Fresh pasta - again
Serving: for two
For my Tagliatelle with White Asparagus of the season, I tried another version of pasta. I realize from reading numerous recipes that pasta is basically flour with some liquid added. That liquid can be eggs, oil, water, even chopped vegetables. For egg pasta, the ratio is roughly 100 g of flour for 1 egg.
Two cups of flour weighs approx. 236g so I need slightly more than two eggs. I hate using only yolk as the white will just languish in my fridge until it spoils. I remember olive oil.
It was actually very good as the olive oil burst back into the mouth when bitten. The pasta, in turn, is not so eggy and has more bite to it.
I also realize that some kneading is necessary for good texture. So this time, I did not leave the whole work to my food processor. Drying also improves the ease of cooking.
As the whole thing was very quick (I did other things while waiting, like preparing ingredients), I seriously don’t think I’ll ever go back to factory-made flat pasta anymore. Besides, snobbish hubby balks at the notion. Sorry, Barilla. It was fun.
Ingredients:
2 cups of all purpose flour and more for dusting
2 eggs
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp water
Salt for pasta water
Water for boiling pasta
Extra flour for rolling (opt)
Directions:
Mix the flour with eggs, oil, and water in the food processor until crumbly.
Knead in the mixing bowl until it forms a ball of dough. Remove and knead further on a floured surface until elastic (a good 5-10 minutes?). Wrap the dough in a piece of cling wrap and set aside for about 15-30 minutes while preparing other ingredients.
Divide the pasta into four smaller lumps. Take a lump and run it through the pasta machine at the widest setting. Fold the ends to the middle and run it again. Rotate at 90 degrees and run again. Run once or twice more without folding until the dough is smooth. Change the setting to the desired thickness and roll the dough. Whenever there’s stickiness, or when the pasta feels too wet, dust with flour. Hang to dry and repeat with the other three lumps. (I like to leave the pasta sheets to ‘dry’ for about 10-15 minutes which can simply be achieved by cutting them FIFO).
Cut the pasta into tagliatelle. Cook in a salted, rapidly boiling water for about 3-4 minutes until al-dente.
