These cold, wintry weekends are the perfect time to hunker down in the kitchen, roll up the sleeves and dive into an extra-special recipe.
Home-made pasta is a wonderful stormy-day project because you don’t need to venture out into the weather to pick up anything at the store.
Everything you need to make fresh pasta – flour, eggs and little olive oil – is usually already sitting in your cupboard and fridge.
If you’ve never tried your hand at making it yourself, you’re in for a treat.
Fresh pasta’s rich flavour and delicate, springy texture is altogether different than that of its dried, store-bought cousin.
You really don’t need any special equipment.
Sure, you can buy fancy, stainless-steel pasta machines that make the job of rolling and cutting the dough faster and easier. But you can still get fantastic results with nothing more than your countertop or kitchen table, a rolling pin and a sharp knife.
To fully appreciate the exquisite taste and texture of freshly made pasta, try it first with the lightest sauce possible before advancing to heavier, more intensely flavoured concoctions.
Fresh, paper-thin fettuccine needs only a quick toss in an aglio olio (I'll post a recipe for this later this week), a fresh-tasting mixture of olive oil, garlic and chopped Italian parsley.
On the other hand, thicker, wider, more eggy-textured noodles such as pappardelle can tolerate the weight of a heavier, meat-based ragu, but again, don’t overdo it.
FRESH PASTA
What you need:500 ml (2 cups) unbleached flour, plus a little extra for rolling and dusting
5 ml (1 tsp) salt
3 eggs
30-45 ml (2-3 tbsp) olive oil
What to do:Measure the flour and salt into a mixing bowl, or simply dump it onto a clean kitchen counter.
Make a well in the centre of the flour. In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs and olive oil and pour into the well. You can also break the eggs directly in the well of the flour as I've done here.
Use a fork to mix everything together as best you can, then dust your hands with flour and knead the mixture until all the dry bits have been incorporated and you have a smooth, stretchy ball of dough.
Keep kneading and resist the urge to add water until you have worked the dough for at least two-three minutes, and only add a drop or so of water if the mixture seems to really, really need it. Likewise, if the dough seems sticky, add extra flour quite sparingly as too much flour will result in tough pasta.
At first, the mixture will seem quite dry, as if it might never have enough moisture to come together......
But then, after a bit of persistent kneading, it does ....
When you’re finished kneading the dough, wrap the ball in plastic wrap and let it rest on the countertop for about a half-hour. Alternatively, you can put the dough in the refrigerator for a few hours or overnight, but remember to take it out of the fridge about an hour or so before you want to roll it so it’s not rock hard.
When you’re ready to roll, dust your countertop and rolling pin very lightly with flour. Cut the ball of dough into three or four pieces and keep the remaining pieces well-wrapped while you work with this piece.
(If you’re using a pasta-rolling machine, roll and cut the dough according to the machine’s instructions.)
Use the rolling pin to roll dough into a very thin rectangular shape, flipping the dough over now and then. If the dough sticks to your work surface, you can dust it with extra flour and use a pastry brush to brush away any excess.
Once the dough is thin enough, you are ready to cut the pasta. To cut into fettuccine, lightly dust the sheet of pasta with flour, brush away the excess and then fold the dough in half, and then in half again until you have a long, oblong shape. Dust the blade of a sharp knife with flour, and cut the pasta into strips about half a centimeter (1/4-inch) wide. Carefully tease the strips apart and set them aside on a cookie sheet that has been dusted lightly with flour.
Continue rolling and cutting the rest of the dough.
The pasta is now ready for cooking. If you want to store some in the freezer for another day, let the noodles air-dry a bit and then pack gently into plastic containers.
How to cook fresh pasta:Bring a large pot of water to a full boil. Add 10 ml (2 tsp) of salt to the water, stir well and give it a taste. It should taste faintly salty but not overly so.
Important note: If serving your pasta with a sauce, have the sauce ready to go before you cook the pasta. Fresh pasta only takes a minute or two to cook, so everything else must be ready before you even think about dropping your noodles into the water.
Carefully drop your fresh pasta into the boiling water a bit at a time and stir gently to keep noodles from sticking together. Don’t cover the pot. After about a minute, the pasta should float to the surface. Taste a piece to see if it’s done (a little under-done is OK as it will continue to cook once mixed with the sauce). Use a spaghetti ladle to scoop the pasta directly from the pot into your skillet of sauce (I'll post some easy sauce recipes here soon.) Toss pasta gently with the sauce, ladling a splash or two of the pasta-cooking water to the skillet if the mixture seems a bit dry.
Carefully pour the dressed pasta into a warm serving platter or bowl and serve immediately with a fresh grating of parmesan cheese, chopped herbs and a final drizzle of olive oil.
