N - Noodles

Have you ever had to make fresh pasta? It’s awesome. You should. So easy. Really. I’m not leading you down some dark alley just to nail you over the head with a 2x4. Honest.
Even easier if you have a bread machine with a “Pasta” setting...which we do. Anyway.

One of my first jobs, out in the “real world’ was at a, well, they liked to think of themselves as an Italian restaurant...and for the purposes of my story we’ll go with that. One thing they did do right was make fresh pasta. By hand. With a hand crank machine. Every. Fucking. Morning. They truly believed that running it through an electric pasta roller (such as a Kitchen Aid) would harm the flavor of the pasta. I can’t make this shit up. The restaurant sat 240. This was my job. I had KILLER biceps.

Ahhh. The memories....

 On my right arm.
 
The best way to have fresh pasta? Drizzled with a beautiful olive oil, shaved Asiago cheese, diced fresh from the garden tomatoes, and a chiffonade of basil. Cracked pepper and possibly kosher salt if needed. That’s it. Maybe a few olives. 

It’s so easy to make amazingly beautiful food. All served on the deck of my Tuscany Villa that overlooks the vineyard estate that I just purchased … wait...what were we …Damn it.

As much as I hated making the pasta every day, it was nothing compared to slicing five cases of green tomatoes for fried green tomatoes. Every day. By hand. Because the slicer “Messes up the seed packets”. Seriously.