Make Your Own Pasta
Posted: 29 July '09 by Niall
The pasta machine
Making your own pasta – it’s always something that I’ve shied away from. It always looked so difficult! Not even being given a pasta machine last year spurred me into action.
After reading yet another cookbook that explained how simple it was, I decided enough was enough. Here’s how I made our pasta sheets for the nettle and ricotta ravioli..
Ingredients
- 750g ’00′ pasta flour
- A pinch salt
- 3-5 free-range eggs
Additional Items
- A pasta machine or rolling pin
- A damp tea-towel
- Semolina (optional)
Method:
- Place the pasta flour in a large bowl
- Add the eggs gradually, ensuring the dough remains dry – you may not need all of the eggs, depending on how large your eggs are.
- Dust your work surface with flour and knead the dough thoroughly for 10 minutes until the eggs are combined evenly and the dough feels silky. It should not feel at all sticky – if it does, sprinkle a little more flour over the dough and knead again.
- Wrap the dough and let it rest in the fridge for 20-30 minutes before rolling out. If you don’t have a pasta machine, flour the work surface and rolling pin and roll it out until it is very thin
- If you’re using a pasta machine to roll out the dough, assemble the machine and turn the rollers to the widest setting. Break off about a sixth of the dough (keep the rest wrapped in a damp towel so it doesn’t dry out) and feed it through the rollers. Fold in half, turn and repeat. Do this 2 or 3 times until the dough feels very silky and the pasta “pops” as you pass it through the machine
- Turn the machine to the next setting so that the rollers close up a little and pass the unfolded strip of dough through. If the dough starts to stick to the rollers, smooth a little flour over the pasta strip. Keep closing the rollers and passing the dough through until you have a very thin strip – cut in half at any stage if it gets too long to handle. Lay the finished sheets out on a damp tea towel while you roll out the rest of the dough
- A light dusting of semolina will help to keep it dry
A word of warning! Make sure that you have a damp tea-towel for laying out the rolled pasta sheets – the pasta, if left, gets very sticky and will tear.
Tags: homemade pasta, italian food, pasta
Categories: Main Course > Pasta > Recipes
