I love making fresh pasta and I love eating it. My freezer is kept stocked with my favorite homemade sauces: bolognese, duck ragu, wild boar ragu, and tomato sauce. At any time, I can whip up a batch of pasta either by hand or with a Kitchen Aid. I roll it out immediately on the first setting until it reaches the width of the pasta roller. It gets covered with plastic wrap and rests on the counter while I heat up the sauce and grate the cheese. Depending on the type of sauce, it is either a meal in itself or prelude to a simple roast or sauteed meat.
Fresh Egg Pasta for Tagliatelle
100 grams of 00 flour per person
1 large egg per 100 grams of flour
Place the eggs in the bowl of a mixer . Add all the flour . Mix on low speed using the dough hook. Every few minutes stop the mixer and push down any flour that has collected on the sides of the bowl. Continue to mix the dough until it forms a soft ball that comes away from the sides of the bowl. The dough will be soft but not sticky.
Cut the dough into 100 gram portions. Flatten each piece out and run it through the first setting of the roller. Fold in half, and continue to run it through the first setting. Repeat 5 or 6 times until the dough is smooth and shiny. Wrap in plastic and let it rest while you prepare your sauce.
Once again, flatten each piece of dough and feed it through the first setting. Follow with the second and continue up through the sixth setting. By this time your dough should be thin enough for a flat noodle like tagliatelle.
Lay the sheet of dough on a cool, lightly floured surface. Each sheet should be about 15 inches long. Bring each end into the center . Bring the outside folds into the center again. Using a chef’s knife, cut the dough into 1/4 inch slices. Unravel each ribbon. If the dough sticks to itself, you need to add more flour.
Scatter the ribbon noodles on a lightly floured pan. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. When ready to serve, add the pasta to the boiling water , stir once and boil the pasta for about a minute. Test one by biting into it. It should be toothsome, not mushy. Drain in a colander and return to the pot. Add just enough of your favorite sauce, toss, sprinkle grated parmegian cheese and open the wine.
4 Comments
Sounds good to me- but if I don’t have a mixer that will work the dough, what should it feel like when I make it by hand ?
Whether you are mixing by hand or by machine, the pasta dough should feel the same, that is, soft but not sticky. It will take longer to incorporate the flour when making pasta dough by hand, perhaps 10 minutes more than when you make pasta dough by machine. I hope this helps. Thanks for the inquiry!
i know some people think modern machinery takes the fun out of doing it by hand, but i just bought myself a pasta machine last night and i can’t wait to try this recipe. I’ve never made fresh pasta before! The hardest part might actually be learning how to use the pasta machine cutter rather than making the dough!
Sara, this is one time when machinery makes little difference on the quality of the product. In the end, you will still use your hands and experience the fun of rolling and cutting. There are some pasta shapes which have to be made on a wooden board, but the dough itself comes out perfectly using a machine. Good luck and I hope you let me know how it turns out. Perhaps you’ll share how you used the pasta.