Pasta Week {Back to Basics}

This week we’re going to tackle making our own pasta, as well as all the fun things you can do with it. Ready?

Making my own pasta is something I’ve always wanted to do but was too scared. I’m going to tackle it this week. In order to improve my chances of success, I did a little research.

Alice Waters, in The Art of Simple Food, advocates making pasta at least once by hand – rolling out the dough with a rolling pin instead of using a pasta roller, and cutting it with a knife. I do have a Kitchen Aid attachment, which I might have to see if I can find for this experiment.

According to Harold McGee, author of Keys to Good Cooking, says “Manufactured pastas and noodles can be excellent, but it’s also enjoyable and not that much trouble to make them by hand.” He also provided some quick tips which I’ve noted here:

• rest dough in the refrigerator to allow the flour particles to absorb the egg moisture fully.
• divide dough into several pieces since smaller batches are easier to roll and cut.
• sprinkle the sheets of pasta with flour to prevent sticking and tearing.
• after cutting toss the noodles immediately with flour to prevent the cut edges from sticking to each other.
• help prevent sticking of fettuccine and spaghetti by adding a tablespoon of oil to the boiling water and swish the pasta as you add it.
• use pasta water to make a simple sauce by tossing it with the pasta, some olive oil, and flavorings.

I turned to Mark Bittman’s Ratio to find the basic recipe. Here it is:

Pasta Dough = 3 parts flour : 2 parts egg

In other words, for two full portions, you’d use 2 large eggs (about 4 oz) and add 6 ounces of flour. He says it’s best kneaded by hand until it becomes smooth and velvetlike. It should take no more than 20 minutes from start to finish; rest for 10 minutes, wrapped in plastic, before rolling it out. It can be refrigerated for 1 to 24 hours before rolling. Cut into four pieces to roll each out individually as thin as you like; cut into desired shape.

Sounds easy enough, yes? Let’s see . . .