Homemade Pasta
Region: Italy
Category: Basic Recipes and Sauces
Season: Any
Difficulty: Labor Intensive

The Basics

There is nothing intrinsically hard about making your own pasta. Not only is it worth the effort, I venture that it will be the best pasta you've tasted. You may be quite unhappy about buying commercial pasta ever again--so beware.

I find making my own pasta, as with my own bread, a relaxing, therapeutic activity, and not a chore at all. Well, that's not really true?it is a chore?but one with a delicious reward. There are many electric pasta-making machines on the market that can make this process easier. But remember that there are two kinds of machines. One both mixes and kneads the dough and is fitted with extrusion devices for making tubular pastas such as macaroni. The other simple is an electric roller. You need to prepare the dough by hand and then flatten it to get through the roller. I prefer this second type of machine as I mix and knead the pasta dough by hand. The electric extrusion machines generally do not knead the dough sufficiently to develop the gluten in the durum wheat. Still, if you want to make any kind of tubular pasta you will need this machine. You may be reluctant to make your own pasta because of the time required or past failures. I know this feeling, since I once was a beginner and regularly failed at making pasta. After much experimentation I have come to this recipe, which works for me every time? and it should for you too.

Most failures in pasta making come about because too much liquid is used. When it appears that the dough won't hold together many people add more water and/or eggs, too much, and the pasta becomes brittle when dried. At first, when kneading the dough with water or eggs, my recipes may seem like they are lacking in liquid. But they are not. You will still have to flour the dough once you are rolling it to keep it from sticking.

Unbleached durum wheat and water pasta is the hardest to manipulate so many people use an electric mixer. The durum wheat dough becomes harder and drier than with all-purpose bleached flour. With that proviso let's move on to pasta making.

Equipment and Ingredients for Making Homemade Pasta

• A counter top at least 30-inches wide by 24-inches deep.
• A hand-cranked or electric pasta rolling machine or, if you don't have such a machine, a matterello , a rolling pin 24-inches or longer.
• A standard rolling pin.
• Wax paper or plastic wrap.
• Paper towels, white kitchen towels, a white top sheet or an expandable spare window screen.
• A kitchen table that no one will be using for about 2 hours.
• Durum wheat flour and/or all-purpose bleached or unbleached white flour
• Eggs
• Water
• Salt
• Olive oil
• A knife for cutting the lasagne sheets.
• A large baking tray for dredging the pasta in flour.

Basic Technique for Homemade Pasta

There are five basic steps in making your own pasta:

mixing
kneading
rolling
cutting
drying

Everything by Machine

There are several machines on the market that mix, knead, and roll pasta dough--and they are very convenient.   But if you don't have one--read on.

Mixing by Hand

See the instructions below.

Mixing with an Electric Mixer

Attach the flat beater to the mixer. Pour in the flour and start on low. Add 1 egg (or 1/3 of the required water) and continue mixing for 2 minutes. Continue adding the eggs (or 1/3 measures of water) at these intervals. When the last egg (or 1/3 of water) has been incorporated the dough will be lumpy.

Dump the dough onto a surface and finish kneading by hand until you have a ball that is elastic but firm and shiny. If the dough ball is too hard, wet your hands and knead some more. If it is too soft, dust with flour and knead some more. Wrap the ball in wax paper or plastic wrap and leave for 1 hour.

Rolling with a Pasta-Rolling Machine

Pasta-rolling machines, as opposed to pasta-making machines, are hand-cranked or electric rollers that roll thin the pasta previously made by hand or in an electric mixer. They are widely available, not expensive, and worth having. The rolling process continues, in a fashion, the kneading process, meaning that you need to knead less than when doing everything by hand.

Unwrap the resting pasta dough and push down with your hand. With a rolling pin continue rolling until the dough is about 12 inches in diameter. Divide in thirds, covering two-thirds with the wax paper or plastic wrap. Take the remaining third and roll it through the widest setting of the roller. After reducing by another notch and rolling it through, fold in thirds so you have a nicely shaped rectangle. Reduce the setting another notch and continue rolling, ratcheting down the roller until you have your desired thickness. As you roll remember to flour both sides at the slightest sign of stickiness.

