What’s the best way to make pasta?
Well, the answer depends on who you ask. There are about as many ways to make pasta as there are people who make it. That’s a lot.
Fresh pasta is an easy food to make and, as it happens, can be a fun project with kids.
The Chinese might have been the first to combine water and a flour, but I think that there is a pretty good chance that pasta was created in many places at the same time. Where or who or when matters little. What does matter is making a good pasta dough. And, with so many things food, there are as many opinions about what is best as there are recipes for pasta.
This is the recipe I used in the video. I’ve made this recipe at restaurants and it works very nicely for ravioli.
If you don’t have a pasta machine, a rolling pin can work. I’ve had good success with a rolling pin. An important consideration is a rolling pin will almost certainly make thicker pasta than a pasta machine.
Cutting fresh pasta without a pasta machine is a great chance for creativity. Pizza cutters, fluted cutters, a chef’s knife or cookie cutters (imagine bat shaped pasta for Halloween!) The key to great pasta is the dough. Once you have that, imagine fun options and go with it.
Fresh Pasta Dough
Fresh pasta dough is for the obvious linguini or fettuccine or angel hair, but also for ravioli or tortellini or just large torn sheets in soups. You can add fresh herbs to the dough or layer parsley leaved inside the dough as you roll it. Many options, but to get any of them, you need the dough.
Ingredients
Pasta dough
- 165 g Bread flour
- 165 g Semolina flour
- 3 each Large eggs
- pinch Salt
Instructions
Mix the dough
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Combine both flours and the salt into a pile on your counter. Form a well in the center about 5 inches across. It's okay to see the counter. The purpose is for the flour to act as a wall to hold the eggs in the center. Think a dormant volcano holding an egg lake.
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Using a dinner fork, slowly work around the shore of the lake gathering flour into the eggs to form a paste. Your flour shore may collapse and that's okay. Push it back up until you form a good paste with the eggs and flour then use your hands to continue adding as much flour to the eggs as it will take.
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It is very likely that not all of the flour will be absorbed. That's okay. Once the dough is stiff and only slightly tacky, start kneading it on the counter. It's good for the arms but also good for the dough to make sure you get the gluten developed and also a good distribution of all the ingredients. When it is kneaded well, wrap the pasta dough in plastic wrap then in a zip top bag. Place in the cooler for at least 4 hours, but better is overnight.
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On rolling day, cut the pasta dough in half, wrap well one portion and roll the second. Lightly dust the counter and press the dough flat into a disk. If you are using a pasta machine, start with roller setting 1 and roll through at least twice, folding the dough in half for the second pass on number 1. Graduate one number at a time and pass the dough only once through each number until you arrive at the thickness (or thinness) you prefer. I stop at 8 on my machine, an Atlas.
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Cut the dough while it is still pliable. As the cut pasta comes off the machine, place it on a lightly floured sheet pan and fluff the strands so each doesn't stick to another. Dust the top again with flour and continue cutting then rolling and cutting again. When you are done, the pasta should be cooked within an hour.
Recipe Notes
I've made a video here showing the mixing and rolling of the pasta dough.
It is possible to store the cut pasta on a tray in the cooler. Such is the case in many restaurants, but most homes haven't the fridge space or pans to accommodate such a system.
I've known some people to freeze fresh pasta but I have never seen it come out better for it. I found that a tragic waste of so much work.
Here is a link to an affiliate of mine. Affiliate links mean when you purchase from the provided link, I earn a commission at no cost to you.
Imperia Pasta Machine
from: AbestKitchen.com
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