Fresh Egg Pasta (HCE)

Fast Tomato Sauce (HCE)

• Salt
• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil or butter
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 1/2 pounds canned tomatoes, drained and chopped
• Freshly ground black pepper

It's been a rather long time since I could bring myself to buy jarred pasta sauce. Even on occasions where I almost rather not go to the additional trouble of making sauce from scratch, I inevitably do so since... There's no good reason for tomato sauce to have high-fructose corn syrup in it among a million other different things.
Out of Mark Bittman's "20 Quick and Easy Ways to Spin Fast Tomato Sauce", I typically go for a copious amount of tomato paste and dried rosemary/thyme/oregano.


Sauteing onions until they're soft.


A quarter cup tomato paste.


The finished sauce.

Fresh Egg Pasta
Fresh pasta is one of the handful of very foodie things I enjoyed long before I became a bonafide nutcase over food. My first ex-boyfriend John G. exposed me to the wonders of the stuff when we occasionally picked up a batch to heat up at Capone Food in Somerville's Union Square. It was hard to pry me from my favorite pairing Spinach Fettuccine and Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto.
Anyway, I've eagerly looked forward to the day I would actually attempt it myself nearly since I started taking this hobby seriously. And after some trial and error and grumbling from hungry friends, I can proudly say that I've done this at least once. I look forward to mastering the art.

• About 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more if needed
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 whole eggs
• 3 egg yolks

The pasta machine and drying rack that I've procured gradually in the last year through Amazon. Though my sister bought me the pasta machine for my birthday.


Clamped to the side of the table, all shiny and new, and ready for action... Whenever I'm finally ready for action. Which will take some time and trouble on my part.


Oh la di da. I was certainly planning on just using the all-purpose flour I had on hand, but the idea of using actual semolina flour while I was picking up some things for crack pie at JP's Harvest was hard to resist.
No, I stopped the processor after it seemed like it was having trouble processing through the "dough." No, I didn't process until the "dough" formed a ball. Maybe I should have realized my problem here.


Oh the shock when I tried to work these balls of "dough" for my pasta maker.
My friends Joe A, Eric S, and Trista C had all shown up in time to watch my failure. I dumped it all into the trash: fancy Bob Red Mill's flour, free-range eggs, and all. I start making it the old-fashioned way on the table with normal all-purpose flour. I lose an egg to the floor at some point. Joe asks me if I'm improvising while I continue asking Eric to "flour me." Yeah, I was, but at least we didn't have to resort to eating dried pasta from the pantry.


I apologize for not photographing what it took to this this ball of dough, but I couldn't quite document the process pictorially with my hands covered in flour and egg. They all ask me if that's all there's supposed to be and how hungry they are.
Hey, PALS/FOOLS, you guys didn't manage to eat all of this.


Perhaps I'd care more about the holes in the pasta if I was making lasagna with the noodles. I imagine I would just patch up the whole while assembling the dish with more pasta.
Oh I always imagined myself making fresh pasta one day and using a pasta machine!


Eric and Trista helped array the strands of fettuccine on the rack while I passed the dough through the machine.


Almost there.


Pasta and sauce garnished with some fresh Parmesan (extra hard from sitting in the fridge for a few months) and freshly ground black pepper.
Next time I make this I'll probably skip the final, thinnest setting on the pasta machine and flavor the pasta somehow; perhaps spinach, more freshly ground black pepper, or saffron... The possibilities are endless.
And now I know how to make another classic thing I love to eat when I can.