Homemade parpadelle

Last night was my first attempt at making homemade pasta.  It wasn't as good as we made during our lessons in Tuscany a couple of weeks ago, but I was relatively pleased with my parpadelle.  We had planned it for dinner on Sunday night, when Matt and I could cook together, but our Sunday didn't turn out quite as we'd planned (more of that another time....).  

In our second lesson, Alessio, the chef who taught us, having rescued a sticky gooey mess that was supposed to be dough from my hands, agreed that Matt should be the one to make pasta in our house!  Nevertheless, I decided to go it alone. It was hard work, kneading and rolling for what felt like forever, no pasta makers around here, only a rolling pin, but it was fairly rewarding knowing it was totally fresh, with no preservatives etc. 

I cooked it for about 9 minutes but think it could have done with slightly longer (or perhaps been slightly thinner).  Interestingly Alessio said that whilst dried pasta should be al dente (which is how I tend to cook it, a minute less than the packet says) fresh pasta should be served much softer.  When he cooked the tagliatelle we made, it was silky soft and delicious, almost melting in the mouth.  I haven't quite got there yet, maybe it was the glass of Prosecco that was missing!

It was a lot of effort for a 'weeknight' dinner instead of reaching for a packet but I'm really glad I gave it a go, and I'll definitely keep practising.