Making Fresh Pasta
Making fresh pasta from scratch is great fun and comes with the added gadget appeal of requiring a pasta machine. Here I am making Fettuccine as an example. The basic rule of thumb is one egg (70g) to 1cup (100grams) of flour. In this example I have used 400 grams of flour so 4 eggs needed. As eggs vary in size the dough may need a little more flour or a little water. When I am making fresh pasta I prefer the dough to be a little on the dry side.
Ingredients
- 70 gram egg per 100 grams of flour
- 100 g plain flour per egg
Instructions
- Pasta machine needed, (get a decent Italian one it will last for years)
- Put flour in a bowl
- Stir in one egg at a time
- Mix until uniform large loose crumbs form
- Knead into a firm lump
- Divide into pieces ( for 4 eggs pasta split into 4)
- Set pasta machine to largest setting. Pass through the rollers 12-15 times folding sheet in half each time and turning 90 degrees.
- If the pasta sheet becomes tacky dust with flour before continuing.
- Once the pasta has reached a smooth (babies bottom) texture continue to the next step.
- Without folding this time turn the pasta machine down a notch
- Continue reducing by one notch until you reach the 2nd or 3rd last setting on the machine (6 on my machine). Passing the increasingly long sheet through the rollers between settings. Again if the pasta becomes tacky give a light dusting of flour.
Notes
Fettuccine
Cut the sheets to the length desired for the noodles, I go for about 20cm.
Dust with flour
Put the sheet through the fettuccine cutter
Dust with flour and lay on tray (I will normally freeze the whole tray, then put the frozen pasta into portion sizes)
Dust with flour
Put the sheet through the fettuccine cutter
Dust with flour and lay on tray (I will normally freeze the whole tray, then put the frozen pasta into portion sizes)