Home-made, hand-made pasta!

I have wanted to make this Liguran pasta (called trofie) since I first saw it on Helen Rennie's blog. Soon after I read about her technique, I took her pasta class, in which I learned how to make pasta dough and how to shape these little twisty, tasty pastas.

That was exactly a month ago. So, I struggled a little bit when I made my first solo pasta dough yesterday. The end result was great, but the process was much more difficult because my dough was a little dry. This made it physically taxing to knead the dough and to roll the twisties. Still, fresh pasta doesn't even seem related to dry pasta - it has the most amazing density and texture...and it is SO much more filling, as the three of us eating it quickly discovered. I couldn't even finish my bowl!

The reason I wanted to make this specific pasta is that it requires absolutely no tools. No pasta machine, no ravioli cutter, no potato ricer (for gnocchi) - nothin'! (Um, OK, I used my food processor to make the dough, but I didn't have to.) Just hands and heart. : )

Ah, this was my first official basil pesto, too!