Homemade Pasta Success!

Yup, did it...I'm proud to say! [Disclaimer: if you're not in the mood to read a very detailed description of my meal prep, you might think about skipping this post. I'm not usually one to be super elaborative when it comes to cooking, but right now the mood is striking me. Just sayin', fair warning!] The recipe I *sort-of* used is here. After reading pasta recipes on a few other websites, I picked up some semolina flour at the market and ended up using about 3 cups of that and another 1/3 of a cup (actually probably more like 2/3) of vital wheat gluten flour. I'd read that it's the gluten that gives the dough it's "chewiness" and allows it to be flexible enough to cut it and boil it without it falling apart. I don't know if it was either of these two flours or the combination of the two or my inexact measurements, but I ended up using 7 or 8 eggs instead of the 4 called for in the recipe (the eggs were super fresh, from that day and the two days before - the ladies are laying between 2 and 4 a day lately). I also ended up dropping in a bit of olive oil as the dough was mixing to help it pull together, it was pretty dry and crumbly without the olive oil and eggs. Oh - I also pinched in a bit of kosher sea salt.So how did it taste? The answer is good, thick and rich. I think the semolina flour and fresh eggs were the major contributors. The texture kind of reminded me of a thick tortellini that I had when we were traveling through Italy. Maybe it was because of the thickness of the pieces I cut or that I didn't roll the dough quite thin enough, but it took more like 12 minutes of boiling to cook the pasta rather than the 4 minutes called for in the recipe. Even still, the pasta ended up al dente. Rather than a marinara or fettuccini sauce, I kind of made up my own sauce/topping. That after noon I stopped at our meat market and I picked up two 8 oz. top sirloin steaks. I trimmed them and cut them into thin strips. Then I marinated the strips in balsamic vinegar, herb infused macadamia nut oil (just brought back from Hawaii!), and fresh ground pepper. I cooked the steak for about 12 minutes at 450 degrees. Then I mixed in some roasted garlic (yes, I also roasted it myself - this was a very handmade meal!), some of last summer's oven dried roma tomatoes, and parmesean cheese. The entire thing went back into the oven to melt the cheese while the pasta finished boiling. We had a mixed green salad with the pasta and if I do say so, the meal was delicious!So now I am kind of wanting to tweak the recipe even more or even try a different recipe - maybe from an Italian cookbook I have. The question is when do I ask for the pasta maker attachment for my Kitchen Aid mixer? Birthday...Wedding Anniversary...Christmas?

There are now lots of pasta dishes I'd like to get around to making from scratch!

By the way, Happy Monday, I hope you have a great week!