PASTA FATTA IN CASA

FRESH HOME-MADE PASTA

SERVES 6 PREPARATION TIME: 40 MINUTES RESTING TIME: 30 MINUTES TO 2 HOURS

600 g (1 lb 5 oz/4 cups) ‘00’ strong flour

6 eggs, at room temperature

WHOLEMEAL PASTA

600 g (1 lb 5 oz/4 cups) wholemeal (whole-wheat) flour (or an equal mixture of wholemeal and buckwheat flour)

6 eggs, at room temperature

Place the flour on your work surface, make a well in it and break in the eggs. Beat the eggs with a fork. Use your fingertips to incorporate the flour then work the dough with the palm of your hand for 5–10 minutes. Add a little flour if the dough is sticky. When it becomes smooth, form into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap and let it rest at room temperature for 30 minutes to 2 hours: this will make it easier to roll out.

ROLLING OUT THE PASTA DOUGH

Using 60 g (2¹/₄ oz) portions of dough, roll out either by hand or using a machine.

By hand: Flour your work surface frequently and roll out the dough with a rolling pin, always starting from the middle. You have to work fairly quickly, otherwise the dough can dry out. The thickness may not be even.

By machine: Flatten the dough with the palm of your hand. Flour it lightly and feed it through the machine, with the rollers opened to the widest setting. Fold the dough in three and feed it back through the machine. Repeat the process until you have a fairly regular rectangle. Now fold the dough in half and feed it through the machine several times, gradually narrowing the rollers.

TIPS

Always work with small portions of dough and keep the remaining dough wrapped or in a plastic bag so it doesn’t dry out. Flour the work surface frequently but remove excess.

For a firmer pasta, replace a third of the flour with fine durum wheat semolina.

CUTTING THE PASTA

Dry out the pasta sheets a little (10 minutes) on a cloth sprinkled with flour so they don’t stick. In Veneto, a special extruder is used for cutting bigoli—wholemeal long tubular pasta. Otherwise, use a pasta machine.

If cutting by hand, roll the pasta sheets loosely, use a sharp knife and cut the sheets of pasta into sections, about 5 mm (¹/₄ inch) wide for tagliolini, 1 cm (¹/₂ inch) for tagliatelle, 1.5 cm (⁵/₈ inch) for pappardelle. Unroll the pasta and arrange them in nests on a cloth. Keep them away from moisture and cook within 2 days. To make lasagne, cut 40 x 12 cm (16 x 4¹/₂ inch) strips that can be cut again depending on the dish used.

COOKING THE PASTA

Bring a large saucepan of water to the boil. Add salt, then the pasta and let it simmer. Allow 2–3 minutes cooking time for fresh pasta, 3–4 minutes for dried egg pasta and 10 minutes for dried pasta. The pasta should be al dente, taste it before draining.