A confession: there is very little I love more than making pantry staples―things I could easily buy from the grocery store—by hand. If I’m “too lazy” to go to the grocery store, but I know I have flour, water, yeast, and salt, I will just make my own bread. Spending an afternoon putting together dough and baking is apparently less effort to my brain than going on a 30-minute trip to the grocery store. I do not question these things. I am but a simple vessel to the food-based urges of my brain.
Which brings me to my topic today: pasta!
Why Make Fresh Pasta?
There’s a bit of a divide in some culinary circles about whether or not it’s worth it to get into making your own pasta. Some people think that pasta is just so time- and labor-intensive that the gains are negligible, while others say that it’s a skill worth learning. At the very least, you’ll know what’s going into your pasta, as well as the satisfaction of having done it yourself, but the silky and springy texture of freshly made pasta is the real payoff.
I’m a big fan of making stuff, myself. Anything I can set my hands to and see it come together in front of me, I am interested in trying. I’m also a big proponent of the idea that food is community; there’s a special kind of bonding that happens when you make and share food with people. Cooking can also be very personal: everyone has their own way of doing things, their own favorite recipes and techniques. Essentially their own culinary personality that comes through in their food. For me, choosing to make my own pasta was a way to further develop that personality, another way to leave my “fingerprint,” so to speak, in my dishes.
The Tools
I’m not above certain shortcuts: making pasta is immensely easier if you invest in a few tools. A pasta laminator, for example, is invaluable to the process (though some of you may have an Italian ancestor or two that would curse my name upon hearing that).
“Hold on,” I hear some of you say, “what does lamination have to do with pasta?”
Lamination is a term in baking that refers to the process of folding dough over and over again to help it establish layers—croissants are the readiest example of this. When making flour-based pastas, you do something similar, to help the pasta dough develop the right texture. The process of folding and refolding the dough encourages gluten formation, which is the key to a good bite and the core of the pasta-making process. It’s a time- and labor-intensive process if you don’t have a laminator, the main thing that throws most people off the idea of making their own pasta! If you’re interested in learning to make your own pasta but know that you don’t want to spend hours working your dough, then I 100 percent recommend a laminator. I myself own a midrange laminator, the Marcato Atlas, but there are many different brands at many different price points—and there’s always the chance you have a friend or family member who will let you borrow theirs.
Really, the main tool that you need in pasta making is a good rolling pin. Everything else can be done by hand—you technically don’t even need a bowl to put your flour and eggs in, as it’s easy to bring the dough together right on your countertop! But the rolling pin is what’s going to work your dough for you, rolling out each fold thin enough to be refolded, and then, if you haven’t bought a laminator, get your dough thin enough to be cut into noodles. Many pasta makers will recommend that you get a handle-less pin, the reasoning ranging from being easier to clean to allowing you a better feel for your dough. I’ve made my pasta doughs with both, and there’s no reason why you can’t use a regular rolling pin. Though if you are committed to the idea of a handle-free version, a typical dowel rod that you can get at any home-improvement store is frequently the cheapest option and works just as well as tools that are specifically branded as handle-free pins.
There are plenty of other tools you can add to your collection, depending on what your interests are. I also own a ravioli press and a gnocchi board—the latter provides the means to make sauce-grabbing ridges on your gnocchi, or make more complicated pasta shapes like cavatelli. Other tools you might think about are drying racks, if you want to make dried pasta (which is a different recipe from fresh pasta), special noodle cutters that look like pizza cutters but with rippled edges, or more noodle-width attachments for your laminator. But for today’s recipe and technique, we’re going to keep it simple with the rolling pin and the basic laminator.
Alright Already—Can We Get to It?
One last thing.
The basic pasta recipe is reliable, and also extremely customizable. There’s almost no limit to the flavorings you can add directly to your noodles—lemon basil, roasted red pepper, sweet potato, whatever you can dream up. In the spirit of all things autumnal, I’ve put together a pumpkin pasta recipe that will serve two to three for you to follow today, though the pumpkin is optional. If you prefer to start with a basic, unflavored pasta, it will be simple to leave the pumpkin out.
Now, let’s begin!
What You’ll Need
- 140 grams (about 1 cup) of all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 large egg
- 2 egg yolks
- 1½ tablespoons pumpkin puree
- Rolling pin
- Pasta laminator (optional but highly recommended)
- Plastic wrap
- A tray to freeze the noodles on
How to Do It
1. In a bowl or on a clean work surface, mix your flour and salt together into a well shape—keep your flour container on hand. Add the egg and egg yolks into the well and use a fork to start beating the eggs in the flour, then add the pumpkin puree. (If making just the basic recipe, leave the purée out—you won’t need to change anything else at this stage.)
2. Use the fork to continue to mix the flour into the eggs until a big enough clump forms (see photo below) that it becomes difficult to work with. You’ll have a pile of loose, disobedient flour and salt at the bottom of your bowl—go ahead and dump everything onto your work surface and continue kneading the dough with your hands.
3. If your dough is sticking to your hands too much, sprinkle some more flour on. If you’re making the pumpkin recipe or it’s very warm and humid where you are (pasta making this past summer was a nightmare), you will certainly need to do this. If you’re just doing the basic recipe, you might or might not—pasta dough is very moisture-sensitive and something as seemingly minor as the size of your eggs can change how it feels. If the dough’s still too dry and crumbly after kneading for a minute or two, then spritz the dough with a small amount of water and work it in. Your dough is done by the time it looks like the photo below (usually three to four minutes of kneading—smiley faces may vary).
