I’m generally
an adventurous cook, willing to take a stab at most any new recipe
and, if I fail, simply serve it to my guests with an apologetic
laugh. But there are a few things I’ve long been leery of
attempting: pizza, duck confit, and home-made pasta.
I tried making
pasta several years ago, but it was pretty much a disaster—tough
and almost inedible. My problem, I now realize, was that I tried to
roll it out by hand, a technique probably best left to Tuscan nonnas
and their progeny.
Our friends
Nancy and Steve here in Hilo, however, have a pasta machine, and
after watching Steve mix, knead, roll out, and cut a batch of
tagliatelle one evening (which was scrumptious!), I decided to
borrow their machine and give home-made pasta another try.
my finished
product—fettuccine!
Steve
recommended the recipe and technique in Giuliano Hazan’s book The Classic Pasta Cookbook
(yes, he is the son of the renowned cookbook author, Marcella Hazan),
which I followed. (This recipe serves six, easily.)
