Homemade pasta.
So I am making it for the first time. I started with Mario's recipe, I heard it was easy. It just made a mess really, I don't have any pasta dough, just a floury mound. I am open to technique suggestions or alternate recipes. Ever since I borrowed a friend's pasta maker Jim has been patiently insisting on pasta.
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But I pare it down for two people with 1 cup flour with about 1/3 cup of semolina flour in the cup, 1 egg, oil, salt, and water as needed (depending on the egg). Bench flour.
After the basic 'egg in the well' incorporate tech..give it a rest a few mins..and make a couple of balls..and finish the kneeding with #7 (the largest I think on pastamachines) and fold into thirds and put through again, and again, and again, Adding more bench flour as needed so it doesn't stick to the rollers if you made it too wet. Then keep doing that and notching down the rollers to desired thickness (which should be thinner than your instincts think). One cup of flour will eventually make a about a 5 foot ribbon of pasta. Then change to cutting blades on the machine and run it through for final prep. (this is the ironing board tech comes in handy).
One key is fold each time you run it through, into thirds.
It'll come together pretty well at first you'll think the edges are feathery, but after working folding, running through the machine...those should smooth out. A rest before you start hitting it hard is good.
I made that sound like a lot of work..and yeah it can be...but it's worth it. It really goes fast when you get the hang of it.
Having electric rollers is great but the manual ones offer more cutting attachments for different widths from tagliatelle to pappardelle. A cool thing to have is a "chitarra" (guitar) where you roll the dough over wire strings giving you a long "square" pasta.
Space can be an issue. Clamp the pasta machine to an ironing board covered with butcher paper,or tea towels. And go at it. To dry the pasta...use two kitchen chairs with a broom stick, or long wooden dowel draped with plastic wrap (for cleanness) to hang dry. Use tape to keep the dowel/broomstick handle in place while drying. You can just dust it with flour and layer it out on butcher paper outside on a good low humidity day too if you're doing a small batch.
I prefer a mix of flour and semolina flour...no recipe, just eye ball it, add an egg, in the 'well' you form and scrape up to center and mix. Then keep folding and putting it in the machine (crank until your arm is sore) and keep doing it.
My basic formula is one egg per 3/4 cup all-purpose flour (no oil, no salt), plus water if needed. But other recipes work well, too. As with breadmaking, the most important thing is developing a feel for the dough. Flours vary in absorption, eggs vary in size, humidity varies from day to day, measurements aren't always exact. But a well-made dough will always be supple and not sticky after kneading.
Ingredients
1 c “00? flour
¼ c whole wheat pastry flour
2 large egg yolks
½ tsp salt
1½ T extra-virgin olive oil
¼ c water
Instructions
Combine all ingredients in a food processor, and blend until it starts to come together in a ball. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead ~6 minutes incorporating only as much flour as necessary; this dough should not be sticky.
Shape into a ball, wrap tightly in plastic wrap and let sit at room temp for 1 hour.
Roll out with a pasta machine. I went to 8 for ravioli dough.
Good luck!
You will need a pastry scraper. Stir the eggs using a fork into the well, gradually working the flour from your well into it. Emeril's well was too thin so I could see that one coming.Work carefully. Then go to work with your bench knife and your floured hands. It really is easy once you get a feel for it.