You may ask why should I spend all that time making pasta. I can tell you why- it is so much better than boxed dried pasta. Fresh is always better! And YES it does take time but it is easy and actually fun. At least that is what the class participants told me at our recent pasta making class at UTK.
Chef Walter Lambert joined us and he provided instruction for the best pasta sauces ever. Just the right accompaniment for the pasta.
There are so many pasta shapes from big to small, fat and skinny. We made Tagliatelle and Pappardelle and stuffed tortellini pasta.
Homemade Pasta
Serves 3-4: increase by 1 egg/100g flour as necessary
Ingredients:
300 grams ( approximately 2 ½ cups) All-purpose flour (Tipo '00') plus more for dusting
3 eggs lightly beaten
A pinch of salt
Water - ½ egg shell full (if climate is hot and dry)
Instructions:
Put the flour on a large pastry board or on a work surface. Make a large well in the centre and add all the eggs, (plus ½ egg shell full of water if weather is very dry and hot). Add a generous pinch of salt and stir to blend.
Beat the eggs with a fork in order to amalgamate them well. Begin mixing the flour with the eggs gathering the flour from the edge of the well with the fork. Keep on mixing the flour into the eggs until half the flour is mixed in. At this point, it becomes difficult to beat all the ingredients with the fork therefore you should keep on working with your hands blending more and more flour into the dough.
In the end you should have a homogeneous dough. If the dough is too soft and sticky add some flour. If too dry, wet your hands under running water then knead. Knead the dough for several minutes ( 10 minutes is best) on the work surface. Sprinkle a corner of the work surface and the dough with flour, cover the dough with a damp tea towel and let it rest for a while (at least 15 min. - best 1 hour). The dough will now be more elastic, smoother and easier to work.
When the dough is rested, cut into thirds. Work with one piece at a time and keeping the remaining pieces covered. Knead again using the technique in the photo until very smooth and elastic, then roll out the pasta dough on a lightly floured surface, beginning from the centre. Use a long pasta rolling pin. Remember to “dust†the surface of the dough and the rolling pin often with flour to prevent sticking. Roll until very thin. You should be able see the wood grain though it :-)!
Roll up the dough loosely and cut into strips of about 1 cm. for Tagliatelle or about 2 ½ cm for Pappardelle. Unroll the ribbons of pasta right to the end, pile up loosely on a clean table or tea towel sprinkled with flour to avoid sticking while pasta is drying use a large surface. Allow to dry a little before cooking.
For tortellini pasta: Roll out dough into rectangle. Use 3 inch or ¼ cup and cut pasta into circles. Place 1 teaspoon of filling in the middle of each round of pasta. Dip your finger in the bowl of water and run it along the edge of the round to moisten. Fold the dough over to form a half moon, then draw the tow corners together to form a rounded bonnet-shape. Press tightly to seal. Toss with flour, set aside on well floured baking sheet, and cover. Repeat with remaining pieces of dough, re-rolong the scraps.
For the filling:
4 ounces cream cheese or ricotta cheese, softened
2 ounces Asiago cheese
½ teaspoon dried basil
Salt and pepper to taste
Combine all ingredients for filling and mix well.
Cook the pasta in boiling water until it floats to the top, about 60-90 seconds and about 3-4 minutes for the tortellini.