Mezzaluna Success!

The mezzaluna was a BIG success!! The taste was great, none of them exploded or broke while cooking and the filling stood up to a light Alfredo sauce I made to go with 'em. They DID take a bit longer than expected to cook. Most recipes say that they're done when they float to the top of boiling water but mine were VERY underdone at that point. It took a couple more minutes before they were tender. 

A bit of browsing on the web, and I discovered the reason - I had let them dry on a cutting board for about 2 hours before cooking. If I had cooked them immediately, it would have reduced the time.... but no matter...... next time I'll know.

I might be getting to the point that I think about investing in a pasta-rolling accessory for my KitchenAid stand mixer. NOT that I'm opposed to the exercise I get cranking my handcrank pasta roller but, being the only person performing the whole operation, I always feel like I need to be an octopus with one hand holding/guiding the dough and another guiding the output of the dough and yet another turning the crank. I think it would go a whole lot faster with an electric model. (You see 'em in use on Iron Chef a lot)

Anyhow..... what I would do differently next time: I definitely want to experiment with more/different fillings....... I rolled the dough to a #4 setting on my pasta machine but I think I'll go to a #3 next time... no thinner, tho.... I think they wouldn't stand up. I may even try to make some for "Fried Ravioli" next time! And I may even try adding flavors to the pasta itself!

So, all-in-all, it was a HUGE success! What a sense of accomplishment!

Oh......... and then I opened my mail and found that my Health Insurance was jumping from $186/mo to $532/mo....... CRAP!!!!    C'monnnnnnn National Health Care!!!!!!