Homemade Pasta
Michael
I started making home made pasta a while back. It’s very easy and tastes a lot better. And one of the things that I love about it is that it only has to be cooked for about 3 minutes. If you count the time it takes to make it vs the time it takes to cook dry noodles, the whole process is only slightly longer for fresh. Here’s the recipe that I’m using now. Original source unknown:
Ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup semolina flour
- 1 pinch salt
- 3 large eggs
- 1 tablespoons olive oil
- Can be doubled of course for more, but this should easily feed a party of 6 – 8, depending on what it’s served with.
Directions
- Toss it all in the kitchen aid mixer with the batter attachment. Mix on low or medium until well a somewhat crumbly dough forms. If it’s too crumbly spray on a tiny amount of water but not too much. Too wet and add more flour.
- Remove from mixer and knead for a few minutes by hand. Professional recipes call for kneading by hand for about 8 to 10 minutes. This is too hard and I never do it. But you do need gluten to form or it will tear and rip when you run it through the pasta machine. I’ve used the kneading attachment for about 5 minutes or so to get the job started. Then once it will mostly stick together continue kneading by hand for a minute or so.
- End the kneading by forming a ball and then either wrap tightly in plastic or cover with a damp paper towel. So far I’ve always done the towel but next time I’m doing the plastic.
- Allow to rest for 15-30 minutes. In the past I’ve been a bit lazy and impatient about both the kneading and the resting. In the long run it wastes more time if the dough hasn’t had time to set and the moisture to distribute. It will just shred when run through the machine and that is very frustrating. This last time was super easy going through the machine.
- Cut off a chunk and flatten it with the balls of your palms. Then run it through the pasta machine several times starting at 7 and going down to 4 or 3. Then cut as desired.
- It only needs to cook for a few minutes in boiling water, until tender or until it floats.
I’ve tried using only all purpose flour and only semolina. I like the half and half mixture the best.