Paprika Pasta

Our trusty old KitchenAid mixer has recently turned 21.  It reminds me of the mixer my mom had when I was little…sturdy, reliable and full of cooking memories of foods that we made with it (and lots of beaters that we licked clean).  What we love most about ours is that we have, over the years, accumulated most all of the attachment pieces that go along with it and make cooking all the more fun.  Due to the massive amounts of use it gets, it has recently started groaning a little when it is on high speed which makes me think it might need to be updated in the not so near future.  Until then we will use it as much as possible…mostly so we can save up for a new one as they are not cheap.  But then again, take that cost and figure out how many times you have used it in twenty one years and really it is probably quite a bargain.  One of us tends to use it more for baking while the other likes the savory things you can make with the attachments.  On this gloomy, rainy, end of February day we decided to make paprika pasta.  Is there anything better than homemade pasta? It is so simple and makes you appreciate the difference in taste fresh pasta provides.

We started with our favorite go to pasta recipe from Mario Batali.  Using 3 1/2 cups of all purpose flour and 4 extra large eggs, we opted for the super simple route and combined it in a food processor.  Once combined we added 2 teaspoons of smoked Spanish paprika.  Then we wrapped it in cling film and allowed it to rest in the fridge for thirty minutes before we rolled it through our KitchenAid pasta attachment.  Making long sheets first, we then used the pasta cutter attachment to turn it into spaghetti.  Fresh pasta.  In those simple steps! So good.

To serve this lovely little lunch we sautéed some mushrooms with peas and thyme and tossed it all together.  It was absolutely lovely and the smoked paprika added a subtle yet distinct flavor. We’d be lying if we told you our pantry did not contain boxes (or bags) of dried pastas that we recently stocked up on at a great little Italian market we found…but on the days we have a few extra minutes nothing beats fresh pasta.