With my first Half Marathon tomorrow morning, I've been soaking in the Carbs (pastas, potatoes, whole grains, fruit and veggies), not so much to improve my performance (since I'm not really going for a stellar performance... I know it's going to challenge and hurt!) but more so I don't kill myself during the run! After all, this surpasses my longest run by 3 miles and I hear 
the last 3 can be a doozie. Well, I decided to make my OWN pasta for my "night before D-day" dinner! Yes- I mean that I made the pasta from scratch... It sounds quite impressive but after completing the process, I have to let out a little secret... It's quite easy. It's really nothing compared to making home-made bread... I'm talking touchy and temperamental home-made, not bread machine, bread. Only made of 3 ingredients- Flour, eggs and water, pasta's just a matter of creating a mixture not too firm but not too sticky and soft. I broke out the pasta machine, bought by my mom as a Christmas present, which by the way is probably the most challenging (still not hard though) and fed my flattened ball of pasta dough 
through the machine. After a few cranks through the machine with adjusting the rollers thinner, it created perfect whole-grain fettuccine ready to be boiled. I've learned, in reading "The Complete Book of Pasta and Noodles" that fresh egg noodles typically go better with butter or creme sauces as opposed to dry pasta which lends better to vegetable sauce. However, I still chose a home-made tomato and balsamic vinegar herb sauce since fresh egg pasta made from whole wheat flour is a hardier and thinker flour and is not overwhelmed by the tomato sauce! So Bon Appetite! Thanks, Mom for the Pasta know how and supplies! Now that I know it's not rocket science to make fresh pasta, I may go home-made more often! Here's to my long run tomorrow! Hopefully it helps!
the last 3 can be a doozie. Well, I decided to make my OWN pasta for my "night before D-day" dinner! Yes- I mean that I made the pasta from scratch... It sounds quite impressive but after completing the process, I have to let out a little secret... It's quite easy. It's really nothing compared to making home-made bread... I'm talking touchy and temperamental home-made, not bread machine, bread. Only made of 3 ingredients- Flour, eggs and water, pasta's just a matter of creating a mixture not too firm but not too sticky and soft. I broke out the pasta machine, bought by my mom as a Christmas present, which by the way is probably the most challenging (still not hard though) and fed my flattened ball of pasta dough 
through the machine. After a few cranks through the machine with adjusting the rollers thinner, it created perfect whole-grain fettuccine ready to be boiled. I've learned, in reading "The Complete Book of Pasta and Noodles" that fresh egg noodles typically go better with butter or creme sauces as opposed to dry pasta which lends better to vegetable sauce. However, I still chose a home-made tomato and balsamic vinegar herb sauce since fresh egg pasta made from whole wheat flour is a hardier and thinker flour and is not overwhelmed by the tomato sauce! So Bon Appetite! Thanks, Mom for the Pasta know how and supplies! Now that I know it's not rocket science to make fresh pasta, I may go home-made more often! Here's to my long run tomorrow! Hopefully it helps!
2 comments:
Mmmmm,Pasta!
Good luck on your run, call and let us know how you did.
I was a volunteer at the Air Force Marathon in September, and I was surprised (and embarrased) to see some of the office 'marshmallows' still churning away at the 18 mile mark.
I thought about entering a marathon, but my 'wall' is about at the first 100 meters. Oh well.
You go girl!! I'm sure you did just fine since I know you were pretty prepped for the run! Your pasta looks great! Maybe we can have a pasta meal when we come out!! Maybe some ravioli or pirogies or even spagetti or fettuccini! It all sounds good to me!! : ) Mom
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