In the Kitchen: Homemade Pastas

Have you ever asked yourself why dried pasta was so inexpensive and fresh, refrigerated pasta was expensive? Does fresh pasta have to cost that much when it really is just eggs, flour, salt, oil and perhaps some cheese combined together to form a dough? Well my friends came over today and we had ourselves a fresh pasta making party. We made quite a few kinds and the best thing is, you don't need a pasta maker to make fresh pasta!

For some snacks to munch on I prepared the following to hold us all over while we made and prepared our pasta:

Mushroom Pate Spread
with assorted crackers

Cinnamon Chipotle Popcorn

Hot Mulled Apple Cider
(unpictured)

Stone Fruit Cheesecake

(unpictured)

To start off our pasta party, we made a traditional gnocchi made with potatoes and a variation made with sweet potatoes...



After being gnocchi'd out, we switched gears and made cut pastas - tagliatelle and pappardelle. The main difference between the two is the width, with tagliatelle being the more narrow one. We made a few different flavors: plain (using just all purpose flour), whole wheat and also a spinach pesto flavored one...

Tagliatelle & Pappardelle
made with all purpose flour

Tagliatelle & Pappardelle
made with whole wheat flour

Pappardelle
made with spinach pesto

The last pasta we made was a ricotta gnocchi which we used whole wheat flour...

Whole Wheat Ricotta Gnocchi

Stay tuned for the recipes for the above homemade pastas all this week!