Now, wrap up your dough in plastic wrap or a container and let it rest. It doesn’t need very long—I usually leave it for half an hour, but it’s fine up to six hours.
4. After it’s done resting, it’s time to start the lamination process! Get your laminator out, or roll up your sleeves and prepare for a fight if you’re an intrepid all-by-hand cook. One of the things that I love about pasta making is that pasta dough can take a beating. While other batters and doughs get tough if you work them too much, pasta dough needs that amount of pressure. Like I said earlier, the more you work it, the better your dough will be at forming its gluten bonds. It’s the perfect food to make to blow off steam after dying for the 40th time in Sekiro.
5. You’ll start by cutting your dough in half and wrapping one half back up. Work the second half for a moment or two by squeezing it like you would Play-Doh, and then squish it into a flattish disc and take the rolling pin to it. Roll it out, then you’ll laminate it for the first time.
Fold the edges of the shorter sides into the middle of the dough, like in the photo below, then fold the whole thing like a book or a taco. Start rolling it out again so it becomes a large, thin rectangle, then repeat the process twice more. Sprinkle more flour onto your work surface if necessary!
6. After the third lamination you’ve done by hand, it’s time to use the pasta laminator. Set the laminator’s rollers to its widest setting (usually 0 on the knob) and feed the short end in. Crank it all the way through, then flip it and feed the other side through, and then do it a third time. Then you’re going to do the book fold that you did in the last step again, and roll the dough out with your rolling pin again until it’s thin enough to go through the laminator for a second time, and then repeat the process for a third time. Sticking to threes in these steps is a good rule of thumb to keep track of what you’re doing and make sure the dough is getting the working it needs—I don’t recommend doing less, as your dough may end up too weak and tear later, but feel free to do more if you wish. Some people do it as many as 10 times total!
7. After you’ve fed and re-laminated the dough through the laminator’s widest setting for the third time, set the rollers one notch narrower (usually 1 on the knob) and feed your dough sheet through. No more folding now! Roll the dough through three times on this setting, then go one narrower and repeat. Continue doing this—feed, flip, roll, times three—on each setting until you finish the sixth setting. If your pasta rips or forms holes at any point, don’t worry, it’s not a waste! Just fold it back up and start again from setting 0 on your laminator. Your pasta will be fine.
This is what it looks like halfway through the process, at setting 3 on the laminator.
8. After you’ve laminated on 6, you should have a long sheet of what is now pasta for lasagna or ravioli. If you want to make a lasagna or ravioli dish, just cut the sheet into your desired lengths and you’re done! But for thinner noodles like fettuccine or linguine, you’re going to need to do a little more.
Most laminators come with a cutting attachment that gives you one or two widths to choose from, but if your laminator doesn’t have one of these, don’t worry! Lightly brush your sheet of pasta with flour and fold it in half, then brush and fold again, and (you guessed it) brush and fold for a third time. Then grab a sharp knife and cut it from the raw edge to your desired width—here’s some good information on different widths and what kinds of sauces to use with each one. For simplicity’s sake, all-purpose fettuccine is about a quarter inch in width and is a good place to start.
If your laminator does have the attachment, then before your feed your pasta sheet in, cut it so you have three shorter sheets to work with—that way you’re not struggling to hold the entire length of pasta straight as you’re cutting, and you have an easier-to-manage noodle by the time you’re finished.
9. Whichever method you use, you’ll then want to “nest” your pasta (wrap it around two fingers a couple times into a neat little pile), then places the nests on a tray, cover them with plastic wrap, and put them in the freezer for 24 hours. Then your pasta will be ready to cook right from the freezer!
Speaking of Cooking, Exactly How Do We Use This Pasta Now?
While dried pastas are great for hearty, tomato-based sauces or ragùs with a lot of chunkiness and weight to them, fresh pasta does better with smooth, cream-based sauces—though this is not a hard rule, and in a personal kitchen, you’re not going to ruin your fresh noodles with a tomato-based sauce. Another huge difference between dried pasta and fresh is the cooking time: while most dried noodles cook in 7 to 10 minutes, fresh noodles cook in less than 3. In a pot of boiling and salted water, I always start my fresh noodles with 90 seconds, then check them every 20 to 30 seconds after that until they’re the consistency I like.
The ricotta recipe I’ve previously written about goes perfectly with this pumpkin pasta! Let some melt in a saucepan with butter, sage, and a little bit of the water you boiled your pasta in to make a creamy sauce to top your noodles with, or follow this recipe for some excellent ravioli filling. Flavored pastas also shine with the less-is-more concept. A lemon pepper pasta, for example, won’t need much more than a topping of olive oil, salt, and fresh herbs like mint or basil, and if you went for the plain pasta dough over the pumpkin, this is one of my all-time favorite recipes—it’s simple, yet unfailingly delicious (and works with pasta widths from angel hair to linguine).
And finally, if this all seems interesting but you need that extra little bit of inspiration to really get you going with pasta making, have fun looking at this encyclopedic chart of pasta, or go take a look at the the Netflix documentary of Samin Nosrat’s Salt Fat Acid Heat. The very first episode is all about Italian staples like focaccia, olive oil, pesto, and, of course, pasta.
Buon appetito!
The Link LonkDecember 01, 2020 at 09:30PM
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An Introduction to Pasta Making - Twin Cities Geek
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