Well, Well, Well

It figures, the day I decide to finally attempt making fresh pasta, after years of building myself up to it, after years of putting it off because I was intimidated by my pasta machine, I have a bad first experience. sigh

You see, I've owned my pasta machine for well over 10 years and have never used it. That doesn't mean that I don't love it, because I do, (I love that I own one) its just that I've always been so intimidated by it. Recently, I decided to take it out of its hiding place in the Cabinet of Forgotten Gadgets and bring it to our house upstate, where I thought I might actually stop being afraid of it and finally give it a spin (hee, there's a pun in there). Then I did some soul searching and changed my mind, opting instead to keep it at the apt. because in all honesty, I prefer the apt. kitchen over the house kitchen. Sure the apt. kitchen is small and has very little storage but I'm used to it, I’m used to the quirkiness of it and I like that all my things are within reach, I'm the most inspired here in this kitchen. When I'm at the house, I find it hard to be inspired because I'm still trying to get used to cooking in that kitchen, so I end up just cooking things that I know how to do well, things that don't need much thought or planning on my part. So the pasta machine stayed, but rather than put it back into the Cabinet of Forgotten Gadgets where it would probably take another 10 years for me to use it, I left it out so that it would remind me to STOP BEING AFRAID OF KITCHEN APPLIENCES. I tried to finally go ahead and use it yesterday.

I decided to follow a recipe from Simple Italian Food by Mario Batali since I had so much success with the polenta the other night. The recipe was pretty cut and dry, and things were moving along, until I accidentally dropped one of the eggs, causing it to hit the well making it collapse, before bouncing to the floor and cracking. The eggs in the middle of the well started to immediately run away once there was a breach in the wall and so before I knew it, I had eggs and flour dripping from the table onto to the floor, adding to the mess that I had already created. I tried to stop the train wreck by throwing flour over the wet mass but that only succeeded in making a bigger mess. I could actually feel my blood boiling, I was so disgusted at that point and was about to go loco when the Little Principessa woke up from her nap crying. I did the only thing I could, I left the mess and tended to the baby, once I had her settled and fed, I got her dressed, put on some lipstick, put my girl in the Baby Björn and took her to the park, leaving the eggs and flour to clean later, after I had calmed down.

So here I am, at the wee hours of Friday morning, writing it down so that I can remember my first attempt at pasta making and chuckling to myself over the irony of it. One thing is for sure, once I post this I’m going back into the kitchen and trying again.

Written by Deb on April 23, 2004 01:50 AM