Homemade Pasta Wishes and Ravioli Dreams

Lets start this out with a revelation...I can make homemade pasta.  And, believe me, if I can do it so can you!! (feel free to be impressed by us both right now)  I was thoroughly convinced this was a feat that should only be attempted by an Italian grandma.  For some reason though, a while back inspiration (and a fridge full of eggs) struck and I decided to give it a try.  'N ya know what?  Like so many other things in the culinary world it really is not as hard as they make it out to be.  All you need to make this happen is flour and eggs.  Anything else you might need can be omitted or improvised.



It Takes Balls



Remember this guy?  A big delicious pot of risotto...for two people.   I suppose it's time I divulge one of my biggest kitchen problems.  For some reason, I am always compelled to cook enough food for a family of eight, even though it is just for my boyfriend and myself.  It's a problem, I know.  I should get help...or open a soup kitchen.  Until I do something about it, our fridge is perpetually full of leftovers. 

Yeah, we can make Risotto

 

This is one of my favorite dishes ever.  Not because it is delicious (eat it off the floor good).  Not because it is beautiful (look at those colors).  Not even because it combines some of the best flavors ever created (bacon, parmesan, butter).  It's because it is fancy and when I make it I can pretend I am too!!  At least in my neck of the woods, if you tell someone you made risotto they are going to be impressed...then they are going to ask you what risotto is.  I must confess until I started making it myself, my only experience of risotto involved Chef Ramsey calling someone a donkey.  I don't know if mine would pass his test, but it rocks the house around here.