Making Pasta With One Hand

Whoever designed the Baby Björn did not think of the modern man making real pasta with baby on hairy chest. But as I’ve learned throughout my medium long life - there is always a workaround. One must just be open-minded and determined like a bulldog.

This has nothing to do with multitasking, something I consider a glorified myth.Man cannot parallell process, only serial. Period. First you put your child in the Baby Björn, then you start making. Simple.

But if you don’t have freakishly long arms or happen to be Michael Jordan your offspring is going to start grabbing any ingredient with both hands and thrust it into their mouth, floor, walls and/or you faster than you can think. If my youngest son’s speed could be bottled I’d sell it as rocket fuel and become richer than Buffett.

Therefore I had to develop the skill of making pasta with one hand and it’s much easier than one thinks. My making changed my thinking as is so often true with the tactile sensation of real craftsmanship. Learning-by-making is fast, fun and very transformative over the longer term.

Pasta lends itself very well to one-handed cooking: 1.5 cup semolina flour, 2 eggs, 2 tbsp water and 2 tbsp olive oil mixed in a bowl. If you want som color and flavor you can add blanched spinach or equivalent. I’ve heard chocolate works as well. Then refrigerate for a few minutes, roll out the dough, cut your pasta and cook for 45 seconds or more. All with one hand.

There are so many cool things with making your own pasta with son watching admirably, hanging on your chest and kicking his tiny feet: you teach making, you share the love for real food and it connects you with thousands of years of human tradition and culture. And he happens to smell damn good.

My oldest son frequently swings by the kitchen these days as he was exposed to the same “torture” and always asks the same question: “What are you making?. If it sounds exciting, like chocolate cake, sautéing bacon or making chicken curry, he joins. If my heart’s temperature could rise by the sheer awesomeness of those words it would.

And in a world where anything can be bought it’s nice to know that some things are free: to learn, make and share something that matters every day. I want to believe that I’m sharing something invaluable and yet I’m only making pasta. One-handed.