Fresh pasta with olive oil and garlic sauce

Raw pasta just after being rolled out and cut into noodles

I've always been intimidated but intrigued by the idea of making my own fresh pasta (see my ravioli post). But after having lunch out one day where I had some amazing, toothsome Chinese housemade noodles, I was inspired to give it another try. I also thought that noodles might be a little easier than a filled ravioli. As far as a sauce, I decided to go with a very simple olive oil, garlic, and parsley sauce with a parmesan shaving garnish, allowing each of the ingredients and the pasta itself to take prominent roles. Of course, if the sauce only has 4 incredients including salt, you better be sure that your olive oil is sufficiently high quality--and if you're going to use parmesan, you better use the real thing--parmigiano reggiano. It's a little pricey, but it's completely worth it and a little goes a long way.

I still don't have a pasta machine and I'm not sure if I'll ever be making enough pasta at home to make it worth buying one, so once again I hand rolled the dough and hand cut the noodles. Since I wasn't trying to make a filled pasta, it was less of a problem and in a way having rough looking noodles really appealed to me. Plus--more surface area for sauce!

I allowed the dough to rest more than I had the last time before rolling it out, and I think that made a difference. I seem to recall during the ravioli episode that the dough kept springing back on me after I cut it, getting thicker and thicker, but didn't have that issue this time. The noodles did end up a bit on the thick side--I forgot that fresh pasta gets thicker when you cook it--but the sauce was delicious enough that it didn't matter. A fruity, olive-y olive oil, infused with garlic and parsley, went amazingly well with the fresh noodles, and parmesan shavings with their granular texture. The sauce itself was so good that it would probably be nearly as tasty with dried pasta, not to mention much faster to cook, but there's just something about toothsome homemade noodles you can't improve upon.

Finished and dressed pasta!