There were many times when I arrived home from school as a child to find towels laid out on every horizontal surface holding row upon row of homemade ravioli fat with ricotta, and long silken strands of linguini. All had been freshly run through one of my grandmother’s pasta machines and laid to dry in a dusting of flour.

Our son inherited both the love and the talent for making doughy things from scratch, and it was with pride that my grandmother gifted him the tools she used for her endeavors when she began to have trouble using them. I did however, recently manage to get hold of one that was left behind and still living high on a shelf at my parent’s house. I had been looking for it to cook up something entirely different.

I had heard a pasta machine could be used as a printing press, and was still working out exactly how to accomplish such a thing, when the lovely Margaux Kent @beingmargauxkent @pegandawl shared her method of making the most beautiful little prints doing just that - thank you Margaux, for the inspiration and your generosity! I couldn’t resist adding a little wash of color at the end (last picture), and think this might become a bit of an obsession, as it is so much fun!

What would Gram think of me using one of her pasta machines in this way? I think it would make her very happy, but not half as thrilled as I am for all the good memories that come flooding back every time I turn that handle.