GCC: Fresh Egg Fettuccine with Norcina Sauce

I got pretty excited when I saw that the Gutsy Cooks Club menu lined up for this week would entail me to make my very own fresh egg pasta noodles.  I used to make my own pasta before especially lasagna noodles but I admit that laziness too often gets in the way of making these on a regular basis and really, the convenience of using store-bought pastas is just way too tempting not to mention that they seem to last FOREVER in the pantry.  But I must say though, on a personal level, that I have yet to encounter a commercial brand of pasta that can compare to the amazing taste and texture of fresh homemade pasta.  There's just nothing like it!  Sure, you're limited to the shapes you can make (obviously due to the limitations of your pasta maker) but what I really like about making my own is that I can control exactly how thick I want my pasta to be.   I always get disappointed with the quality of lasagna noodles I get from the store -- oftentimes they're too thick which obliges me to pre-cook them (even if the package instructions say there's no need to) as layering them uncooked makes the noodles absorb a lot of the sauces, resulting in a very dry lasagna.  With fresh lasagna noodles, they are layered immediately after pressing them.  

For this Basic Fresh Egg Pasta , I decided to use the semolina/durum flour that I recently purchased from an Italian store.  This flour is supposed to be perfect for pasta making so I was expecting my noodles to come out really well because of this flour.  

I haven't brought out my pasta maker in ages -- good thing I still know how to assemble it!

The combination of the semolina flour (which is already yellowish) and the eggs made the dough look really "eggy"

I never thought I would ever get to use my Marcato Tacapasta Drying Rack but it really is perfect for drying long pasta noodles like fettuccine, etc. I also had to bring this out because my noodles turned out a little moist and sticky and hanging them this way prevented the noodles from sticking back together.     

Mis en place for the Norcina sauce

I added a couple more teaspoons of the yummy truffle paste!

I chose to pair the noodles with the rich and creamy Norcina sauce since my husband and I love Italian sausages.  In fact, this reminds me of the pasta dish that we always order at our favorite Italian restaurant.  One thing I will change when I make this sauce again though is the type of pan that I used which was a teflon-coated pan that prevented the sausages from properly browning.   The recipe also didn't specify the kind of oil to use for sauteing the onions and cooking the sausages, so I just used olive oil.  But I think melted butter would've been a good option as well.

It only took about 2 minutes for the pasta to cook

I am definitely going to make this again but I'm going to use penne next time.  I just like the pairing of a thick dense pasta with rich sauces like this one.  Oh, and maybe a sprinkling of chopped herbs would've added a little more flavor and color to the plate.