This is my last post coming from the UK. My next post will be from Sydney, Australia. I wanted to publish this earlier in the week but international moves always take more time and energy than I expect.

All of my children love to eat pasta and fresh pasta often tastes better. There are so many reasons to try making pasta with children;

• It's easy - making pasta is almost fool proof, it's easy to make and easy to correct mistakes, add more flour if its too wet. 
• Only needs a few easy-to-find ingredients - like eggs, flour, water. We use a variety to add-in but most of them can be found at the supermarket.
• Provides a lovely sensory experience - mixing the egg and flour to kneading the dough and handling the pasta is a wonderful experience for the child. 
• Can help strengthen the hand and develop coordination.
• Allows the child to experiment and discover how food is made first hand, too much water and it's gloopy, not enough water and it's dry. 
• Can empower the child in the kitchen, may encourage them to make other foods from scratch. 

Although we sometimes make pasta by hand it's not something we do every week. However, for Christmas my little chef Otis (8yrs) received a pasta making machine and it's a game changer. Otis gets creative and makes his own flavoured pasta! It's got a little crazy but it is so much fun and it's also a fantastic learning experience. While chocolate or pizza flavoured pasta may not be for everyone, why not allow the children play and experiment, we don't waste any food. Fresh pasta can also be dried, kept in the fridge and even frozen (I've never tried freezing it). 

Above Otis is adding beetroot juice and egg to the flour...

to make beetroot penne. This pink pasta is gorgeous.

Above is spinach fettuccine.

This is pizza flavoured spaghetti, add-ins include tomato paste and oregano. This is surprisingly good, just add some cheese once cooked.

This is carrot spaghetti. Otis wanted to try this as carrot is his favourite vegetable. 

Pictured above is the green spinach fettuccine, pink beetroot penne, brown 'chocolate' spaghetti made with cacao powder, and carrot spaghetti.

This is fresh spinach and beetroot spaghetti. Wow!

It smells good too!

I've previously written about making pasta with children here.

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