In a large baking tray spread some flour. Cut the pasta into your desired shape or the shape called for in the recipe, either by hand for lasagne or pappardelle, or with the spaghetti/vermicelli/fettuccine cutting attachment that comes with the roller. Drag the larger pasta shapes in the flour to dust and set aside at one end of the tray while you continue rolling and cutting. Dust all pasta with flour as you make it so it doesn't stick together. Remember--always dust with flour. Otherwise the pasta may become hopelessly stuck together . Arrange the cut pieces of pasta on paper or kitchen towels or a white sheet to dry.

For fresh pasta ( pasta fresca ), let the pasta dry for 1 hour, then you can use it. For dry pasta ( pastasciutta or pasta secca ) let it dry completely over 2 days and then package and store for later use as. You can speed up the drying process by directing a fan to blow on the pasta. 

Rolling the Pasta Dough by Hand

You must be a complete fanatic to want to roll pasta by hand. It's a pain in the neck and I can't see the point of struggling with a rolling pin when a pasta roller machine will do the job, unless of course you are following the "therapeutic" concept above. Should you wish to roll the dough by hand you need a long (at least 24-inches) rolling pin called a matterello , rather than the standard rolling pin with handles. Dust the work surface with flour and flatten the ball of dough with the palm of your hand. Start rolling away from you. Rotate and roll. Rotate and roll continuing in this manner so the dough is circular. Continue rolling until the dough is very thin, about 1/16-inch. 

At this point the dough needs to be stretched (a job the pasta rolling machine does magnificently). Place the rolling pin at the top of the circle of dough--at 12 o'clock if it were a clock face. Make sure the dough is dusted with flour. Grab the very tip of the dough and pull it over the rolling pin. Roll the pin toward you until you reach the 10 o'clock-2 o'clock line. Place the palms of both hands together in the center of the rolling pin and press down hard, rolling back and forth as your hands travel to the outer edge of the rolling pin, as when you made snakes with play dough as a child. Do this three times. Now roll another half of the dough up and repeat. Unroll the dough and turn it around so the 6 o'clock position is now at 12 o'clock. Repeat the rolling process again. Do this entire process about 4 times, making sure you dust with flour. 

Which Pasta to Make?

In Italy, pasta has always been traditionally associated with the south. Northerners have been rice and polenta eaters for the most part. Southerners have been so closely tied with the eating pasta, people in Naples were know as mangiamaccherone (macaroni-eaters). In the south pasta is usually made with fine durum wheat flour (semolina) and water and nothing else. When cooks in the north make pasta, as they do in Bologna, for example, they use soft wheat or bread wheat such as the fine white flour sold in our supermarkets as all-purpose flour, and they mix it with eggs not water. Things change, of course, so today you find cooks in the south who might use a mixture of durum wheat flour and fine white flour, and sometimes they even use eggs. 

Yield: Makes 2 pounds
Preparation Time: 3 hours

3 cups all-purpose bleached or unbleached white flour     5 large eggs     1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon olive oil (optional)       Water as needed       Flour for dusting

1. Pour the flour onto a surface. Make a well in the middle, forming the walls like the lip of a volcano crater. Break the eggs into the well, sprinkle the salt and drizzle the olive oil, if using. (Add any other ingredient used for colored pasta at this point. See below). Break the yolks with your fingers and begin to incorporate the eggs with the flour, a little at a time, with your fingers, drawing more flour from the inside wall of the well. Make sure you don't break through the wall otherwise the eggs will run. Scrape any dough on your fingers off and knead into the dough.

2. Once the flour and eggs are combined and you can form it into a ball, knead for about 8 minutes (see note below) until you can form a smooth ball. As you press down while kneading use the ball to pick up any clumps of dough. Knead for at least 3 minutes before you decide you need more liquid. If you must add more water, do so by wetting your hands only, as many times as you need. If the dough is too wet, meaning if there is any sign of stickiness, dust with flour. Continue kneading, pressing down with the full force of both palms, until a smooth ball is formed. Wrap the dough in wax paper or plastic wrap and leave for 30 minutes to 1 hour at room temperature.

