And what's more beautifully golden and wonderful than fresh pasta? Nothing, that's what. But let's be honest, who actually has the patience to make fresh pasta from scratch, roll it out, and then finally cook it just to eat dinner? Especially when you can just get dried pasta from the grocery store and dump it in a pot? People who know you can make pasta in a food processor, that's who. Yes,a food processor.
Using a food processor not only eliminates a large portion of the labor and time involved in making pasta, but it also eliminates about 100% of the danger. I can't tell you how stressful it is to make a well of flour and eggs only to have it come flooding onto the floor and over the cabinets (it's really stressful). And trust me, the extra 10 - 15 minutes of time it takes to make pasta from scratch is worth it. Not that dried pasta is bad, because it's not, and it's in fact better suited to certain dishes; but fresh pasta is really a different beast altogether. It's golden and flavorful because of the eggs, and has a different, more rustic texture. And it's so good.
Fresh Pasta (serves 4)
Ingredients:
- 2 cups Plain White Flour (for a more authentic pasta, use 1 or 1.5 cups semolina flour)
- 3 Eggs
That's all! Just flour and eggs. Just a warning, if you want to make a double batch, I suggest doing two single batches instead of trying to cram 4 cups of flour and six eggs into the processor.
First, put the four and eggs into the food processor.
Now put the lid on and pulse it a few times, only maybe a second each time. After a few good pulses it should be just starting to clump together. It's at this point you'll want to dump the contents onto a smooth counter and flour the dough and counter copiously before kneading for a few minutes.
Once it's smooth and elastic, cut the dough in half. This will make your life rolling the pasta about a hundred times easier. Be sure and wrap the half you're not rolling in plastic wrap. This will prevent it from drying out if you take a long time (note that you can also stick it in the fridge and it'll keep nicely for a few days).
Forgive me for not having photos of rolling the pasta, but trust me, it's hard enough with two hands. I gave up trying to devote one to a camera after about five seconds. Just use your imagination.
Basically, re-flour the dough, shove it in the roller, make sure the roller is set to a large setting (mine was on 2), and get to it. Fold it over, set the roller one notch thinner, and repeat the process. If at any point the dough begins to fall apart or stick to the machine, go back and re-flour it
Eventually you should end up with a long, thin sheet of beautiful dough (the thinness will be determined by what final setting you use. I used 6 on mine). The cooking time of the pasta will change depending on what thickness you use.
Now cut the sheet into two strips to make it easier to roll, and re-flour generously, or else it'll stick together when you cut it and you'll have to re-roll it. At this point you're ready to leave the strips as they are for lasagna, cut them into squares and fill them for ravioli, or cut them into any other noodle shape that you like. For this post, I decided to do a simple and classic tagliatelle.
For this, just gently roll up your two sheets like a carpet, and then cut with a sharp knife. Unfold the pieces and viola, your pasta now looks like pasta! Set the noodles aside and repeat the process with the other half of the dough (you don't need to cover the noodles, it's okay if they dry out a little).
To cook them, just bring generously-salted water to a boil, and cook the pasta for 1 - 2 minutes. Note that fresh pasta takes much less time to cook than dried. Test the noodles at 1 minute - if they're still too raw, go for another minute. But they should be firm to the taste. Nothing is worse than mushy, slimy, and wasted pasta.
And there you have it, fresh, made-from-scratch pasta. They're now ready for any sauce you can dream up, but I'll leave that for another post...
No comments:
Post a Comment