Fresh Egg Pasta

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Ingredients

• 150g italian type '00' flour, sifted (or an all-purpose flour with about 10% protein content, double sifted)
• 2 whole eggs, beaten
• a pinch of salt
• extra flour for dusting

There's something just that much more luxurious about freshly home-made pasta, and for some reason most of the fresh pasta recipes I've found and tried all make ginormous amounts of pasta. I finally found one that I could tweak for two people with good appetites to have for a simple dinner at home (or you could probably feed 3 or 4 as part of a 4-or-more course dinner). This is just a simple recipe for plain egg pasta. It works well for noodley pasta like tagliatelle (which I tried to make here, but ended up with something between tagliatelle and parpadelle), as well as ravioli. I think most people don't realise how dead simple it is to make your own pasta. Definitely try this one, and you'll be hooked - I promise!

There are, of course, plenty of other ways to make pasta: including using different types of flour such as semolina, or different types of liquid like water, egg yolks only, or a mixture of the three. Then there's adding things like spinach, squid ink, herbs and the suchlike for flavourings and colouring. Start off with something simple like this, then you can start experimenting to see which type you like most.

Note: for ravioli, the sheets of pasta should be almost translucent, I've rolled these sheets a fair bit thicker than that.

1. Sift your flour into a mound on your work table, make a well in the middle.

2. Stir the salt into the beaten eggs, and pour it into the well.

3. Starting from the centre, and using a fork (or your fingers if you wish), mix it in a circular motion, incorporating a bit more of the flour at a time as you go along, until the mixture is no longer squishy, then you can chuck the fork in the sink, roll up your sleeves, and knead it around a bit until it gets a bit of an elastic feel and a nice sheen.

4. Wrap it tightly in clingwrap and set it aside for at least 15 minutes (preferably 30 or more) to rest. This will help to make it a lot more manageable when you're rolling it out. If you're going to be rolling by hand, you might want to let it sit in the refrigerator for about an hour to an hour and a half.

5. Divide the dough into two, and roll it into 2 rough balls, then flatten one into a rectangular piece and keep the other under a damp tea towel. Run it through the widest setting of your pasta roller twice, then fold it over and run it through again. Repeat this 2 or 3 times.

6. Crank the setting down and slowly get it to the thinness you require, then you're ready to cut it up and/or fill it, and cook it!

Keep in mind that fresh pasta takes a lot less time to cook than dried pasta. This lot only took about 3 minutes to get to al dente and was divinely silky on the outside, soaked up all the flavour from the sauce, and still had a good bite left to it.

• 
  hankosan says

  Nice, what did you have with this particular batch of pasta? Also, tell me about that pasta dryer/hanger(?) you have there. How long should they hang there? Can you freeze fresh pasta for later use? Does your head ache because of all the question marks in this post?

• 
  rachel says

  Heya, I made a meatball and tomato sauce for this particular batch (made meatballs the cheaterbug way using sausage meat). The pasta really shouldn't hang there for too long as it dries out very easily. I just hung it there while I was cutting the pasta (which I decided to do by hand), and er to take this photo. :p Fresh pasta also can be frozen for later use - it's a lot easier to freeze it straightaway and then boil it without thawing than drying it, apparently. (Apparently because I've never actually tried drying it.) It will keep for about a week or two? And yes my head does hurt at present moment but not because of the questions marks at all. :)

• 
  Squishy says

  Nice Pasta Chick :)

• 
  Enchante says

  oooo I want that pasta hanger. Where did you get it? I usually end up with pasta hanging off of every drawer handle =o(

• 
  rachel says

  @Enchante: Got it from Robinsons, actually. Cheap as chips and folds up nice and flat. I think I've seen similar in Takashimaya as well?

• 
  Enchante says

  hmm, I must be blind. I windowshop at Takashimaya's household section like twice a week! I will look. Thank you!!

• 
  rachel says

  haha well to be honest i haven't been looking for the past 6 months at least so i'm not sure if it's still there. anyway i got this one from the robinsons at centrepoint. :)

• 
  bednar85 says

  I cooked this a few weeks ago with this recipe and it came out awesome. My whole family loved it. Thanks!

• 
  Unboundset says

  This looks wonderful. Can I ask what type of pasta roller you use.

• 
  rachel says

  Unboundset: I use the pasta roller attachment that you can buy for the kitchenaid. Saves me the trouble of having to get a separate roller, and also from having to hunt for somewhere to clamp my roller down onto.

• 
  Unboundset says

  Thank you Rachel.

• 
  deborah says

  hhaha. even your strands of uncooked pasta look yummy!!

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