If, like me, you’re someone who eats pasta at least three times a week (conservative estimate here) then you will have experienced the same dismay at the empty shelves in the pasta aisle in every. single. supermarket. Or perhaps you’ve dipped into your savings to buy some ‘premium organic artisanal’ pasta from the back of a shelf in your local corner shop.
Food is an important comfort in uncertain times, and considering I’ve found myself with extra time on my hands, I thought I’d make some pasta from scratch. So whether you’re in desperate need for pasta, or just want to fill some time with a new skill, here’s the recipe below for fresh homemade egg pasta.
I chose to make tagliatelle (I missed a trick here, I can’t think of a catchy tagliatelle title) because I prefer a larger ribbon - more for the sauce to stick to - and because it’s easy to make by hand if you don’t have a pasta machine.
I treated myself to a pasta machine several months ago and it’s so much fun! But don’t worry if you don’t have one - I’m pretty sure the old-school traditional Italian way is by hand anyway.
I always buy wholemeal pasta, I find it heartier, healthier and more filling (and causes less bloat). However when I make pasta from scratch I use a mix of flour and generally do two thirds tipo '00' flour and one third wholemeal. You get the lovely taste of wholemeal, but with a dough that’s easy to handle.
The method below is for pasta that I’m making ahead of cooking and drying out. This way you can make a large batch in one go and be set for at least a week or two!
Serves 6
Ingredients
6 large eggs
400g Tipo ‘00’ flour
200g wholemeal flour
Semolina flour (for dusting)
Method:
Making the dough
Place the tipo and wholemeal flour in a large bowl and make a well in the centre. Crack in the eggs and whisk with a fork. Using your hands, gradually mix the flour into the egg until it’s combined into a ball. You can use a food mixer for this if you have one - mix until combined (it will be crumb like) then use your hands to bring it together into a ball.
Now you need to knead the dough until it’s smooth and elastic - this will help develop the gluten and create a better texture for the pasta (more al dente, less flabby). There's no real method to this - bash and fold it in your own style until it feels right!
Wrap completely in cling film and place in the fridge to rest for 30 minutes.
Shaping the pasta - with a machine
Once rested, take the dough out of the fridge and cut into four equal balls. This will make it manageable to work each piece. Wrap the pieces you’re not using thoroughly so they don’t dry out and set to the side.
If you’re using a pasta machine - flatten the ball with your hand and pass through the widest setting of the machine. Fold in half and pass through the same setting - repeat this process five times in total. Now you can work through each setting one by one until you reach the thinnest. You will end up with a looong sheet of thin pasta. Fold this again into a rectangle about 6 inches long and pass through the machine, again starting at the widest setting and moving through the settings until you reach the desired thickness. I did mine to setting number 5 (approx beer mat thickness for tagliatelle).
Cut into 3 equal rectangles, dust with flour and set aside to dry out slightly, while you repeat with the remaining three balls.
Once you’ve got all of your sheets laid out, start with the first one you rolled out to create the tagliatelle ribbons. It should have dried out a little - not so much that it’s not malleable, but just enough that the pasta shouldn’t stick together in the nests. If you’re using a machine, simply feed through the tagliatelle setting and lay out on a tray. Dust with the semolina flour and shake it about a bit to coat the ribbons.
Repeat with each sheet, then take a handful of ribbons and loosely wrap around your hand to create a nest. Dust with a little more semolina if needed and place on a tray or rack to dry out.
Shaping the pasta - by hand
If you’re rolling the pasta by hand - use the same principle as above and roll a quarter of the dough at a time. Roll until you have the correct thickness (beer mat-ish), dust with semolina and leave to dry for about 20 mins. Repeat with each quarter of the dough. Once they’ve dried out make sure you’ve got a good covering of semolina and roll the sheet up (think swiss roll). You can then cut through this roll as the desired ribbon width and shake out to ensure it doesn’t stick together.
Leave to dry out completely for about 24 hours - you want it to snap not bend. Once dried store in an airtight container at room temperature.
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