Kristin and I first met in person over drinks in New York City with my friend Dave, after we had been following each other on Twitter for some time. Even before we met, I sort of knew we’d be friends. Last January, we got to spend lots of quality time together at Alt Summit, where she spoke this year! Kristin is one of those people who you just want to be around — she sends handmade holiday cards, can always recommend a good book, and will tell you what bag or lipstick is in style. I’m so thrilled to have her drop by today to share her pasta recipe! — Kasey
Anytime I find myself with a quiet weekend afternoon, I usually spend some portion of that time in the kitchen. My ideal Saturday would be spent preparing something delicious while chatting with a good friend who is sitting at my kitchen table. To me the best part about food and cooking is sharing it with others.
I think this stems from my family’s tradition of giving food gifts for the holidays. We would make cookies, quick breads, and yeast breads and deliver them to my parents’ friends and colleagues and my sister and my teachers. It was one of my favorite things about the holiday, and it instilled in me a belief that food is meant to be shared with people you love.
Combining this with my love of learning new things (I’ve taken cocktail making, knife skills, crochet, pseudoscience, soda making, and embroidery classes in the past few years), I decided as part of my 30 before 30 list that I wanted to learn to make fresh pasta and serve it to friends. It was so important to me to add the “serving it to friends” portion of the goal because what good is a skill like making fresh pasta if you aren’t sharing it?
Thankfully, I have some wonderful friends who not only agreed to be guinea pigs and taste test my first attempt at making pasta, but two of them (Alicia & Kelsey) came over and helped me make the meal.
We had a few disasters—egg and olive oil breaking free from our flour volcano and covering the counter; dough that ripped and ended up in strange shapes as we ran it through the rollers, and running out of gin before the last two cocktails were made. But we had much bigger successes—a delicious meal, a new skill that will only be expanded upon, and a memorable night filled with good conversation and new friends.
Fresh Egg Pasta
(Recipe courtesy of a friend’s culinary school notes. If you don’t have a scale, I’ve also used Mark Bittman’s pasta recipe from How to Cook Everything.)
Ingredients
400 grams all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
4 eggs + 2 egg yolks
Directions
1. Sift flour onto your work surface. Make a well in the middle.
2. Pour lightly beaten olive oil, eggs, and egg yolks into the well.
3. Slowly incorporate the flour into the egg mixture being careful not to let the sides of the well
crumble. Once the dough has stiffened, incorporate the rest with your hands.
4. Knead the dough for 15 minutes, or until the pasta feels like soft leather and springs back
when touched.
5. Refrigerate for 1 hour before rolling and cutting pasta.
6. Follow the manufacturer’s instructions on your pasta machine for rolling and cutting the
specific type of noodle you want.
