Making Pasta

When I want a dish to taste extra special, then I make the pasta from scratch.  It tastes lighter and doesn’t sit heavy in your stomach.  It is very easy with the right equipment and takes about an hour of work.  I have a KitchenAid Artisan mixer with the trio pasta attachment.

    

There are other kinds of pasta rollers and cutters, both hand-crank and electric.  There is also a new set from KitchenAid that has a roller and 4 different cutters including a ravioli maker…that would be nice some day, but enough about KitchenAid attachments on my wish list…drool.  You can also roll the pasta dough out by hand and cut it with a pizza cutter, but this takes a lot of time and strength because the dough needs to get VERY thin.

Here are the ingredients that you will need…

2 ¼ c flour
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp olive oil
3 eggs
1-3 tbsp water
extra flour for dusting

1) Blend the salt and flour; add eggs, oil, and 1 tbsp water to make a dough.  Add small amounts of additional water if necessary, but do so in very small amounts.  It can get sticky (too wet) quickly.

2) Knead a few times. (I let the dough hook work the dough for a few minutes until the dough forms a ball.)

3) Wrap the dough in plastic and chill for at least 20 minutes.

4) Cut the pasta into four pieces.

5) Put some flour in a dish (about a ½ cup).

6) Flatten one of the pieces of dough into a flat disk, and sprinkle it with flour.

7) Have the roller on the lowest setting, and insert the disk.

8) Fold the rolled out dough into thirds and overlap it onto itself.  Press it together so it forms a rectangle.  Sprinkle with flour and roll again on the lowest setting.

9) Increase the setting and roll, one roll per setting until you get to your desired thinness.  I use 5 for noodles for soup, 6 for linguini, and 7 or 8 for angel hair.

10) Roll out all four pieces hanging each on a drying rack.  (I use a clothes drying rack.)

11) Switch the attachment from the roller to the cutter of your choice and run each rolled out piece through the cutter.  Place the pasta on the drying rack and let it dry for 2-6 hours.

12) When it is finished drying, you can cook it, refrigerate it to use in the next couple days, or freeze it for the next month.  I use a gallon zip lock bag marked with the date.

*Pictures are courtesy of Jen at www.flickr.com/photos/varkity/