Handmade Pasta Dough
If you don’t have a pasta machine at home, you can always make yoir pasta dough from scratch with no special equipment needed. To get started, clean you working surface and if you want to make it in a bowl that is totally fine, it will be a little less messy. The pasta contains two ingredients and one of the main ingredients is flour, you can use all-purpose flour or any other type of flour, you can use semolina or gluten-free flour. Also, you can use whole wheat flour and make a delicious whole wheat pasta. Pour the flour on your working surface in one big mound, make a little well in the center of your flour for the eggs.
If you dint eat eggs, you can always replace it with water and oil. Break flour large eggs in the well in the flour and have them at room temperature it makes the dough easy to come together. With your clean hands, break the yolks in the flour and start to pull the flour from the outside into the center and start forming the dough. Keep on working on the dough, bringing it together, you want to be really careful with this dough and add a little liquid only when needed so that the dough can come together. It really only takes a tiny bit of liquid for it to come together.
Knead the dough until it comes together and forms one smooth ball. Wrap the dough in a clean wrap and you want to let the pasta dough sit in the fridge for roughly 30 minutes minimum. During that time, the gluten will relax and the flour will absorb all the liquid. Once set, remove the dough from the fridge and cut it into quarters to give you easier pieces to work with. Lightly flour your surface, you really dint need too much flour at all, just enough so it doesn’t stick. Using a rolling pin, roll it as thin as you can.
The reason you want to get it as thin as possible is that once it cooks, it actually pumps up and gets thicker. You can make any type of pasta that you like with this recipe.
Ingrediets;
- 3 cups (15oz/426g) all-purpose flour
- 4 large eggs
Instructions;
- On a large flat clean surface place the flour in a mound.
- Crack all 4 large eggs into the center of the mound of flour creating a well to hold the eggs.
- Using a light hand, break the yolks of the egg and gently bring the flour into the center of the well using your fingertips.
- Keep incorporating the flour into the eggs until all the flour has been absorbed.
- This will be a messy process, but it is well worth it! Once the dough starts to form, bring it together with your palms and knead into a smooth yellow dough.
- This will take roughly 5 minutes. If your dough is on the dry side you can add a little splash of water to bring it together.
- When the dough forms a ball, cover tightly with cling wrap and refrigerate for a minimum of 30 minutes to allow the dough the rest and the gluten to develop.
- After resting, remove the dough from the fridge and cut into 4 equal pieces. Set aside and cover with a towel to stop it from drying out.
- Flour your work surface and rolling pin and roll 1 ball of dough at a time into a large thin sheet.
- Once the dough has been rolled out, fold it over itself several times.
- Cut the roll of pasta into strips roughly 1/4 inch thick depending on what pasta you are making.
- Dust some flour over the sliced strips of dough and unravel them to reveal your fresh pasta.
- Set cut pasta aside on a tray and leave out at room temperature to cook off or cover and place in the fridge to be cooked later.
To Cook Fresh Pasta;
- Place a medium pot over medium-high heat and boil 8 cups of water.
- Once the water is boiling salt it and place the fresh pasta in the water.
- Add the pasta and allow to cook for roughly 2 minutes or until tender. When the pasta floats to the top of the pot it is ready.
- Strain the water off the pasta and serve as desired.