Pasta Making with Grandma Louise!

Grandma Louise teaching Thomas a thing or two about Italian cooking!

So Thomas and I always like to make things from scratch. Beer, bread, jam, cheese, pasta, etc. We haven't had too much experience with some of these things, but its definitely our goal in the future, when we're finally settled somewhere. So back in the middle of the summer, we were helping my mom bring items she was donating to a tag sale. While we were there, we spotted a pasta making machine! I asked if we could purchase it then and there, but then ladies actually said no! I'd have to come back once the tag sale officially opened. Once we did, the pasta maker had been sold already, and we were gutted. In mentioning this story to my Grandma Louise, she got the idea in her head to hunt down her old pasta maker. My grandma comes from Italy, and making pasta and sauce from scratch has been something she has done since she was little. A few years back though, she gave her pasta maker away to her niece. But once I told her we were interested in making our own, she contacted her niece who agreed that I should inherit my grandmother's pasta maker! So surprise! My grandma gave me the maker, along with a family recipe for homemade pasta.

Thomas crushing tomatos

We had set a date for my grandmother to come on over and teach us how to make her homemade sauce. She was so adorable, coming over with all the ingrediants we would need, and even food for us to make lunch for ourselves while the sauce was cooking! She was serious about her sauce though, and we immediately got to work. She had Thomas chopping up ingredients and making meatballs. I was in charge of browning other meat in the pot and Thomas took on another job of crushing the tomatos to make the sauce. We put the sauce in the pot with the meat and let it simmer for hours. The meatballs went into the oven first, and then to the pot as well. While that was cooking, we enjoyed some sandwiches for lunch, and Grandma told us stories about her childhood. It was a wonderful afternoon!

A couple of days later, with our family recipe in hand, we took on the task of making pasta. We invited my siblings, my grandparents and my friend Dana over to my parents house for a completely handmade meal from Thomas and Amy. So we started off in the early afternoon making the pasta dough and putting it through the machine until it came out into long sheets. We didn't really factor much time into letting the pasta sit for awhile, so eventually we started rushing and were sort of frantic. But Dana came over early, and helped us out! As Thomas put those long sheets back through the pasta maker to make linguini, Dana and I seperated each strand and laid them on bedsheets in my parents dining room so that they could dry. That was quite a tedious task, but it was all well worth it.

                   

Right as my family started to arrive, I rushed to handmade some rolls, which I've never done before, and I must say, were pretty delicious. Thomas then took handfuls of the now hardened pasta and tossed it into boiling water for a few minutes.

                         

We were right on schedule. With a few bottles of wine, and craft beer we offered the family our homemade sauce, homemade pasta, homemade rolls and salad too. If only we could have offered our own homemade cheese that would really have been perfect! But it was a wonderful evening, and the pasta was incredible! Being able to spend the quality time with my grandma and learn her family recipes was even better though.

Sunday family dinner