In the kitchen: homemade pasta dough.

For Christmas this year, Andrew's parents bought us a KitchenAid stand mixer. After receiving the grinder attachment from my mom and the pasta attachment from my aunt and uncle, we have everything we could possibly need to make pasta and ragù from scratch, and not to mention the best and most generous family. 

Making pasta is something special. It's time consuming and takes some practice to get it right, but the results are so worth it in the end. It's definitely not an everyday activity (we're still big fans of Trader Joe's 99-cent rigatoni for those days time just gets away from us), but when you have a free Saturday afternoon, it's absolutely perfect. There's nothing quite as satisfying as enjoying a bowl of homemade pasta and a ragù that's been cooking away for several hours on the stove. 

We used the Sussman brothers' recipes from This is a Cookbook: Recipes for Real Life for both the pasta dough and ragù. My favorite time of year to cook from their book is during the fall, and we've had so much fun doing so in the past. Seriously, go buy this cookbook.  

Basic Pasta Dough, via The Sussman Brothers. 
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1 c. semolina flour

2 c. all-purpose flour

4 large egg yolks

3 large eggs

Water

Combine the flours in the bowl of the stand mixer. Make a well in the center and add the yolks, whole eggs, and 2 Tbsp. water. 

With a fork, whisk the eggs lightly to blend, then begin mixing all the ingredients together by hand, drawing in flour gradually from the sides. Add a bit more water to help the dough come together into a ball, but not more than another tablespoon; you'll still want it to feel somewhat dry. 

Using the dough hook attachment, knead the dough on medium-low speed for about 10-15 minutes until it becomes stretchy and elastic. If you don't have a mixer, you can, of course, do this by hand, but note it'll take quite a bit more time to knead the dough. Wrap the dough in plastic and let it sit at room temp for at least 1 hour, and up to 12, before shaping. 

After the dough has rested, it's up to you to decide what kind of pasta to make! We love bucatini, but the pasta attachment has other shapes I can't wait to try, including fusilli. Or, you can roll out the pasta using a machine to make ravioli or lasagna sheets. And once it's shaped, fresh pasta only takes 3 minutes to cook: just wait for it to float to the top of a salted pot of boiling water and it's ready! Combine with a ragù, top with tomatoes and basil, or just add olive oil, some freshly grated Parmesan cheese and black pepper. Make sure to have a glass of wine, too: salute!