Making Fresh Pasta At Home

Carbohydrates have become the scourge of American diets, cursing some of the best comfort foods of the ages such as potatoes, pasta, and bread.  But each of these culinary elements is the spice of life.  Who can imagine a pot roast without mashed potatoes, roast chicken without stuffing, and any Italian dish without pasta and Sunday gravy?

I have been making fresh pasta for years, but grudgingly, with hand-kneading of the dough and a simple hand-cranked Atlas pasta machine that must be close to 30 years old at this point.  The heavy manual labor and time involved had put my pasta-making skills on hiatus thanks to kids/life balance.  But some new techniques and some investment in a few tools has made the process infinitely more simple and quick, allowing for same-day turnaround for an excellent product.  And there is nothing wrong with bragging rights for making your own product.
The pasta we make begins as a stiff dough, that we then press into long sheets from which we can make fettuccine, spaghetti, or hand-cut pappardelle.

Dough Recipe
The dough is simple, and classic, with only a handful of ingredients and some traditional proportions.  To make about a pound of dough, we use a cup each of AP flour and semolina, three eggs, a few tablespoons EV olive oil, and a teaspoon-ish of kosher salt.

The semolina is readily available in most grocery store in the baking section, amongst the more exotic milled ingredients such as rye flour, spelt, polenta.  You can also purchase it in bulk at Whole Foods.

We add all these ingredients to the work bowl of our Cuisinart with the chopping blade in place and take it for a spin.  Semolina tends to absorb more liquid than the AP flour.  So the addition of some water may be required to get the proper consistency, which is a stiff dough that cleans the sides of the work bowl.  The kneading in the food processor for about one minute with improve the gluten development in the dough and enhance its consistency.

After this time and labor saving process, turn out the dough onto a floured surface and hand-knead for two minutes.  Then form into a rough disk.

Wrap this disc in plastic wrap and put in the fridge for a minimum of 30 minutes to let the dough completely hydrate (autolayse) and relax.

Now onto the rolling.  One of the obstacles for home pasta production is the rolling-out process for the dough.  It is a very tough dough and rolling it out to a thickness that prevents it from being a dense and inedible mass requires patience and strength.  But a great attachment for my Kitchenaid Mixer bypasses this step.

The one-pound dough disk is quartered to make it easier with which to work, and we set the roller on the attachment to the widest setting, No. 1.   The dough portion is run through the rollers several times, folding it in thirds at each pass on the No. 1 setting.   This sets the dough up for further thinning by virtue of incrementally narrowing the space between the rollers with each pass until the final thickness in our case to the No. 5 setting.

These sheets are laid out on a floured surface to dry slightly for about and hour.  This gives them a leathery texture which not only makes the sheets easier to work with, but also helps prevent the noodles from sticking together upon cutting.



After this partial drying stage we stack the sheets and hand cut using only our best judgement and a sharp 8-inch knife to cut noodles between 1/2 in and 3/4 inches wide.  I then sprinkle with more flour and toss liberally to help prevent sticking, then put the noodles into a gallon sized ziplock bag and straight into the fridge.  This pasta will last a several days in this state before cooking.

Cooking is simple.  Place the noodles in a pot of salted, boiling water, cooking time is about two minutes.

In our case we made a chicken carbonara dusted with fresh Parmigiano-Reggiano and black pepper.

You can see a video of the whole process here:


Best,
Jeff.