Pasta: Handmade Tagliatelle and Fettuccine
With everything that we’ve all been through in 2020, as long as there’s pasta in the world, I’m sure we’ll all be okay. Pasta is a universal comfort food and today we’re gonna go through all the steps to make it from scratch using simple ingredients and classic methods, or if you’ve got fancy tools, with new and more efficient ways.
Ingredients
Handmade Pasta Ingredients
200 grams or 1/2 cup 00 Flour
200 grams or 1/2 cup Semolina Flour
4 medium sized eggs
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2 pinches of salt
Get all of the cool pasta attachments here: https://amzn.to/3k79JDo
How to make a Pasta from Scratch at Home
Handmade Pasta Recipe:
Ok, so first we’re going to start with the base of any pasta - the flour. To make the pasta dough, for this recipe I’m using equal parts Double Zero Flour and Semolina Flour, 200 grams or 1 cup of each.
Once we’ve got the correct amount of flour, pour it out onto a work surface and form a well, or crater like hole in the dough. You’re gonna want this to look like the top of Mount Vesuvius after it erupted.
After we’ve created our volcano crater, add in four medium sized eggs. It’s important to note that for every 100 grams or half cup of flour, we add one egg. Some people also like to use just yolks instead of the whole egg to make the pasta even richer, and in that case all you need to do is use 8 egg yolks instead of 4 whole eggs. The weight is roughly the same, and if it’s not, this is pasta, and for the most part, the best pasta is done by just eyeballing it.
Next, add in 1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil and a few pinches of salt to give the pasta some extra flavor.
To start forming the dough, take a fork and begin whisking the egg yolks together while slowly incorporating the wall of flour into the mixture as you go along.
Be sure as you're doing this not to break the walls of the well too early, as this will result in the eggs emptying out all over the place.
This whole process should just take a few minutes before the eggs become saturated. Once it gets to the point, just add the rest of the flour in.
To do this. Take a bench scraper and begin to incorporate the rest of the flour and eggs until it becomes nice and dense.
Once dense enough, begin to knead the dough with your hands by pressing the dough and pulling back for about 8-10 minutes.
Fair warning, this is not exactly easy and it’s pretty tiring. By the end of this there’s a good chance you’ll have the upper body of Johnny Bravo, but at least we’ve earned the calories we’ll consume once we eat this pasta.
Once the dough ball is formed and you no longer have any feeling in your arms, wrap the dough in plastic wrap and let it rest for about an half an hour before we start to roll it out.
First on a floured work surface we’re going to take our rolling pin, or in Italian, our matarello, and begin to roll out our pasta dough to our desired thickness.
Once it's formed, we’ll take our rolled out dough, or again in Italian, la sfoglia, add some flour to the top, and begin to fold it up to start cutting the pasta.
Once folded into an almost envelope like shape begin to cut strips and there you have it. You’re own handmade pasta.
Now if you’re not much of a traditionalist, there are other ways to make pasta. Luckily, I have a great pasta roller from kitchenaid that really makes the pasta flattening super easy.
First, cut the pasta dough into 4 equal pieces, cover what you’re not immediately using with plastic, and press the dough we’re going to to use down to flatten.
On the machine, make sure it’s at the lowest number setting, and pass the dough through it to flatten. After the first pass through, fold it like an envelope and we’re going to pass it through again to laminate the dough.
After it’s passed through for a second time, be sure to change the setting to one number more with each pass through. Make sure that you don’t skip numbers as you continue.
Once you’ve reached your desired thickness, for me I think I went all the way to number 7, you're ready to cut the pasta.
Place the now very long sheet of pasta on the work surface, dust with some flour, cut off any oblong edges, and begin to fold the pasta towards the middle from both sides.
Turn the sfoglia 90 degrees and begin cutting the pasta to your desired width. For tagliatelle, which comes from the Emilia Romagna region of Italy and is what I’m making here, I try to keep the cuts around a quarter of an inch.
Once each strip is cut, using the back of the knife, not sharp part that I’m showing here - do as I say, not as I do folks - go under the pasta and lift it up from the middle so the strips hang just like this.
Once that’s done, dust it with some flour, form it into a ball and put it to the side for later.
But Evan, I want to use some more fancy tools… Don’t worry my friends, I’ve got a KitchenAid fettuccine cutter. It came as a set with the roller and it also has a spaghetti cutter too. There’s a link in the description if you want one for yourself.
To use this, repeat the flattening process that we did earlier, and after the pasta is at your desired thickness, attach the fettuccine cutter and pass the dough through slowly. Make sure that you guide it through the process so it doesn’t break on the way through.
Once that’s done, toss it with some flour and set it aside for when you’re ready to cook it!
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