Ciao! It's been quite some time since I last updated Knead Pasta Project, but rest assured, there has still been A LOT of pasta-making happening at Casa Leaird. In addition to my own two hands, I have two more (tiny) hands digging into dough and making all sorts of pasta deliziosa. Here is a picture of my daughter, Hazel, making orecchiette last...

Ciao! I just got back from an amazing 12-day trip to Tuscany. Of course, my top priority was: eat as much pasta as possible. I think I did a pretty good job, especially since I'm eating for two (that's right, a baby gnocchi Leaird is on her way- due in October!). The regional pastas of Tuscany are just awesome- pappardelle, pici, gnudi, oh my!- a...

 I wish I could take credit for these, but I cannot. I surprised Daniela, my amazing friend who owns Le Macare in the little town of Alezio (Italy) by showing up unannounced on her restaurant's front porch. Her jaw dropped, she squeezed me tight, and hustled into the kitchen. We shouted back and forth from the porch into the kitchen, ca...

I went back to Puglia a couple weeks ago to make olive oil with my dear friend Jolanda (who has an amazing boutique olive oil business called Tenuta Bianca- check it out! Best olive oil I've ever tasted). Sadly, this was a tough year for those ancient olive trees on the southern Italian peninsula; a disease wiped out the whole harvest. When I sho...

 I work all week as a full-time test cook for America's Test Kitchen in a hot, bustling, 2500 square foot kitchen alongside 30 other cooks. When I come home for a weekend of rest and relaxation... I make pasta. To put a summery twist on it, I do it outside. These little noodles were happily kneaded, cut, and shaped into cavatelli on my porch look...

What a wild- and pastafilled- year it has been! Since my last post, I have moved across the country and started a new job with America's Test Kitchen. Here, I am making and testing recipes for Cook's Country magazine and TV show. It is a dream come true every day in the test kitchen. I also got a dog and named her... Bucatini! Now that I've final...

Lila invited me to go crabbing with her in Crab Creek. Though I had never been before, I eagerly threw on my bikini, polar fleece jacket, and floppy sun hat and trekked out to Lila's Flat Point Farm on Martha's Vineyard.

She was waiting for me with a long-handled net in one hand and a bucket in the other. We jumped into her rickety motor boat and...

I have returned from Bella Italia! The research trip was incredible and I can't wait to share my stories, recipes, and photos from a month full of pasta and sauce-making with you. Today I find myself on beautiful Martha's Vineyard Island off the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Making pomodoro passata (preserved tomatoes) was a major focus of my...

These noodles remind me of the bouncy coils that hang from curled ribbon bows. I made this pasta shape by rolling out long, skinny ropes of dough and then carefully wrapping each one around a bamboo skewer. After gently sliding the wrapped dough off the tool, it keeps its spiral shape. Since they are hand-wrapped around the skewer, instead of bei...

Ever pursuing my mission to make pasta by hand, I tried out a new tool I picked up in Turin while shopping at Eataly (a gourmet Italian food market sponsored by Slow Food). Truth be told, this spaghetti cutter rolling pin, though new to me, is anything but "cutting edge" technology. It is simply a wooden rolling pin with evenly spaced grooves tha...