I said I would

I made spaghetti, with sauce, all from scratch.

Yes, I did! All by myself, too. I did not even listen to one minute of my Outlander book, book number 5 in the series. I spent all of my time concentrating on the tasks before me. They were numerous, I must say.

My goals for today were to make a loaf of whole wheat bread, as I have been, as we had only a few slices left of the last loaf I made. I wanted to make homemade spaghetti noodles, and sauce, using the Italian sausage I made the other day; everything from scratch.

And that is exactly what I did, too! Here are a few photos from my days journey. Hope you enjoy them.

Working the eggs, olive oil, and salt into the semolina flour.

I made the dough for the spaghetti using semolina flour, as it is true pasta flour, and has a very high protein content, making it a strong gluten product. the instructions said it would be a more difficult dough to use, versus a high protein white flour, such as All Purpose flour. As I wanted the “real” experience of pasta making, I opted for the semolina instead. It was very easy to use, once I got past the three minute mark when kneading it.

The first piece of pasta dough to go through the roller.
This same piece of dough from above is now ready to cut into strips.

Then, I got to use my new KitchenAid pasta making attachments to roll our the pasta, then cut it into spaghetti pieces.

First pasta cut into spaghetti. Too long, but I cut them in half.

And, since this was my first adventure, I got a bit fuddled when I was putting the dough through the cutting piece. What was I going to do with it after I cut it? My husband came to my rescue. He happened into the kitchen, just after the first batch of spaghetti came our of the cutting piece. He put my drying rack together, just in time for me to use it.

As I said, since I have never done this before, I was a bit disorganized. Instead of dusting them in the semolina and hanging them on the rack, I dusted them and placed them, in a curl, on a floured baking sheet. Fortunately, I do not have a photo of that kerfuffle.

Whilst the pasta dough was “sleeping” for 30 minutes, before I began all of the above, I made the dough for another loaf of our new favorite, whole wheat bread. It is absolutely the softest WW dough I have ever had the opportunity to use. The bread is delicious.

Then, while the bread was rising, and the pasta was sleeping, I made the marinara/spaghetti sauce, using, of course, my homemade Italian sausage. Spectacular, I am telling you.

The sauce came together, the spaghetti got rolled out, then cut, then dried for a few minutes, and the bread was put to bake.

I boiled the water for the spaghetti, (which took about 3 minutes to cook), reheated the sauce, took the bread out of the oven, and made a few pieces of garlic toast to go with the meal.

To top it all off, I grated some fresh Parmesano-Reggiano cheese on top of the sauce, and Bob’s your uncle. We did not have any wine, but that was ok. It was only three in the afternoon.

But, I did it! I still cannot believe how much I got done today. Yesterday too. What a week. Soon, I am going to start on Asian cuisines, and see where that takes us. I will try to be patient. Hah!!!

Everyone, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.