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Homemade Lemon Zest and Cuttlefish Ink Pastas


Playdates at my house usually end up involving some kind of cooking lesson. Thankfully D's little friend was a good sport about having to be the kitchen help. I put them to work and they made lemon zest and cuttlefish ink pastas; I made the creamy crab sauce.

Ingredients 
  • 1 C flour (I used a whole wheat pastry flour today; we were out of semolina)
  • 1 egg
  • water as needed
  • + 2 t lemon zest - or - 2 t cuttlefish ink (see affiliate link below)

Procedure
Place the flour in a heap on a piece of wax paper.

Create a deep well in the middle of the flour and crack the egg into this well. If you're adding anything in, do it at the bottom of your well...before adding the egg. Whisk the egg into the flour with the fork.


Add water one tablespoon at a time. Once the dough comes together in a ball, begin gently folding the dough on itself, flattening, and folding again. Once it's firm enough to knead, knead the dough, incorporating more flour, as needed, to prevent the dough from sticking to your workspace. 


When you have a cohesive dough ball, set your pasta machine to the thickest setting, usually marked "1". Flatten a piece of dough into a thick disk between your hands and feed it through the pasta roller. Repeat two more times. 


Fold this piece of dough into thirds, like folding a letter, and press it between your hands again. Now run the pasta through the machine 1 time on each of the settings 2-6.


Finally, run the pasta through the cutter.Toss the noodles with a little flour to keep them from sticking together.


To cook the pasta, bring a large pot of water to a boil, salt the water, and cook the pasta until al dente, 4-5 minutes. Toss with your favorite sauce. For this batch, I made a creamy crab sauce. They loved it!


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