Over the last few months I’ve been having a go at making my own pasta having got a pasta machine for my birthday. It tastes so much better being fresh and now I’ve got the hang of it, it’s pretty easy to make.
The first thing to do is make the basic pasta dough. This is the same for whatever pasta shape you want to make and is so easy to do. I’ve been making it with plain flour as that’s all I’ve been able to find in the shops. Authentic recipes call for 00 flour so I’ll give this a go and update this post once I find some!
The dough is just flour, eggs and a pinch of salt. The general rule I have found to stick to is 1 egg per 100g flour which makes enough for 1 portion. Just scale this up depending on how many people you have. So for 6 people use 600g of flour and 6 eggs.
A lot of recipes I see say to make the dough on a work surface. I’ve actually found it easier to start it off in a large bowl as it contains the mixture better. So place the flour into a bowl, add a pinch of salt then make a well in the middle of the flour. Crack the eggs into a jug and whisk then pour into the well. Use a wooden spoon to start bringing the flour from the edge into the middle of the well to mix into the eggs. Keep doing this and then use your hands to finish off mixing the dough. Now take it out the bowl and place onto a floured work surface and start to kneed. Add more flour if the mixture is too wet. You’ll need to keep kneeling this for about 10 – 15 minutes until you have a soft springy dough. Wrap this in clingfilm and place in the fridge for at least 30 minutes until you are ready to make the pasta shapes.
Once you are ready to make your pasta take it out the fridge. You need to cut it with a knife into more manageable pieces at this point. If I am doing enough for 2 I tend to cut it into 4 pieces. When you are shaping one piece make sure the other bits are covered with the cling film or a damp tea towel to stop it drying out. Press the piece of dough between your hands to flatten it. At this stage flour is your friend! Whether using a machine or a rolling pin make sure your flour the machine or worktop to stop the pasta sticking. If using a machine run it through setting 0, then keep running it through increasing the number until you get your desired thickness. I tend to go for 5 if making fettuccine and 6 or 7 if making ravioli. If you don’t have a machine use a rolling pin to roll it to your desired thickness. You want it to be quite thin if you are doing ravioli. Once you have a sheet of pasta at your desired thickness run it through the pasta machine to make fettuccini or tagliatelle. If you don’t have a machine just use a knife to cut strips. I do this if wanting to make wider pasta such as pappardella. Again keep it well floured so it doesn’t stick together.
Once you have your pasta you can then make what you want with it. If doing strips then make a ragu and try to be inventive and use different meats such as duck. Cook your ragu and get it all ready before you cook your pasta. Once you are ready bring a pan of salted water to the boil. Drop in your pasta and cook for 3 minutes. Lift the pasta out of the water, drop into your ragu, mix and serve!
If making ravioli you need to lay your sheet of pasta out and dollop your filling onto the bottom half of your ravioli with enough space in-between each to make a shape. Fold the top half of the pasta sheet over the bottom containing the filling then press around each mound of filling to seal the pasta around it. Use a pasta cutter or just a knife to then cut out ravioli shapes. Again get any sauce you are using ready before you cook your pasta. Being a pan of salted water to the boil, drop in the ravioli and cook for 3 minutes. Lift out of the water and put into the pan with your sauce, mix then serve.
And there you go, easy homemade pasta. You can really play around with flavours and be as experimental as you like with the fillings, ragus and sauces you choose to make. Two of my favourite ravioli fillings are roasted butternut squash with a butter sauce and sausage, chorizo and red pepper with a tomato sauce.
