My Grandma made a few things that there beyond this world, her pasta was one of them.
Ravioli was her thing. She would make long sheets of pasta and then use a dollop of ricotta cheese and spinach to fill the ravioli.
I recently learned that egg noodles technically aren’t pasta. In Italy pasta is durum wheat flour and water. And with egg noodles it consists of egg and 00 flour. The egg noodles are what you use to make ravioli, tortellini or other filled pastas. The egg noodles are the delicate flower of the pasta world, but the delicate flowers are the most beautiful.
While we have fancy pasta makers now that can do all the work for us, I want to encourage you to take your time. Just once roll out the pasta from scratch. Take your time. You are creating kitchen magic. You are creating an amazing meal from eggs and flour.
What you need to know about making pasta. Pasta is easy to make when you live in dry environment. When you live in a humid environment it can be more challenging. The dough can tend to stick together causing it to be a gelatinous mess. In cases like this, additional flour is necessary.
One hot summer I wanted to make gnocchi. I noticed that as soon as I could but the pasta, it would stick to the pasta next to it. I put tons of flower on a cookie sheet and tossed them in the flour so it would not stick to itself.
In this case, we’re going to utilize semolina flour to help the pasta not stick together. You will create the pasta with a very fine 00 flour but coat the pasta in a semolina flour after it’s been cut.
Homemade Pasta
4
servings1
hour3
minutesThis technically isn't pasta. Technically these are egg noodles, not pasta. Pasta is made from durum wheat and water. In this recipe, we're using 00 flour and eggs. This is not the kind of pasta where you can make fun shapes that an orecchiette or fusilli. This is the kind of pasta where you can make fettuccini and ravioli. These are delicate noodles that should be cooked al dente and enjoyed with a delicious sauce. Buon Appetito, friends!
Ingredients
100 g of Caputo 00 Flour (click for the link)
1 egg
Caputo Semolina Flour (click for link)
Directions
- Weigh 100 g of flour. If you don’t have a scale, consider getting one because they are super helpful. Check out this one it’s my favorite. Place the flower in one big mound on your counter, or wood cutting board.
- Use your fingers to form a hole in the middle of the mountain, it should look like a little volcano. Using your fingers in a clockwise swirl motion open up the volcano hole big enough so that you can place one egg in there. If you’re making enough pasta for more than two people, you will want to use more than one egg keep the ratio of one egg to 100 g of flour so if you need to make a bigger batch, use two eggs plus 200 g of flour, etc.
- Crack your egg and put it in the center of the volcano. Use a fork and start to scramble your egg slowly while keeping the mound of flower upright. The idea is to slowly add the flower to the egg mixture as you continue to scramble the eggs incorporate more and more flour. Eventually, your eggs will either look very, very dry or your volcano will collapse. Either way start to scoop and then pat down your flower egg mixture scoop it towards you in the center and pat down your flower egg mixture. Continue the scooping and padding motion and until it starts to get more combined. This is the starting Point that you start to kneed the flower together. We are going to scoop and pat down the flower until it forms a ball.
- Once it forms a ball, then we are going to need the flower and we are going to need this bowl of dough for about 10 minutes using the the heel of your hand we’re going to push down forward on the dough. Be careful not to use your fingertips.
- If you’re wondering when your dough is done, you can use the poke test. Give your dough a good poke with your finger. If it brings back it’s ready, if it does not spring back, you have still more work to do. Once your dough is finished, let it rest for at least 20 minutes. Make sure you cover it with saran wrap or a towel or a bowl Because we don’t want a crust to form on your dough.
- After about 20 minutes of letting your dought rest, start to roll out your dough. You can use just a regular rolling pen or you can use a pasta maker. The dough will be tough. You might curse, complain or get exasporated. It's ok. Just think about delicious carbs and how good it will taste with the sauce.
- Roll the dough out into long rectangles. You will want the dough to be thicker than a piece of paper but thinner than pie crust. Either use a pasta maker to form noodles or use a knife. If you use a knife, roll the dough gently while folding it into pieces. Make one fold, then fold on itself again, then again. Once the dough is all folded, cut the dough into strips by cutting the dough vertically. Make sure the strips are the same size. If you live in a humid environment like me, coat your pasta in semolina to prevent it from sticking.
- Congratulations! You just made pasta!
- Boil well salted water and cook for 3 minutes or until al dente. You want the dough to have a slight bite and NOT chewy.
- Serve with a tasty red sauce and parmesan cheese.
