February 1st - already!? Where does the time go? Last night we had a lucky find on the Caterham Facebook selling page - a table and four chairs for £20. We have been tableless for about eight months, our last one was way too big.
The children really enjoyed eating breakfast at the table this morning - so today we decided to make use of our pasta machine (a Christmas gift from two years ago) and enjoy lunch around the table. Pasta machine's are pretty inexpensive and are good fun to use.
All you need are eggs and plain flour - use one egg per 100 grams of flour (we used four eggs and 400 grams of flour (serves 4-6).
Here is the recipe from Channel 4.
1. Place the flour in a bowl and make a well in the centre. Crack the eggs into the well, add a pinch of salt then with a fork, mix the egg into the flour as much as possible so it's not sticky. Don't worry if there are lumps in the dough. Keep mixing and then when crumbs form put it on a flat surface and knead together.
2. Knead until you have a silky, smooth, elastic dough. You are aiming to achieve a playdough texture. If your dough is crumbly (too dry) add a teaspoon of olive oil. If the dough sticks to your hands (too wet) add a little extra flour. Cover with cling film and rest for 30 minutes.
3. If you are using a pasta roller, take a tennis ball-sized amount of dough, squash it flat with your fingers (remember to keep the rest of your dough covered with the cling film so it doesn't go dry and crusty) push it through the pasta roller on the widest setting (9). Fold into thirds, then repeat 3 times. Once you have a rough square shape, start working it through the machine, taking it down one setting at a time, until the thinnest setting. If your pasta is too sticky, it won't go through smoothly, so add a little flour to each side before you put it through the roller. Try to avoid too much flour - the less you use, the better otherwise your pasta can start to feel heavy and claggy when cooked.
4. You should end up with a long sheet of pasta about 8-10cm wide. Place this on a flat surface with flour underneath to stop it from sticking. Then chose which setting to use. We chose spaghetti.
5. Boil in salty water for a few minutes, taste it to see when it's ready. we then mixed in a basic tomato and garlic sauce.
The kids loved turning the handle on the pasta roller and they enjoyed their delicious spaghetti!