Monday Martha Moment #10

Martha's Homemade Pasta

When I saw pasta on Martha’s recipe list, I instantly pictured a fairytale scene: a woman in rural Italy, wearing a headscarf, rolling handmade pasta in a warm, inviting kitchen. How hard could it be?

Turns out… much harder than I thought.

The very first step was to make a well of flour for the eggs. Easy enough in theory, but the second I cracked my eggs into the center, the sides crumbled and the yolks erupted like lava from a volcano. I scrambled to keep everything from spilling over the counter while trying to pull flour back into the center. What I ended up with was a sticky, goopy mess that in no way resembled dough. For a second, I was convinced I had just wasted half a dozen eggs.

Then I realized I had skipped the warm water. I added some (along with a little more flour), and slowly things started to improve. The dough began to come together. Progress! Until I read the next step: knead for 8–10 minutes. Let’s just say that was the unexpected arm workout I didn’t sign up for. I had to keep adjusting with water and flour to balance out the texture, but eventually the dough started to look like the picture in Martha’s instructions. So I divided the dough and wrapped them tightly in plastic wrap.

After letting the dough rest for an hour, I unwrapped it to find it had glued itself to the plastic wrap. Another “oh no” moment. With some extra flour, I rolled it out by hand, no pasta spreader here, just a rolling pin and stubborn determination. I cut long, thin strips with a knife. Were they beautiful? Not exactly. They looked more like pasta’s alien cousins.

Into the boiling water they went, and to my surprise, they cooked fast. Within a couple of minutes they were floating to the top of the water. I tossed the pasta with sautéed garlic, tomatoes, arugula, Parmesan, chicken stock, and pasta water, then topped it with Italian sausage for protein. Flavor-wise? Pretty good. Looks-wise? Let’s just say no one’s putting my noodles on the cover of Martha Stewart Living anytime soon.

This ended up being my first official “failure” of the Martha challenge, but also a good reminder: cooking isn’t about perfection, it’s about learning. I know I’m a good cook, but some things just take more practice (and maybe a pasta machine). For now, I’ll stick to boxed pasta or buy fresh from a local Italian market. Who knows, maybe one day I’ll conquer pasta dough like that woman in my fairytale kitchen dream.