Homemade Pasta

My husband and I recently invested in this pasta maker. We decided to go with a hand-crank instead of the automatic version after getting some tips that the hand-crank works just as easily and the automatic can overheat after a small amount of pasta. So far, the hand-crank seems to be a worthy investment in both pasta making and arm workout.

For a first pasta attempt, we made basic spaghetti using the recipe from one of my favorite cookbooks.  It cooked in about 2 minutes in boiling water and was perfectly al dente. Our crank skills improved dramatically by the end of the process, so next time I'm looking forward to to trying out a new dough recipe.