Pasta: Pasta Dough 01 by Recipe Cottage

SEARCH RECIPES:

LOCATION: Recipes >> Pasta >> Pasta Dough 01


	Pasta Dough 01

		Pasta Dough 1 cup flour per person eating 1 egg per cup of flour small amount of water to make everything come together The best pasta is made from semolina flour, but regular white flour is ok. Use extra large or jumbo eggs. The traditional way is place the flour on a board and make a well in the center. Place the eggs in the center and slightly mix with a fork. With the fingertips, incorporate the flour into the eggs (the eggs into the flour) until all is mixed and forms a ball. However, I'm a slob so I put the flour in a bowl, make a well, add the eggs and mix well with my hands. If the mixture is dry and not coming together then add water a tablespoon at a time until all comes togther. Place the ball of dough on a well floured board and knead until smooth and a uniform color. With a pasta roller--not extruder-- you don't really need to be as careful about this step because you can get the pasta a uniform color with the rollers. Place a bowl over the pasta ball and let it rest for about 1/2 hour or however long it takes to clean up the mess and get your pasta roller set up and ready. To finish kneading with the roller, set the rollers on the widest roller setting. Cut off a small piece of the dough--about a 3"x1" piece, slightly flatten with your hands and then begin pressing it out with the rollers. After you have rolled out a piece fold it over and roll it again. When it begins to get a uniform color with no streaks of yellow or white, then start reducing the setting on the rollers until the strip of dough is the thickness that you want. We like the dough about 1/16" or 1/8" thick depending on whether we are using the wide cutters or the thin cutters. Continue until you have all the dough is strips about 3-4" wide and about 12 to 24" long. Use the cutters you desire and lay the pasta out on flours tea towels (or a clean sheet) to dry. If you are going to eat all you have made that day, you can just loosly lay the pasta out. If you want to same some--what I do is hang the pasta over dowel set between two chair backs. I have an old fashioned oak (hand made for me) hand pasta rolling pin about 3 feet long that I use to hang the pasta over. When it is dry, you can cover it and just keep it for a few days, until use, in a cool dry place.