Flour.

Remember when we had a family day trip to Oatlands just before Christmas? Well, we went there ostensibly to procure this chemical free, Tasmanian grown, ground in the historic Callington Mill flour:

My children adore Italian food and it has to be the one country where they will eat whatever is on their plate - and let's face it it is usually pizza or pasta - with none of the requisite complaining. I must admit to being rather partial Italian food to the extent that when we were there last, and I was pregnant, I used it as the perfect excuse to taste my way around Italy. Let's face it I was going to end up looking like the size of a house anyway. Rome, Naples, Siena - pizza, pasta and at least one if not two gelati a day. My favourite was anything from Grom whereas Kim tried a pear and pecorino from a gelateria in Cortona and was instantly enamoured. He keeps threatening to experiment and make a Roqueort and caremelised apple ice cream?

So, all was good until my next appointment with my French obstetrician who put me on the scales (as he did every single visit) and told me in no uncertain terms that at two thirds of the way through my pregnancy I couldn't put on any more weight. And that I'd have to 'reduce'. There was no mistranslation. In France during pregnancy 10 - 14 kgs is the accepted weight gain over the entire 40 weeks. As far as I know there is no limit to weight gain during pregnancy in Tasmania - I had NEVER been weighed before and as an extreme case in point a friend of mine put on 30 kilos during pregnancy and wasn't chastised by her doctor (can you believe that).

Anyway, I deviate, back to the subject at hand - carbs. Tonight I made the children a pizza. I always use this book for the recipe for dough:

It is insanely easy. or 1 pizza, measure 225g plain flour, then I tip in some dried yeast and 2 tablespoons olive oil. Start mixing and then gradually add 150ml hot water out of the tap. You want a nice, soft dough - add more flour if it's too wet, more water if too dry. Easy. Especially as I use my KitchenAid so you don't even need to get your hands dirty:

Leave it to rise for an hour then knock out the air, fit onto a pizza pan and bake in a very hot oven for around 12 minutes. Trust me  - you need never buy a pizza base again:

Apologies, it was half demolished before I remembered to take the photo.
Then, because I was worried that this post was going to be dull and short I decided to really impress and make pasta. Recipes usually state 1 egg to 1 cup flour yet I find that too dry so I start off with less and add flour until it's the right consistency. We scored the food grinding attachment for my KitchenAid for Christmas so I can inally use the pasta disks I have had sitting in the cupboard forever:

However, it all clagged together and got stuck inside in the rather elaborate inner workings. This one works much better:

Right now I am about to cook the pasta so will hold off publishing this until I can show you a photo.

Ta da, pasta with crab, garlic, chilli, pasta and lemon juice:

Worth the effort?

R