Photo: Courtesy of Bottom-Up Food

Making pasta at home, especially without a pasta press, might seem overly ambitious when Barilla® et al. are usually just a few blocks away–sitting on shelves, poised to be snatched and shaken into a pot. Ten minutes to al dente. Hands clean.

But Bottom Up Food, with a nod to Pasta Recipes Made Easy, reveals that making your own farfalle (bowtie) pasta can be a satisfying, joyful process in and of itself.

Follow both blogging chefs as they mix flour, egg and a pinch of salt together with their fingers, roll out and slice up dusty yellow dough, and pinch the little butterflies closed.

The butter-and-sage sauce that Bottom Up Food suggests is so simple that it negates any frustration caused by spilled flour. Dinner made more difficult; but dinner made more delicious, and gratifying.

And if the smell of fresh dough makes you hungry for more, check out Bottom Up Food’s homemade fettucine as well.