up meeting some genuinely wonderful people while enjoying an evening sharing stores and getting to know one another.
Collin and I worked as a team and hit it off with the people at our station who have since become good friends. We visit each other’s homes frequently cooking for and with one another.
And we’ve even had our own pasta making night while our husbands tried their hand at home brewing beer.
The process of cooking can be time consuming, but when you share it with good people and the one you love, it’s so rewarding.
In fact, thinking back on this pasta making night, as we sat down at the table to break bread with one another, we were all in agreement that it was the best meal we’d had in a long time.
Author: Alison Fleck // Photography: Courtney Waugh // Pasta Class by Annie Middlebrooks with The Makers Table // Pasta Recipe by Chef Elyse Fisher // Recipes can be found Here
Slowly but surely Collin and I have started incorporating cooking back into our daily routine. Instead of coming home, flipping on the TV and asking “what’s for dinner?”, we break out the pots and pans, bust open The Pioneer Woman or look something up on All Recipes to try our hand at creating something new and delicious.
We win some, we loose some, but we never regret the adventure of cooking at home, and more importantly cooking with each other.
xoxo
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Homemade Pasta
Serves 8
Prep Time1 hr 25 min Cook Time5 min Total Time1 hr 30 min
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups semolina flour
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
4 eggs
4 tablespoons olive oil
Water as needed
Make the Dough
Mix flours and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer with the hook attachment. Add eggs and olive oil and turn the speed up to medium-high. Add water, a few tablespoons at a time to reach desired consistency. Mix on high until dough forms a rough ball.
Remove dough to a well floured surface and knead with hands until to incorporate any loose flour. Knead well until the dough becomes tight and smooth. Sprinkle with more flour as needed to prevent sticking.
Cover dough with a towel and let rest 30 minutes.
Rolling out the Dough
Cut the dough into half, and then in thirds. Work one piece at a time and be sure to cover the other pieces. Take one piece and flatten into a rectangular shape, adding flour to both sides. Attach the pasta sheet roller to your stand mixer and set it to #1. Turn on the stand mixer to speed 2 and run the pasta dough through the pasta sheet roller. While on #1, fold the dough in half and run it through again. Do this several times until dough is smooth.
Add a little flour on each side of the dough again, change setting to #3 and pass the pasta dough through the sheet roller a few times until the dough is smooth and slightly translucent. If you want slightly thinner dough, run the dough through once or twice on setting #4.
Cut the dough into two or three pieces and change the attachment to your spaghetti or fettuccine cutter and turn on to speed 2 (I prefer the fettuccine attachment!). Run the pasta sheet through and with your left hand, hold on to the pasta as it comes through the cutter. Toss the pasta with flour and form into a nest. Allow pasta to dry for a few minutes before boiling or storing.
When boiling your pasta, it only needs about 5 minutes to boil.
Notes
Make ahead: After kneading the dough, wrap with plastic wrap tightly and let rest in the refrigerator for 2 hours to overnight. Let the dough come to room temperature before rolling out.
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