fresh homemade pasta

Name: fresh homemade pasta
Total time: 1 h
Yield: 4 Servings
Ingredients: 1 3/4-2 cups "00" flou; 4 eggs; pinch of fine sea salt; spray bottle of water

Why not try making homemade pasta noodles? It is not difficult and adds an extra bit of pizzazz to any meal. Pasta noodles made from flour and egg in shapes such as tagliatelle, fettuccine and pappardelle are great for Bolognese (ragù), pesto, or sauces with vegetables.

There are about 600 different shapes of pasta in Italy, and believe it or not each one is best with a different type of sauce. Regional preference, vegetable, meat, fish, cheese, tomato based sauces each “marry” to a shape to bring out the ultimate flavor and texture.

And the pasta varieties are not just in shape, from a rigatoni to a chiocciole but could be the length of the noodle, from a pici to fettuccine. Knowing the “correct” shape for the “ideal” sauce may require a course of study but a good starting point is to think about how the sauce will bind to the pasta and complement textures. Or maybe you just like a certain shape and use that for most sauce, and why not?

In order to make shaped pasta, such a rigatoni or even spaghetti, you use semolina flour and water. Shaping the pasta requires a large industrial machine which works under pressure and extrudes the shape from a bronze die. I have an home kitchen extruder for my Kitchen Aid mixer but it does not work well and do not recommend it.

fresh homemade pasta

Posted by Barbara

Ingredients

Recipe serves: 4

	1 3/4-2 cups "00" flou
	4 eggs
	pinch of fine sea salt
	optional
	spray bottle of water

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thoughts&stories

Making homemade pasta becomes easier and better with practice. Variables such as weather, humidity, type of flour, size of eggs, resting and kneading the dough, all contribute to the success (tastiness) of the final outcome. When I first made pasta with my mother, she spoke to me about the “feel” of the dough which is hard to understand through a cookbook or virtual cooking session.

Finding a recipe for basic egg pasta was not easy despite there being only a few ingredients. Some suggest only ever using double zero flour which is common in Italy. Others added olive oil, more eggs and omitted salt altogether. I use the recipe I grew up with which is for every cup of flour you add two eggs (some recipes just call for one egg).

Italians estimate about 100 grams (4 ounces) of pasta per person depending on what will be served after, or what has been enjoyed before. In general, a 1 pound box serves 4-5 people, 500 grams about the same. But if serving for as a starter, you may want to the portion size to be slightly smaller.

I often measure out the pasta (since shapes differ) onto the plate that will be used to “guess-timate” the right amount. You also need to consider the heartiness of the sauce and determine if more or less should be served- lighter the sauce maybe a bit more pasta, heavier the sauce, a little less.

A few pasta sizes

Fettuccine- 1/4 inch width

Tagliatelle- 1/8 inch width

Linguini- .16 of an inch

Pappardelle- 3/4 to 1 inch width

Bucatini- thick spaghetti-like with hole in middle

Pici- fat version of spaghetti that is common in Sicily

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Posted by Barbara

time
1 hours
serves
4
skill level
Medium

Ingredients

1 3/4-2 cups "00" flou
4 eggs
pinch of fine sea salt
optional
spray bottle of water

Directions

1 Done	dough Pour the flour into a shallow large bowl or pour onto a work surface, and scoop out a deep hole in center.
2 Done	Break eggs into the hollow and with a fork begin to beat. Start to bring some of the flour into the egg, mixing in a little at a time until eggs are no longer runny.
3 Done	Bring the sides of the mound together with your hands and begin to work together until it forms a smooth integrated ball. If it feels too moist, add a bit more flour, about 1 teaspoon at a time. Once if feels good and not sticky there is enough flour. If it feels like it needs more moisture, spray with a little spritz of water (or wet your hand slightly and work moisture in slowly that way).
4 Done	kneading Start to knead by pushing forward with the palm of you hand, fold in half and press hard again with heal of hand. Continue to work for about 10 minutes until it feels smooth and similar to play dough.
5 Done	resting Cover the ball tightly in plastic wrap and let rest for 30 minutes at room temperature. You can keep it up to 6 hours at room temperature, or in refrigerator for up to 48 hours (but no longer). This stage is important to allow gluten to activate and become elastic.
6 Done	using machine to make pasta Take kitchen (tea) towels, or baking sheet and layout at least 2-4 on counter. Sprinkle with semolina flour, or a little all purpose.
7 Done	Remove pasta dough from plastic wrap, cut into half, and then half again. Wrap dough in plastic wrap that you are not using.
8 Done	Set the pasta machine to the widest opening, flatten piece of dough into a rectangle and run through machine.
9 Done	Fold dough twice into thirds of its length, and feed the short side through machine again. Repeat this two times.
10 Done	Set dough on the tea towels or baking sheet. And repeat the above with rest of dough pieces.
11 Done	Change the setting on machine by one notch, and taking the first piece send through the machine. Continue to decrease settings on machine by one notch until you are two notches from the last setting for fettuccine or pappardelle. Set large, flat pieces back on the baking sheets.
12 Done	cutting If not making ravioli or lasagne noodles, determine how to cut, either through the machine for fettuccine or gently fold the noodles and cut into desired width for parpardelle.