Look what I got this weekend, machinery. I am taking my bread making to the next level. Homemade Pasta Noodles. Obviously, it was just the next step in my evolution of Hannah Homemaker. My husband is Italian and if this wasn't the internet I could tell you our last name and you would immediately know we are from the Boot country. Modena to be exact, where Balsamic Vinegar is made.

Because I wanted to put off cleaning our shower in the master bedroom I decided attempt homemade pasta noodles Saturday afternoon. Two weekends ago I had purchased a new Crockpot. It allowed you to brown your meat on the stove in the same bowl that you used for the Crockpot. If you needed to brown the top of something you could also put the pot in the oven. The pot was pretty enough to take straight to the table. How awesome I thought, and it was on sale at Tar Jay. But two weeks later it was still just sitting there waiting to be used. The Crockpot I use now is just fine. In fact, I really like it. It has temperature settings and a range of times to cook and a warm setting. Oh sure there is Crockpot envy, I have broken the handle on the lid and had to replace it with one of the knobs we took off our kitchen cabinets during the makeover. But it still worked just fine even though it will circular brand on your palm if you do not use a oven mitt to lift the lid.

But I wanted to be Italian. It was no longer good enough for me to just be married to one. I needed to become one. Enter, Allrecipes.com and boredom at work. I found this recipe that had great comments and looked simple. I doubled it and added 2 tablespoons of olive oil.

After I made the dough I was ready for my new machinery. But TD had to help me because I could not hold the contraption and insert the dough at the same time. While he was trying to convince me that it had to be clamped down and that he could not hold it in place and help me pull the dough he told me stories of his mother making her own pasta noodles and how she used to do it. I have no idea how someone can operate this simple machine by themselves but somehow she did. I wish she was still alive because I would really like to hear her advice and how she did things. We ended up clamping it down to our kitchen table. I didn't want to (because of the flour mess on the floor that I had just mopped) but TD insisted. He was right, hear that? R-I-G-H-T.


I put a pastry cloth down and lightly floured it. It was so cool to watch this pasta form and get all skinny. (Wish I could run my thigh through one of these) We decide to be all Alton Brown so once we had it as thin as we wanted, we rolled the pasta from the longest end up and then cut through about 1/4-1/2 inch apart. Can I just tell you? this was amazing. I just kept thinking, how in the world did I get here? When did I become this person? No way would I have ever in a million years thought I would have ever made my own pasta. I was going to party like it was 1999 until 2020.

How would I have ever thought that the drying rack from my college dorm room was going to dry pasta noodles one day? Kids, ya gotta love 'em.

The noodles were the last stop on the Crazy Train of homemade. The sauce was store bought Garlic and Olive Oil. We grilled some balsamic marinated chicken breasts to top it off. So incredibly good. The noodles cooked so fast and tasted completely different than store bought ones (even the Amish I sometimes buy).

Mama Mia! Store bought pasta noodles? Forgettaboutit.