Making pasta is not hard, it just take time. Some might call it tedious but making pasta can be one of those personal rewards when you set it on the table.
You can make most any kind and it is something you can do with your children or grandchildren or just for yourself if you live alone.
Why not?
In this post I am showing you how I make rolled pasta, there are names for these fancy pasta's but I don't know them. I am making enough for a meal for my husband and myself so if you have more people to feed just adjust the recipe by doubling it etc.
For the two of us,
1 cup all purpose flour
1 whole egg and
1 egg yolk so that is one egg plus one egg yolk or just add two eggs and a bit more flour.
This recipe is very forgiving.
You can add a bit of salt to the flour if desired or you can wait and make your boiling water extra salty.
Make a well on your counter, on a bread board or in a bowl.
I added this much salt to the flour, you can more or none, again you can just salt the boiling water. I do this and add salt to the water.
I do this according to my mood, sometimes I beat the egg while in the flour or beat it in a bowl and pour it in. Here I am trying to make pasta and take photos which is not an easy thing to do so I am doing it like this.
Really making pasta is not a big deal.
You can get it mixed up with a spatula, fork or fingers, I am doing it like this because I am holding a camera.
But you HAVE to get your fingers in it eventually because you go by the feel of the dough :) We are basically making the same dough we do for our egg noodles.
So here is my dough, I "feel" is right.
Here is the flour I had left from the one cup. I did not use all the flour. Remember all we have in this is egg, flour and a bit of salt. For those of you that are allergic to egg you can make pasta with semolina flour and water. This is just how I make it.
You can use some of this flour to sprinkle your rolling board or counter top.
So now we are going to knead the dough for about five minutes on a lightly floured board, counter, table, floor (just kidding) . Push....tug....flip...
As I am getting older I find I use my knuckles a lot when I am kneading because my fingers hurt a bit.
Here is a tip, stabilize your board. I put this board behind it to keep the board from slipping around when I knead and roll dough,
I also put a towel under the board, you can put some non slip stuff from the roll you can get at the store but this is the way I do it.
You want the pasta dough stiffer than bread dough but not too stiff either.
I feel it is just right...
I have seen where people wrap the dough in plastic at this point but I just put it in a bowl and put another bowl on top. You don't want a big bowl because the point here it to let it rest but not let it dry out. Pasta dough dries fairly quickly.
I let it rest for a bit while I clean up the dishes I have used so far because egg needs washing off right away, in cold water. So does milk by the way, off subject here but never rinse a glass or dish that has had milk in it with hot water. It will cause a cloudy stain. Rinse it in cold water.... on to the pasta.
You would know it, I cannot find my just right stick so this will do, a long skewer.
I am going to use our little pasta board thing here but you do not have to have one of these. I just looked to see if they still sell these and they do, just google the word Garganelli board. You want to rub flour over it off and on.
I rested the dough for just a bit while I washed dishes. You don't have to but give it a few minutes to the egg and flour to merge/incorporate..... Then cut it in half.
When I make noodles I usually roll the whole thing out on the counter but when making the small pastas you can keep half of it resting and moist while you work your first half.
Put the other half back in the bowl or wrap.
When rolling your dough you want to lightly flour the board or counter. Then rub some light flour over the top. Get the feel of that smooth lightly floured dough you are rolling and flipping, flour, rub, roll and flip, sprinkle flour, rub, roll and flip, etc. etc.
This is the most difficult part of making pasta, rolling the dough. It does take muscle, which is a good thing for us. Pasta dough feels stubborn when you roll it but KEEP ROLLING! See this photo above it is still too thick.
If you are not strong then buy a hand crank pasta roller. :)
This is more like it, you want it as thin as you can get it. Go back up and look at the other again and then back at this. It is very thin.
With a knife, a pasta cutter, a pizza wheel, whatever you have cut some squares. Remember this is half of the dough so you will do this twice.
You will take your little pasta wood thingy and turn your square like a kite and press and roll.
Here is my tip, I use a thick measuring glass and roll it over first to press down so rolling the pasta does not put so much pressure on my fingers.
You roll with both hands, I had to take the photo with my right hand. So press and roll.....
This is what you have and then simply push it off the stick.
So there is your pasta. Your saying NO WAY!! I am not going to do that one thousand six hundred and forty seven times!
Really it is not that bad... It is a patience thing and actually very meditating.
This is what it looks like if you don't have the little board. Roll it the same.
If you do it without the ridges roll it with your measuring glass, a wine bottle, a rolling pin what ever just give it that extra roll to thin it out before you roll it on the stick. Now don't go pressing it like crazy and break your glass and blame me. Maybe you should not even use the glass if you have a tendency to be uummmm prone to disasters. So use your judgement.
See how quick that was? Now you want to spread it out in a pan or spread a towel on the counter and let it dry a bit. You don't have to but it is best to while you prepare a sauce or whatever you are going to cook.
I don't store homemade pasta, I just make it the day I am going to use it so it is very fresh.
Also just a bit bigger hole will help with cooking. I need to find that stick!
All your extra pieces you have from trimming your pasta square, just cut it up small and use it to put in soup. Let it dry good then put it in the freezer for later or fridge if you are going to make that soup tomorrow.
Remember these are thicker than egg noodles and such so cook it a bit extra time, start with 8 minutes and then start checking it off and on until it is tender like you like it.
This is a pasta dish with a cream sauce, broccoli, mushrooms and we had some leftover meat we put in you can use chicken or most anything or go vegetarian.
If I were not taking pictures while doing this I would have been sitting at my table rolling these little pastas out. It feels good to make your whole meal from scratch.
You can do this too.
Grandma Donna
