Egg-stra eating Too many eggs leads to a tasty predicament

CONCORD, N.H. -- My egg woes continue.

Last year I wrote about the challenge of keeping pace with the dozen eggs I'd arranged to have delivered to my door every week by the milkman. It seemed such a quaint, old-fashioned thing to do.

At first it wasn't so hard to keep up. I was trying a low-carb thing in which eggs are a food group. That lasted about a week.

When the eggs started piling up, my wife complained. Apparently, she objected to my serving omelets and frittatas more than once a day. Even slathering them in Cheddar -- she'll eat anything draped with melted cheese -- wore thin after a bit.

Easter still too far off to justify waiting any longer, I relented and left a note for the milkman asking him to reduce our egg order to a dozen every other week.

Nice try. Seems my milkman misread my note (or he simply has a sick sense of humor). Instead of one dozen every other week, he now is bringing me two dozen every week. No human should eat that many eggs.

Omelets are barred from our home for at least a year. We can eat only so much pudding, custard and angel food cake, and my wife is tired of making ice cream.

Inspiration struck while reading Frances Mayes' "Under the Tuscan Sun." In her particularly evocative way, Mayes described an egg-based semolina gnocchi that sounded heavenly.

Talk about rich. Mayes calls for boiling milk and semolina flour at a 2:1 ratio, then cooking for about 15 minutes, or until thick.

She stirs in egg yolks, butter and grated Parmesan cheese. This polenta-like mixture is spread out on the counter to cool, cut into biscuit-size pieces and baked topped with butter and more Parmesan.

I just couldn't do that to myself. But it did get me thinking about pasta. Fresh egg-based pasta is delicious, tender and so much better than anything you can buy in a box.

For guidance I turned to Pamela Sheldon Johns' "Pasta!" (Ten Speed Press, 2001), a terrific little book that provides detailed instructions for making fresh pasta from scratch, and offers plenty of recipes and ideas for what to do with it.

Johns' basic fresh pasta recipe was just what I was looking for -- simple, speedy and calling for lots of eggs.

Though Johns offers the old-fashioned kneading-by-hand method, I was feeling a bit burned out on the nostalgia. I opted for her food-processor technique, which was so easy there is no excuse to ever buy pasta again.

One caveat: As with all dough products, the amount of moisture called for varies by type and batch of flour, humidity and a host of other factors. Johns' recipe calls for four eggs; I needed six. Start with four, then add one at a time if more are needed.

This pasta was so good, it needs nothing more than a sprinkle of extra-virgin olive oil, a bit of salt and freshly cracked black pepper.

Fresh Egg Pasta

(Preparation 20 minutes)

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup pastry flour

4 eggs

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

Combine the flours in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal knife blade.

In a small container with a pour spout, whisk the eggs with the oil.

Start the processor and slowly add the egg mixture until the dough starts to come away from the sides of the bowl. Process for 30 seconds and check the consistency. Dough should be moist enough to pinch together, but not sticky.

Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface. Knead the dough to shape into a ball. Set aside to rest.

A pasta rolling and cutting machine is a huge help at this stage. If you don't have one, cut the dough into about eight chunks and roll out on a lightly floured counter until thin enough to see a knife through. Let dry for 5 minutes on a lightly floured dish towel, then cut as desired. Use a knife and a ruler to cut the sheets into thick fettuccine.