Hand Made Pasta

Outside Italy, few have ever made pasta. Since the advent of the factory, most of our foods have succumbed to industrialization. What used to be made fresh every day in Italian kitchens has been devalued in more ways than one.

For one thing, we tend to take it for granted. What could be simpler than opening a box of pasta and chucking it into boiling water and waiting 12 minutes for it to be ‘al dente’.

And for another, when it is made in factories, the eggs are omitted. Instead it is simply made from flour and water. Consequently, nutrients are lost.

The good news is you can make it in your kitchen with no specialized equipment! All you need is a steady surface and a rolling pin to get you started and a good knife for the finale.

Ingredients: for every two people

1 egg

3/4 Cup flour

Patience

DIRECTIONS

Step 1: make a well in the centre of your flour and crack egg into it

Step 2: Beat the egg with a fork while keeping it in the well.

Step 3: Slowly draw some flour from the sides of the well with the fork and continue to mix the egg.

Step 4: Knead the dough, pressing it with the heel of your hand.

Step 5: shape the dough into a ball and then roll it out thin with your rolling pin.

Step 6: Once you have it in a thin rectangle, dust it lightly with flour. Then let it dry slightly for about 10 minutes. Then flip it and let the other side dry for another 10 mins. Do this several times until the pasta dough takes on a slightly leathery look. This is where the pasta is a bit like Goldilocks: it wants to be dry, but not too dry.

Step 7: Gently roll the dough up and slice the dough up into fettuccine width noodles (thinner if you are brave enough). Gently open the noodles out with your hands and let them air dry for 5-10 minutes before cooking.

Step 8: Cooking. The most shocking aspect for new pasta makers is how quickly fresh egg pasta cooks. As a general rule, fresh flat pasta like fettuccine only takes seconds to be thoroughly cooked once the water in which it was placed returns to the boil.

As always, stir the pasta continuously once you have placed it into the boiling water. Remove it and place it in a colander to drain once it is the texture that you enjoy. This will take less than a minute, 2 minutes maximum.