Recipe from Grano & Farina, an Italian cooking school based in Roma, where I learnt to make fresh pasta.
For 4-5 persons: PORTIONS: 100g flour + 50-60% liquid / per person
Preparation: 1-2h
Ingredients for fresh pasta:
- 100g flour
- +50-60% fresh eggs
Regarding the choice of flour, ideally you should use 50% Grano Duro flour (latin for durum wheat) and 50% Italian Type 00 flour. You will have the closest result to what is being done in Italy.
Otherwise, in the US, you can also use all-purpose flour. It works also perfectly fine!
If you combine Italian Type 00 and Grano Duro flour, mix well before adding the eggs. The weight of the eggs with the shell should be equal to 60% of the weight of the flour, since semolina absorbs more liquid than ordinary flour.
Preparation of the dough for your home made pasta
Weigh the flour and form a « volcano » on your wooden board by using your fingers. Rather than adding your eggs directly, mix in a bowl to make sure you have the right weight per amount of flour. If you have to split an egg to get the desired weight, use the yolk rather than the whole egg. This will give the pasta a darker yellow colour.
Pour the eggs into the « volcano » and start mixing. Continue until the eggs are smooth and the flour is incorporated without any lumps.
Continue to incorporate the flour little by little until the mixture is firm enough not to trickle down from the table. At this stage, you can break the flour circle and start mixing all the ingredients.
Knead the dough for 10 minutes. (This step is very important as the texture of your dough will change, it will soften). When the dough is silky and soft inside, you can start to form two or more dough balls, then flour them and seal them in an airtight plastic wrap. Let them sit for at least 30 minutes outside the fridge before you start rolling them up, or keep them overnight in the fridge and roll them up the next day.
The break time allows the gluten to do its job and make the dough very elastic.
[If you are refrigerating, take the pasta out of the refrigerator 30 minutes before starting to work on it]
Your pasta dough is ready! Couldn’t be easier, right?
Cutting the dough for your home made pasta
For cutting the pasta, you have several options:
- Roll by hand and shape by hand: it is very satisfying but it is time consuming.
- Use a pasta machine to spread and cut the pasta into spaghetti / tagliatelle. Personally, I chose this option.
- Spread out the dough (with a rolling pin) and make ravioli.
I used the pasta machine because it really saves time compared to manual work. Let’s be honest, making macaroni by hand takes a long time! While the lasagna/ spaghetti/ tagliatelle are made in 4 minutes, tops.
I bought the Imperia 150 made in Italy for $47. Top quality for a very reasonable price. The pasta does not tear up and the machine looks great : an excellent purchase I am very happy about.
It’s really easy to use. Take the ball of dough and pass it through the rolling mill to make it as thin as possible. You will then have sheets of pasta (which you can use for lasagna too). For spaghetti or tagliatelle, simply pass the pasta sheets through the cutters. Flour lightly, otherwise it will quickly stick. And there you have it!
Bring salted water to a boil, add pasta and let it cook for 4-5 minutes. Drain, season with olive oil, salt / freshly ground pepper (it makes a real difference) and freshly grated Parmesan cheese. Best fresh pasta you have ever eaten!
This is a recipe that I love to make in cooking class with children. They love to knead the dough by hand and use the pasta machine. When they see the result and they realize that they made the pasta themselves, they are really proud (to say the least!!). I even did the pasta cutting with my daughter, who is barely 3 years old (like all children of that age, she is very fond of pasta). She loved it!