Adventures in Pasta Making

The best birthday gifts are those that keep on giving long after your birthday has passed. My birthday was a few weeks ago, but I'm still enjoying the rewards of one such gift given to me by my boyfriend T: a gift certificate to attend local cooking classes. It was really a pretty clever idea of T's because he more than anyone (except perhaps yours truly) stands to reap the benefits of said gift. And ever since taking the introduction to pasta class a couple weeks ago, I've been on something of a pasta-making roll. It's actually way easier than I anticipated and quite fun to make! I've been experimenting with different types of flours and the different textures, and what I've thus far learned is that semolina can be very difficult to work with (it's a tougher grain, so isn't as malleable as, say, all-purpose flour....it's a learning process). With my new handy dandy rolling attachment that I have affixed to my apple green Kitchenaid mixer, I am now one lean, mean pasta-making machine. 

Behold my latest cooking creation: fettucini with pesto, olive oil, and a dash of parmesan. Not to toot my own horn or anything (I realize that I am tooting away, anyway), but it was pretty darn delicious. I've come a looooooooong way from the very first meal I've ever made that, embarrassingly enough, involved a George Foreman grill....don't ask.