Fresh Pasta = 2 Ingredients

Pasta is pretty straight forward. Flour and eggs, mixed, rolled, cut and boiled. Many people can be intimidated when it comes to making pasta. Some may think that it's something that they cannot pull off and won't give it a try.

We want people to realize how easy and FUN it is to make fresh pasta. The end result is so rewarding and comforting. Even though we always use store bought pasta when cooking, there is no comparison when it comes to a fresh plate of pasta. It completely takes the dish to another level!

If you have eggs, flour, and a pasta machine you can have fresh pasta in a little over an hour!

Start by placing 3 1\2 cups of all purpose flour on a wood cutting board.

Make a well in the center deep and wide enough to hold 5 large eggs.

With a fork, whisk the eggs and start to incorporate a little of flour.

Once you get almost half of the flour incorporated, start to use your hands. It gets messy but don't worry!

Once everthing is all set, start kneading the dough for 10 minutes with the palms of your hands.

The dough should be stretchy and slightly sticky. Wrap in plastic wrap and let the dough rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Cut the dough into 4 pieces. Take the first piece, keeping the other 3 still covered, and start stretching it through the pasta machine.

Little by little you will get to the last setting.

Now it's time to turn the stretched dough into pasta! We choose to use the fettucine setting.

Look how pretty!

We form little nests on a kitchen towel. Make sure to sprinkle the pasta with some flour while making your nests so the pasta won't stick together.

This recipe is from Mario Batali and it made about 1 1\4 pounds of pasta.

Cover the pasta with another kitchen towel until ready to use. Cook for 2-3 minutes in salted boiling water and top with your favorite sauce!

Pasta with Ricotta

We truly believe that the simplest dishes are usually the most satisfying. Sometimes you just don't feel like slaving over the stove for 2-3 horus to make dinner and would rather whip something up really fast that still tastes great! We have grown up eating this pasta dish. Whenever our mom had a busy day around the house she would make this for dinner because it was so simple and everyone loved it.

There's something about these dishes that makes them so important to us. Maybe it’s that these dishes have been made through the generations and somehow we are comforted knowing that these are the foods that our relative and ancestors ate as children.

We know this dish as pasta e ricotta (pasta with ricotta). This pasta dish consists of four ingredients: ricotta, water, olive oil and pasta. It is done in the time that it takes you to boil a pot of water and cook your preferred pasta.

We definitely would reccommend this dish.

So simple. So delicious.

Here is the recipe!

Ingredients

Any tube pasta. (we used tortiglioni)

3 cups of ricotta

2 ladels of pasta water

4 tablespoon olive oil

salt and pepper

Directions

Bring a large pot of water to boil and add salt. Add the pasta and cook according to package directions. While the pasta is cooking put the ricotta in a bowl. Add the olive oil, salt and pepper When the pasta is almost done and the water. The ricotta mixture should loosen and become creamier. As soon as the pasta is ready, drain and mix in the ricotta mixture. Mix well so that the pasta is completely covered in the ricotta sauce.

Serve immediately and enjoy!