3. Unwrap the ball of dough and dust with flour. Place on a floured surface, pressing down with your palms to flatten. With a rolling pin roll the pasta out until it is about 12 inches in diameter and cut into thirds. Roll each third with the rolling pin until it is thin enough to fit it into the widest setting of a pasta rolling machine. Roll once at the widest setting. Close the setting one notch and roll again. Gather the sheet of pasta and fold in thirds and roll through the roller so you have a nice rectangle. Continue ratcheting the setting narrower and narrower until it is the thickness you prefer or called for in the recipe. Dust the dough on both sides with flour at the slightest sign of stickiness. If necessary continue to dust with flour as you roll through narrower and narrower settings otherwise the dough will become hopelessly stuck together. By this time you will have a very long thin sheet of pliable dough that looks, and even feels like a velvety chamois cloth.

4. Cut the ribbon of dough into the size you prefer or roll through the spaghetti cutter. Lay some flour in a large baking tray and dust the pasta with the flour and leave to rest in an airy place on paper towels, white kitchen towels, or a white sheet reserved for this purpose for 1 to 2 hours before cooking, refrigerating, or freezing. Leave for 48 hours for completely dry pasta.

 Note: Ten minutes of kneading is sufficient if you plan to use a hand or electric cranked pasta rolling machine. If you are rolling by hand knead for another 8 minutes.

Variation: 

Variation: 1  Homemade Durum Wheat and Water Pasta

Durum wheat is sometimes sold in supermarkets under the label "pasta flour," but check the package to be sure.   A. Zerega and Sons sells a product called Antoine's Pasta Flour, an enriched golden semolina of durum wheat.   Bulk durum wheat can also be found through wholesalers, health food stores, and Italian grocery stores and markets.   This too is an enriched product and is a yellowish-white flour in color.

3 cups durum wheat     1 teaspoon salt   2 tablespoons olive oil     1 cup warm water

