I come from a large Italian family, and big dinners are pretty important to us. Some people prefer to spend all day in the kitchen doing every little thing by hand to prepare for these meals. Not me. Sure, when I was younger it wasn’t so bad. It’s tradition in our family to make our own pasta from scratch, which can be so time consuming. I had to find an easier way.
It turned out that the easier way to do that was with my Cuisinart food processor. It wasn’t something I had really considered in the past. It’s a lot less messy which is such a huge part of the process. It’s one thing if you’re working with a few people to help, but for me on my own, I prefer to do it this way.
Instead of making the dough totally by hand, I just put everything together and pulse it in the food processor until the dough forms. My workspace is much tidier, and it gives me some extra time to work on other things or clean up some dishes as I go. The pasta of course still needs to be cut after it’s rolled out, but we can’t have a tool that does all of the work for us, now can we?
I also make my own butter. It’s less expensive and so much better than the butter you buy in the store. You churn the heavy cream in the food processor and eventually it becomes butter. There are a couple of more steps involved, but it’s a pretty easy process. Everyone in our family prefers it over store bought butter.
I also make different herbed butters for different occasions and give them as gifts to family. I customize it based on people’s individual preferences. Everyone loves it, and it saves me a lot of money for birthdays and holidays.
I bought myself a few replacement dough blades on KitchenWorksInc. since mine gets a lot of wear and tear. They sell Cuisinart dfp-14n parts, and it makes me feel better knowing I have extras on hand. I basically make the major parts of my whole meal with my Cuisinart food processor, from the pasta, to the bread, to the sauce. Some of it I can make up ahead of time, like my sauce, and some I do that very day like the pasta and bread for prime freshness.
My Cuisinart food processor saves me so much time and by the time my family arrives for dinner, nearly everything is done and I have a lot more time to spend with everyone. I can watch the kids play and catch up on what is going on in everyone’s lives without having to be stuck in my kitchen the entire time. It’s especially nice now as I’m getting older. It’s a real energy saver.