2. Making my own Pasta

So after making my own bread, the next thing on my plastic hit last was to try and make my own pasta.

I never really realised what a waste the plastic wrapping on the pasta I bought was. As soon as I get the packet pasta home, I’m pouring the bag straight into my glass kilner jars.

I figured that it can’t be that hard to make your own pasta so I gave it a go using the recipe linked below

http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/7201/wholewheat-pasta.aspx

Again, I used the dough blade on my ninja because I didn’t want to knead the dough. I swear I’m not usually this lazy but I hadn’t got much use out of my ninja for a while and wanted to see what the dough blade was like.

The pasta dough seemed okay, and I followed the instructions and let it rest for 30 minutes in the fridge. Then I cut it into four sections and tried to roll each one as thin as I could. My God it was hard work! I’m not lying, after rolling those sections I felt like I had just done a workout at the gym.

I got the pasta as thin as I could and then cut it to make tagliatelle strips. I made so much pasta I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with it. I ended up freezing half of it, keeping a batch in the fridge and then cooking some to see how it tasted.

It did taste like pasta, but I don’t think I got the dough thin enough, so it was quite chunky. I ate it anyway, because I’m not one for wasting food, but I have since been looking for a pasta maker online. I’ve looked in a few charity shops and online on second hand sites to try and find one, so if I don’t stick to making my own pasta I haven’t wasted too much money, but I haven’t found one yet.

The pasta lasted for a couple of days in the fridge, but I made far too much and ended up putting a load onto the compost heap when it started to look a bit funny. I still have some in the freezer though.

I would definitely try to make my own pasta again, it took so little time, and I really think its an easy way for me to use less plastic. I do think that next time I would half the ingredients so there is less waste, and mix by hand this time instead of using the Ninja.