1. Pour the flour onto a surface. Make a well in the middle, forming the walls like the lip of a volcano crater. Sprinkle the salt and slowly pour the olive oil and water into the center and begin to incorporate the flour, a little at a time, with your fingers, drawing more flour from the inside wall of the well. Make sure you don't break through the wall otherwise the water will run. Scrape any dough on your fingers off and knead into the dough 2. Once the flour and water are combined and you can form into a ball knead for 8 to 10 minutes (see note) until you can form a smooth ball. Do not add water. As you press down while kneading use the ball to pick up any clumps of dough. If you must add more water, do so by wetting your hands only, as many times as you need too. Continue kneading until a smooth ball is formed. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour. 3. Unwrap the ball of dough and dust with flour if it is sticky. On a floured surface press the ball down with the palms of your hands. With a rolling pin roll the pasta out until it is about 12-inches in diameter and cut into thirds. Roll each third out with the rolling pin until you can fit it into the widest setting of a pasta rolling machine. Roll once at the widest setting. Close the setting one notch and roll again. Gather the sheet of pasta and fold in thirds and roll through the roller so you have a nice rectangle. Continue ratcheting the setting narrower and narrower until it is the thickness you prefer or called for in the recipe. Dust the dough with flour at the slightest sign of stickiness on both sides. Continue to dust with flour as you roll through narrower and narrower settings, if necessary, otherwise the dough will become hopelessly stuck together. By this time you will have a very long thin sheet of pliable dough that looks, and even feels like a velvety chamois cloth. Cut the ribbon into the size or shape you desire, unless the recipe instructs you to cut in a specific size or cut using the spaghetti cutter attachment. Lay some flour in a large baking tray and dust the pasta on both sides with the flour and leave to rest in an airy place on paper or white kitchen towels for 1 to 2 hours before using, refrigerating, or freezing. Leave for 48 hours for completely dry pasta. Note: Ten minutes of kneading is sufficient if you plan to use a hand or electric cranked pasta rolling machine. If you are rolling by hand knead for another 8 minutes.  Variation 2:   Homemade Colored Pasta There is no reason why you can't make any kind of pasta. In gourmet pasta-making shops in Italy I've seen mushroom, parsley, tomato, asparagus, saffron, chocolate, and even blue cura ? ao pasta. The biggest problem with these exotic pastas is that no one seems to have thought of a good sauce to go with them. In fact, I find these colored lasagne a little too gimmicky. So what I present here are two traditional colored lasagne, green (spinach) and black (cuttlefish ink) lasagne. How to Make Green Pasta ( Pasta Verde ): Remove the stems of 10 ounces of spinach, Swiss chard, or beet leaves. Wash well, several times to remove all sand and dirt. Drain and place in a pot with the water adhering to the leaves from the last rinse. Turn the heat to high and when the leaves have wilted, about 4 to 5 minutes, remove from the burner, drain, and squeeze out all the water you can with the back of a wooden spoon. Chop fine, salt lightly, and add to the flour well with the eggs in step 1 of the Homemade White Flour and Egg Lasagne recipe above. How to Make Black Pasta ( Pasta Nero ): Black pasta is made from cuttlefish or squid ink. I recommend using the ink sack from a cuttlefish rather than squid simply because cuttlefish, being larger, are easier to work with in a preparation that requires some knowledge of anatomy and surgeon-like skills. Because cuttlefish are messy to work with make sure you have a clean, uncluttered working area that is easy to clean up afterward. Lay the cuttlefish down with the tail pointing towards you. The cuttlefish has an oval-shaped bone, functioning in the same way the plastic-like quill does inside a squid. Have this bone side closest to the table, with the "stomach" side facing up towards you. Grasp the body with one hand and with the other pull out the head, tentacles, and any viscera that attaches to it. Cut the tentacles off below the eyes, wash, and set aside. With a sharp 4-inch paring knife slit the belly from top to bottom, making sure you don't cut all the way through. The cuttlefish will be black with ink, but you will not yet have located the sack. Now push the bone through and remove. With your hands, begin to separate the skin from the body and discard all the skin. Carefully rip the body down the middle where you have slit the cuttlefish making sure you don't puncture the ink sack. The ink sack can be pulled out with your hands. It is a very tiny, narrow white sack with a tube running down. Carefully grab the tube, separating it from the surrounding tissue by using your fingers and pull the sack out. The ink sack is covered with a white muscle-like tissue and will be surrounded on either side by eggs, if a female. Don't throw away the white egg sacks, they are a delicacy. Remove the mouth, a kind of beak, in the center of the tentacles by popping it out with your fingers. Clean the cuttlefish under cold running water pulling off all the skin and any other gelatinous looking tissue. When the cuttlefish is cleaned it will be completely white. Now you can begin to make the black pasta. Hold the tube of the ink sack downward into the middle of the flour well of step 1 in the Homemade White Flour and Egg lasagne recipe above. With your thumb and forefinger run your fingers down the sack and tube squeezing all the ink out. The ink is thick and very, very black. There is unlikely to be more than 1/2 teaspoon, but this is more than enough. Begin mixing the flour, egg, and ink until you can knead the dough. It will look like a disaster as you do this; very messy and unappealing. Do not fret: not until about minute 8 of kneading will you have a pliable, very black ball of dough. Now it is ready to be wrapped up and left to rest for 30 minutes. The preparation continues according to the basic recipe. The ink sack can also be frozen for another time. Some gourmet shops sell squid ink, and that of course makes everything quite easy.

Note: 

Cooking Pasta

It's hard to believe that one needs an instruction on how to cook pasta, but it is necessary because most people actually don't know the proper way to cook it. If you are using commercially made pasta, read the package instructions for cooking times. For every pound of pasta, bring 6 quarts of water to a rolling boil over high heat, salt abundantly with up to 1/2 cup of salt, then add the pasta in handfuls. Cook over high heat, stirring occasionally so the pasta doesn't stick together, until al dente. Drain without rinsing.

The water the pasta cooks in should taste as salty as the ocean. It is completely useless to pour oil into the pot of water while the lasagne is cooking to prevent sticking. Oil separates from water and floats to the top, accomplishing nothing. Pasta once cooked should be eaten right away with a sauce. It should not be allowed to cool, except when making lasagne.

Posted: 01/07/2007