Fresh egg pasta dough
(Pasta fresca all’uovo)
Makes approximately 600 g (1 lb 5 oz)
330 g (11½ oz) plain (all-purpose) flour, plus extra, for kneading
70 g (2½ oz) fine semolina
½ teaspoon fine sea salt
4 x 59 g (2¼ oz) free-range or organic eggs
Combine the flour, semolina and sea salt and place on a work surface or large wooden board. The flour should form a peaked mound. With your hand, make a hole in the top of the mound so that it resembles a volcano. This hole needs to be big enough to be able to ‘house’ the eggs. Break the eggs into the hole. With your hand or with a fork, gently beat the eggs, then slowly incorporate the flour into the egg mixture. I do this by moving my hand in a circular motion, slowly incorporating the flour from the inside wall of the mound. Don’t worry if the dough looks like a mess. This is normal. Once fully combined, knead a little more flour into the dough if it feels a little wet and sticky. Set the dough aside and clean the work space. Dust some fresh flour onto the work surface and continue kneading the dough for another 5 minutes. Wrap the dough in plastic and set aside in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. Next, roll the pasta to the desired thickness and cut into the desired shape.
Rolling & cutting the pasta dough
To roll 600 g (1 lb 5 oz) of fresh egg pasta dough, cut the rested dough into six equally sized pieces. Each piece should be roughly 100 g (3½ oz). Flatten each piece with the ends of your fingers and the palm of your hand, then commence passing the dough through a pasta machine, starting with the widest setting and then slowly reducing the width. This will make the pasta sheets increasingly thinner as you go. The pasta sheets will appear quite rough at first, but as you pass the sheets through the machine, they will become increasingly smoother. Pass the pasta through the machine at each setting at least twice.
After about the third setting, it’s a good idea to fold the pasta and pass it through the machine several more times as it needs to be quite smooth. Folding also helps to create a flat edge to the pasta, and as you fold and pass it through, make sure that the dough is as wide as the rollers. This is especially important when pasta sheets are to be used for baked or filled pasta. Throughout this process, it is important to dust the pasta sheets with a little extra flour. If the dough feels wet, increase the amount of flour used to dust the sheets. This will help make a drier dough.
Once you have achieved the desired thickness, check for how moist the pasta feels. For filled pasta, moister dough is better as it helps when bending and twisting filled pasta shapes. With practice, you will become an expert at judging this. For flat pasta, such as pappardelle, tagliatelle, linguini and spaghetti, it is important to dry the pasta sheets a little prior to cutting them. This could take anywhere between 5 and 45 minutes, depending on the humidity level, air temperature and other weather conditions. If the pasta sheet is cut while too wet, the pasta strips will stick together while they are drying or cooking. At the same time, be careful not to allow the pasta to dry out too much as it will break when cut.
Filled pasta should always be stored in the refrigerator as the filling will not last long without refrigeration. At any rate, fresh filled pasta should be cooked and eaten within a day, or two days at the very most. It can be frozen, too, but fresh is always best with filled pasta. There are various methods for storing filled pasta in the refrigerator, but the best way for home use is to store with abundant loose semolina flour, which will stop the pieces sticking together, and then placing plastic wrap over and between layers. Simply dust the semolina off the pasta before cooking.
Fresh flat pasta is also best eaten soon after it is made. Remember, the longer it dries after cutting, the longer the cooking time. Storing it in the refrigerator can be complicated at home, so my suggestion is to dry it completely if you do not intend to cook and eat it straight away. This can be done by letting it dry on wooden boards or any kind of kitchen tray. Dried pasta can be stored at ambient temperature for several weeks and will be fantastic even after that period of time.
The most basic pasta machines include cutting attachments for tagliolini and fettucine, and other attachments are sold (or included with some machines) for other types of pasta. Widths vary significantly from region to region and even town to town. Here is an approximate guide to:
capellini 1–2 mm (1/32 inch) wide
spaghetti 2 mm (3/32 inch) wide
tagliolini 2 mm (3/32 inch) wide
linguine 4 mm (5/32 inch) wide
tagliatelle 6 mm (3/8 inch) wide
fettuccine 8 mm (¼ inch) wide
pappardelle 30 mm (1¼ inch) wide
For pappardelle, if you are unable to source an attachment, you can follow this method: Lightly dust the pasta sheet with flour and shape the pasta sheet into a loose roll by folding it several times, keeping the sides straight as you fold; cut into 3 cm (1¼ inch) thick strips using a large sharp knife, then carefully unravel the pasta.
