DIY Pasta

Who ever knew that homemade pasta was this simple?  I've made it twice this week (OK, possibly a little overboard), and this just beats the pants off the store-bought stuff.

Thanks to Jason for taking most of the photos, and for helping with the eating!

I tried an egg noodle recipe first - hand rolled and patiently cut with a sharp knife and a steady(-ish) hand, then grabbed a pasta machine on a whim (love those credit card loyalty points) and tried the real stuff.  Surprisingly easy:

This is the whole recipe.  For every 100g of standard flour, add one egg.  One portion (100g flour) did the two of us for dinner -  it's that easy.  Really.

Dump it in a bowl, or straight on the bench, and use a fork to whisk the eggs and slowly incorporate the flour.  

 

yes, I know that's a spoon.  you should use a fork.

 

Be prepared to get your hands dirty, and knead it until it's smooth.  Or wear latex gloves, they do an amazing job of stopping the egg from sticking to your hands, and make the whole thing a lot less daunting.  Personally, I hate finding egg and flour under my fingernails hours later, no matter how well I scrub.

Now, walk away and let it rest.  I just wrapped it in clingfilm and popped it in the fridge for a few hours while I got on with my life.

Now you have options: you can roll it by hand, as thin as you can, using lots of flour to stop it sticking.. and cut it as you please.  Be prepared to work up a sweat.

OR you can splash out on a shiny new pasta machine - which will do all of the work for you: Just clamp it to the table, and follow the instructions.  Feed through the rollers on the widest setting, and repeat a few times to work the dough.  Fold it in half and feed again, working to get an even width.

 

Crank the rollers through the settings, and the sheet gets thinner and thinner - and starts to feel rubbery.

Dust with flour as you go to prevent sticking, and cut in half if the sheet gets too long.

 

Once you get to the last setting, the instructions suggest laying the sheets out for 15 minutes to rest - I found this dried the edges too much, and made it hard to feed into the cutter, so skipped this the second time with no noticeable difference.

Clip on the cutter attachment, and feed through one last time.

Look! Fettucine!  It's magic!

Hang to dry on whatever you have handy.. you'll know when it's dry when it's hard and brittle, not soft and rubbery.

To cook, use lots of water (I ignore the ridiculous quantities they suggest for cooking dry pasta, but you really do need a bit more for fresh: the extra flour thickens the water quite a lot), and always salt your pasta water.  If you don't, it will always taste as though the sauce is lacking in something.. and you don't want to waste all that effort!  For fettucine, you'll want about 5 minutes - or until al dente.

[have no idea what happened to the picture of the finished product.  will just have to make more!!]

Enjoy!