Pasta

I want to try making staple pantry items, so I've started with pasta. Seems easy, right? Well, without the aid of a pasta maker, rolling out the dough proved to be very tricky.

The Ingredients

2 cups AP flour
3 eggs
Pinch of salt

The ingredient list is so simple, but you can jazz up the pasta with things like spinach, tomato, squid ink...I'll get into flavored pastas in another post, after I've had time to test them.

The Process

1. On a clean, dry surface, mound up the flour and make a little well in the middle.
2. Crack eggs into a separate bowl. Check for bits of shell. Pour into the well. Sprinkle with salt.
3. Beat the eggs using a fork. Start drawing in flour from the edges of the well.
4. Continue drawing in flour until all ingredients are combined. If the dough looks dry, add a little water, if the dough look wet, add a little flour.
5. Knead dough for 10 minutes. This can also be done in the mixer with a dough hook.

Now here's were methods diverge...

If you have a pasta maker and know how to use it...USE IT!

I didn't have one so I used the manual method. It is necessary to pull the dough with one hand as you roll it out with the other. This helps to break the elasticity of the gluten so that you can roll it out flat without it snapping back into a blob.

This was very tricky and gave my arms a good workout!

Once the dough is thin enough - about 1/8 inch - use a pizza cutter to cut the dough into a rectangular shape. Next, you can use a straight edge - i like the edge of a flexible cutting board - cut the dough into desired widths. When cutting by hand, it is easier to make wider pastas like linguine.

Right away, or save for later?

If you want to use the pasta right away, bring a large pot of water to a boil, add salt - not a pinch, a couple tablespoons - and cook the pasta, stirring occasionally, for 3-5 minutes. It doesn't take long for fresh pasta to cook so keep an eye on it or else it will turn to goo.

If you want to save it you have a couple options. Drape the pasta over a skewer or chop stick supported by two tall glasses. You can let them dry and store in a zip-top bag for later use.

-Or-

You can wrap a several strands of pasta around your fingers and layer them between waxed paper in a resealable container. You can either stash them in the fridge and use in a week, or put them in the freezer and use in a month.

Enjoy!