Making pasta from scratch was often something I dreaded and put off attempting to make again after several miserable failed attempts. But with freshly made sheets of pasta filling my screen as Masterchef contestants roll out linguines and ravioli, I started to think how hard can it really be?
On a mission, I decided the first thing I would need to do is find a decent recipe, the one I was using always seemed to be too wet and was half of the problem. I found a very simple egg-based pasta dough recipe from Jamie Oliver's Cook with Jamie, cookbook and with a new dose of optimism, I set out to try this new whiz wazz easy pasta dough.
What you will need
6 Free-range eggs or 12 yolks
600gm of Tippo 00 flour
The first step is to measure out and place your flour in a mixing bowl or board.
Make a well in the centre of the flour and crack the eggs in the middle. Beat the eggs with a fork, until combined. Slowly mix the eggs with the flour your fingers, remembering to gently combine the two together.
If you have a food processor you can add all the ingredients into the machine and process until a breadcrumb like texture forms, but in all honesty I think half the fun of making pasta from scratch is the effort and hard work that goes into creating it.
Once combined this is when the good old work out for the arms comes into play. Knead the dough mixture through throwing it into the lightly flour dusted bench, pulling and really shaping the dough in different ways to get the gluten to form.
You will know when the dough is ready to rest ( and your arms) when the mixture becomes more silkier and not rough and uncombined.
Once it is combined, wrap it cling wrap or place inside a zip lock bag for at least 30minutes.
Your pasta is now ready to use! The dough can be rolled out by using a rolling pin or if you have a pasta machine roll it out on the widest setting before increasing it each rotation to a thinner setting.
How you cut, or shape your pasta is up to you but to prevent the pasta from drying out too much use a damp cloth for it to rest on.
In this recipe I decided to make a fettuccine style dried pasta. I used an indoor clothes dryer to lay my ribbons of pasta to dry and found this made a world of difference. If you can borrow the helping hands of a loved one to help with the pasta process your world will be a whole lot easier!
In my next post, I feature I keep in the theme of Jamie Oliver and Italian cooking with a recipe for a carbonara that is a true crowd pleaser