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Birthday joys: Homemade pasta and a newborn otter pup at Seattle Aquarium

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When you have a friend who helps you with your New Year’s resolutions (rather than just empathetically understanding your subsequent abandonment of them), you’ve got a keeper. One of my dearest friends showed up the day before my birthday with a brand-new pasta roller so I could strike one off the list — making pasta from scratch.

Turns out, it’s pretty easy to make beautiful pasta, though I wouldn’t want to film my pasta-making, since it was not nearly as glamorous as the video I watched by one of my favorite, and oft referenced, chefs. It’s a simple process: create a flour volcano with a well in the center where the liquids go. Stir the liquids into the walls of the flour volcano slowly at first, until the whole thing collapses in and turns into a ball of egg-yellow dough.

That said, I would not attempt this without a pasta roller, unless you’re a whiz with a rolling pin or are looking for really rustic, handcut pasta.

At first, I was worried that our recipe would not feed the four who were coming over for dinner. But, never fear — the noodles do gain some heft when they’re cooked. We finished all the noodles, but the hungry gleam in our eye had died away long before the pasta ran out.

I spent my actual birthday traipsing around the city. The low point — a very insipid haircut by a Groupon-weary stylist — was made right by the high point. I spent two hours, outside in the rare January sun, watching a northern sea otter dote on her nine-day-old pup at the Seattle Aquarium.

Sea otter mother Aniak and pup

The day after I visited, the aquarium was able to perform its first checkup on the pup and identify its sex as a female. That’s fantastic news for the aquarium and for the pup’s many fans, since a male pup would likely need to be transferred to avoid competition with the pup’s father.

You can read a quick blog post I wrote up with some raw video of the otter mum and kiddo, or, better yet, check out a more comprehensive blog post with footage of the pup’s first checkup.

Snuggled.

Whenever I see tropical fish, I always think of the same line from one of my favorite TV shows: “You got Kimmy, Alex, Aubrey and Jezebel in here somewhere. I don’t know, she think she cute.” Can you guess who said it? (Answer below the recipe.)

"You got Kimmy, Alex, Aubrey and Jezebel in here somewhere. I don't know, she think she cute."

Homemade pasta

I used Chef John’s recipe as a starting point (he is Italian, after all!), though there are some small tweaks in my instructions as a first-timer. Next time, I want to try a 50/50 mix of all-purpose and semolina flours. This recipe feeds four. Plan on around 4 hours to make the dough, rest it, roll it out, and let it dry.

  • 2¼ cup all-purpose flour, plus a few tablespoons to keep the noodles from sticking
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon salt, plus a big pinch for the pasta cooking water
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1/3 cup water

1. Measure out the flour and mound it on a clean, dry cutting board. Make a sizable well in the middle of the mound, so it resembles a volcano. (My well was much too small, so I had to add the eggs one at a time to avoid a catastrophic flood; avoid my mistake and eyeball a space that can hold two eggs.)

2. In the middle of the well, add the salt, olive oil and two eggs. With a fork, gently break the eggs and mix the liquids together, without disturbing the flour walls.

3. Gradually, and very slowly, whisk in a bit of flour into the liquids with the fork. Continue to slowly add flour from the sides bit by bit.

4. Once the egg mixture is a bit stiffer, add the water into the well. Continue mixing in the flour bit by bit with the fork.

5. Eventually, the inside of the volcano will be solid enough that you can start collapsing the walls around the egg mixture. You can be more aggressive here. Once everything is combined, knead the dough until it is elastic and smooth, 8-10 minutes. If it feels sticky, dust the work surface with flour.

6. Form the dough into a ball, and place it seam-side down on the cutting board. Cover with a bowl for twenty minutes to let the dough rest.

7. Slice the dough into thin, 1/4-inch-thick rounds. Using the largest setting on the pasta roller, run each round through twice. Dust with flour if the dough feels sticky.

8. Turn the setting to a medium-sized setting, and run each strip through once again. I was looking for a thinner noodle, so I ran my strip through once more on a slightly smaller setting.

9. Using the cutting attachment on the pasta roller, slice each strip into the desired thickness (I had the option of fettuccine or spaghetti noodles). If you want to cut the noodles by hand, fold each flattened pasta sheet in thirds like a letter and cut to your desired thickness with a sharp knife.

10. Separate each strand on a cutting boards and dust with flour, so the strands don’t stick to one another. Don’t pile them too heavily, in order to allow some healthy air circulation through the noodles.

11. Allow the noodles to dry for a few hours. If you are not cooking the noodles immediately, I’d air on the side of longer. I snuck by with just over an hour, which didn’t seem to be worse for wear air.

12. To cook, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the noodles and cook until al dente, about 4 minutes. Drain and serve with sauce.

Answer: Wee-Bey from “The Wire.” Watch the clip.


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