hand cut pasta
There’s nothing quite like fresh, handmade pasta. It is relatively simple to make pasta at home, however, the rolling does take a bit of time. Getting that nice, thin pasta sheet that you’ve been dreaming of can be achieved with a rolling pin, but a pasta roller makes it a lot easier.
A quick word of advice, be sure to get good quality ingredients. Using type 00 flour (or, Italian flour) will make a whole world of difference when it comes to the texture of your pasta. As well as that, getting eggs directly from a farm will normally result in a much brighter yolk, which always yields a better tasting pasta with a nice rich colour.
As well as that, be sure to let your dough rest in the fridge for a few hours after rolling it. This will allow the flour too absorb as much moisture as it can, meaning that you will be able to develop a better chew when laminating the dough.
for the pasta
250g type 00 flour
1 whole egg
4 additional yolks
a pinch of sea salt
method
Start by weighing out your flour and tipping it onto your counter.
Using your finger, make a well in the middle so that you have a central section to pour the eggs.
Crack your first egg into the well, then separate the other 4, only adding the yolks to the well (the whites can be kept in the fridge for a day or two, ready for another recipe).
Sprinkle a pinch of salt into the eggs, then begin mixing just the eggs with a fork.
What you want to do here is slowly incorporate the flour into the eggs by continuing to mix with the fork. You’ll notice that the mixing motion drags in a little flour every so often, but feel free to purposefully incorporate little bits as you go.
Once the egg mix is starting to form a wet dough in the middle, you can ditch the fork and start to move everything together with your hands.
Bring everything together into a dough and knead for around 5 minutes. You will probably find that the flour does not completely incorporate at the start, but keep going as the dough will soften and allow for more flout to get involved.
Once the dough is smooth, with no visible flour patches, wrap it in cling film and refrigerate for a minimum of 2 hours, but up to 24 is great.
When you are ready to roll, take the dough from the fridge and unwrap onto a lightly floured surface.
Roll it a little flatter using a rolling pin, then chop into 4 pieces. Place 3 to the side and begin work on one.
The first step is to laminate the dough. This is a series of folds and rolls that strengthen the gluten in your pasta. This will result in a pasta with a nice chew to it, and one that holds up better when cooked.
On the largest setting, roll a piece of dough through your pasta roller. Fold it in 3 (like you would when putting a letter in an envelope) then use a rolling pin to flatten it slightly. Feed it back through the roller with one of the open sides being the first to go through the roller.
Repeat this process a minimum of 3 times, but ideally you want laminate your dough 5+ times.
Once you are finished laminating, work your dough through the levels of your pasta roller, making it thinner and thinner as you go.
At the point where it is the thickness you’d like (I normally end at the second thinnest setting for this type of pasta), dust the dough with a llittle more flour and then roll it up before slicing it into sections of about 1cm wide.
Unravel the slices and either hang them (on a clothes horse if needed) or toss in flour and leave on the side.
Repeat steps 11-16 for the other 3 portions of dough.
This pasta will store in a sealed container in the fridge for a couple of days, so long as it has been dried for a short time after rolling. You are looking for it to be dry enough to not stick together in any part.
When you are ready to cook, boil up a pan of water with a lot of salt in it. The secret to traditional tasting pasta seems to be the amount of salt you put in the water, with some saying that your water should taste as salty as the sea. My view is to take it to the point where you think you have enough, then add a little more.
Once at a rolling boil, add the pasta and cook for 3-5 minutes, tasting as you go to test for the texture you like.
Drain the pasta and serve with your chosen accompaniment.
