A Topological and Tasty Treat

Inspired by a photo I saw on Flickr today, I decided to make this incredibly nerdy meal. In mathematics, "topology" refers to the study of surfaces and the properties they possess. One of the most famous of these is the Möbius strip. This is a surface that has only one edge and one side. If you put a pencil on one spot, and draw a line along the surface, you'll have a line with a line on both "sides" of the surface, meeting right back where you started, without lifting the pencil.

I decided to apply this to my dinner tonight.

My wife got me a hand-crank pasta roller a while ago, and I've only used it a couple of times. Making pasta is really easy, but it just takes a long time, so I don't do it very often. This Möbius pasta was too cool not to try, so I set to it.

I used the very simple pasta recipe from the Pioneer Woman (1 egg, half a cup of flour, per serving. Mix.)

So I did that. Then I started to roll it out into thin sheets using my awesome pasta roller. I started at the widest setting ("7" on this unit), and gradually worked it thinner and thinner. I stopped at "3", because it was good enough.

Make sure you keep them floured, or else they'll stick to everything.

Then use a pizza cutter to slice them into little strips. They ended up approximately 0.5" by 4". But as you can see, it's not an exact science.

I'm obviously not an expert with a pizza cutting wheel. 

To create the Möbius strip, simply put a half-twist in the pasta before squeezing the ends together to form a loop.

taking a picture of one hand with a huge SLR is tough.

One of the interesting properties of a Möbius strip is that if you cut one down the entire length, you don't get two loops, you get a single larger loop, but with a full twist in it!

amazing, right? I know you're just flabbergasted.

Also, since I didn't have a legit pasta drying rack (like one of these bad boys), I had to kluge one from what I had lying around the house. I used the clamp from the pasta roller, and a dowel. That'll do, donkey.

I took the picture from this angle so you wouldn't see my messy floor.

lots of mini topological wonders

Then, dump the pasta into a big pot of salted boiling water. They only take a couple minutes to cook though, so make sure everything else will be ready at the same time. I just cooked up some ground sausage, some leftover chicken, and a head of broccoli.

Yes, I eat late. 

Let the pasta boil until they all float to the top. Probably 3 or 4 minutes.

mmmm. non-orientable dinner.......

Toss it all with some chopped garlic, olive oil, and freshly ground pepper, and enjoy!

What's the nerdiest thing you've ever eaten?