Let it be known: my boyfriend’s pasta-making skills are far superior to mine.

We had been toying with the idea of buying the pasta attachments for our KitchenAid mixer for a while, so when Frank found a good deal on this set we finally went for it. Excited to break in our new purchase (and to get rid of the 15 egg yolks I had leftover after my latest macaron class), I started in on Thomas Keller’s famous 7-yolk pasta dough for some homemade fettuccine.

I made my flour well and carefully nestled my eggs in the center. Then, as the recipe instructs, I started twirling the eggs around to slowly incorporate the flour. The problem? I’m impatient. Really impatient. So after 5 minutes of swirling the eggs as instructed, I started adding the flour at a quicker rate. Which made my dough seize up and made me frustrated. Like, AS%^$&@* frustrated.

Unbeknownst to me, I live with a pasta master. Frank grew up in a good Italian-American family and used to make fresh pasta with his mom as a kid. Not only was he able to correctly execute his pasta dough, but he was also able to coax mine into something useable. A true pasta whisperer, I tell you!

Rolling out pasta dough may rank in my top 3 most fun things to do in the kitchen. Who knew that something so simple could be so much fun? First you use the flat roller to gradually work the dough into a perfect thin sheet and then the cutter attachment slices the sheet into perfect strands of carb-y goodness.

Fresh pasta has a springy chewiness that dried pasta really lacks, so you really don’t have to do too much to it to make a delicious meal. We prepared the finished product simply; just a bit of lemon-butter sauce and plenty of cheese. I have a feeling we’ll be putting our new rollers to work often!