As The Pin Rolls

Last night we got a call from Connie, my step-mother-in-law. She checks up on things here from time to time and she wanted to let me know how much she's enjoying it. She's also happy that I'm enjoying using the pie bird. The real reason she called, though, was to give me some history behind the rolling pin. You know – this one:

Yes. This one.

She gave the rolling pin to Michele many years ago but she bought it for her own use, which was to make pasta for noodle soup. Her mother taught her to make pasta noodles and used a rolling pin like this because the tapered shape made it easy to make the flat rounds she needed. "My mother would roll out these giant circles of pasta and then had me help her set them up to dry on the tables and bed..." Connie told me. A regular shaped pin would have just cut the pasta dough when you tried to turn the corner to make the round.

That makes sense to me. Also, since she didn't have to worry about transferring the dough to a pie plate, she could make the rounds as thin as necessary without worrying that they'd break and become unusable. A very different technique than I need for my pie doughs. That's one reason it's taken me so long to learn how to best use this particular rolling pin.

Nothing like a little history to shed some light on the present! And nothing history to make me more determined to make some amazing dishes with this rolling pin.

Currently listening to: Nicky Romero, Like Home (Feat. Nervo) (Karetus Remix)