Fresh Egg Pasta
There's something just that much more luxurious about freshly home-made pasta, and for some reason most of the fresh pasta recipes I've found and tried all make ginormous amounts of pasta. I finally found one that I could tweak for two people with good appetites to have for a simple dinner at home (or you could probably feed 3 or 4 as part of a 4-or-more course dinner). This is just a simple recipe for plain egg pasta. It works well for noodley pasta like tagliatelle (which I tried to make here, but ended up with something between tagliatelle and parpadelle), as well as ravioli. I think most people don't realise how dead simple it is to make your own pasta. Definitely try this one, and you'll be hooked - I promise!
There are, of course, plenty of other ways to make pasta: including using different types of flour such as semolina, or different types of liquid like water, egg yolks only, or a mixture of the three. Then there's adding things like spinach, squid ink, herbs and the suchlike for flavourings and colouring. Start off with something simple like this, then you can start experimenting to see which type you like most.
Ingredients
150g italian type '00' flour, sifted (or an all-purpose flour with about 10% protein content, double sifted)
2 whole eggs, beaten
Pinch of salt
Extra flour for dusting
Note: for ravioli, the sheets of pasta should be almost translucent, I've rolled these sheets a fair bit thicker than that.
1. Sift your flour into a mound on your work table, make a well in the middle.
2. Stir the salt into the beaten eggs, and pour it into the well.
3. Starting from the centre, and using a fork (or your fingers if you wish), mix it in a circular motion, incorporating a bit more of the flour at a time as you go along, until the mixture is no longer squishy, then you can chuck the fork in the sink, roll up your sleeves, and knead it around a bit until it gets a bit of an elastic feel and a nice sheen.
4. Wrap it tightly in clingwrap and set it aside for at least 15 minutes (preferably 30 or more) to rest. This will help to make it a lot more manageable when you're rolling it out. If you're going to be rolling by hand, you might want to let it sit in the refrigerator for about an hour to an hour and a half.
5. Divide the dough into two, and roll it into 2 rough balls, then flatten one into a rectangular piece and keep the other under a damp tea towel. Run it through the widest setting of your pasta roller twice, then fold it over and run it through again. Repeat this 2 or 3 times.
6. Crank the setting down and slowly get it to the thinness you require, then you're ready to cut it up and/or fill it, and cook it!
Keep in mind that fresh pasta takes a lot less time to cook than dried pasta. This lot only took about 3 minutes to get to al dente and was divinely silky on the outside, soaked up all the flavour from the sauce, and still had a good bite left to it.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 License
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well done.
The recipe I use is similar to the one above, except I don't salt the raw dough as I find it dissolves in the cooking process and can reduce your smooth texture a bit. I rather salt the boiling water. As a rule of thumb, I use 100g flour to 1 egg per portion of pasta, so two eggs and 200g flour is enough for two. Also, if you are making a slightly larger amount, try adding half a cup of finely pureed raw Silverbeet instead of one of the eggs. It takes a little longer to bind in the kneeding process, but it makes for a nice green pasta with a veggie taste. Great for the stronger tomato or chilly based pasta sauces.
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