Homemade pasta is like anything else in the cooking world, terrifying until you make again and again. It seemed surreal and strange that you would mix the flour and eggs in a volcanic pile of flour on your bread board, crack the eggs inside the indentation of the “volcano” and whisk with a fork from the center, slowly adding more flour to the eggs with your fork as you work in the center of the volcano.
Yes, in America we would just dump it into our KitchenAid, knead it with the knead attachment and call it done. Nope, not in Italy. I don’t think I know anyone who has a Kitchenaid in Italy. A pasta machine, yes, But with the pasta machine you still have to make the dough, just as I described above.
You may whisk in a little water if your dough seems dry and add salt. When the egg is mostly incorporated you can start to knead it with your hands until it is smooth and elastic. This takes usually about 10 minutes and when you poke it the indention you make will spring back.
The basic recipe is 1 cup of flour and 1 egg per person. So for two you will use 2 cups of flour and 2 eggs…you get the idea….
Pasta Dough
Ingredients (per person)
1 cup flour
1 egg
1 teaspoon salt
- Make a pile of flour on your cooking surface, I use a wooden pasta board
- make an indentation in the pile of flour like a volcano and crack the egg into the indention.
- Mix together in a bowl, add water to make a kneadable consistency.
- You will need to use your hands to knead it when I t comes to a stage that is too difficult to stir and it is simi-incorporated.
- Knead it until it is smooth, not as long as you would for yeast dough, but just until it springs back after you poke it with your finger.
- Set aside to rest 10 minutes.
- Roll it out with a rolling pin, adding additional flour on the countertop before you start to roll it out. You will need to keep adding flour under the dough and on top of the dough until you have rolled it very thin, almost like a sheet of paper. It is very important that it is thin.
- Now you can cut the dough into your desired pasta shape like fettuccine or tagliatelle. You can also make Ravioli, tortillini or pot stickers. Boil the noodles or filled Ravioli or tortillini or pot stickers in rapidly boiling water.
