Egg pasta

Prep time: 1 hour
Cook time: 5 minutes
Serves: 7

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- Description
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- Ingredients
- Method
- Notes
- Nutrition
Egg pasta
- Prep time: 1 hour
- Cook time: 5 minutes
- Total time: 1 hour 5 minutes
- Serves: 7
What's homemade pasta and barbecue with friends got in common? They're both about the experience, rather than the actual meal. I love making pasta, somehow it's a stress relief for me as I'm rolling the handle on the machine, stretching the sheet to infinity, Listening to Ornella Vanoni on the radio. That rolling handle hypnotically takes me to Sicily wandering narrow cobble streets filled with grannies rolling pasta on worn out tables in their thorn out dresses bought when their kids were born. The smell of fresh tomatoes and basil filling the town. Having walked a mile looking at food noon strikes and you're desperately waiting for family lunch. I like how we associate food with people, places and culture. How an old piece of bread fried on butter is more than just a quick breakfast it's a long built heritage. How few chunks of different cheese and a glass of wine on a breezy night with the right company will keep inside your memory longer than your phone number.
Ingredients
- 500 gr flour, 00 type
- 5 eggs
- 2 egg yolks

Method
- 1)
To make the dough, shape the flour in a mound on a large work surface. make a well in the centre and insert eggs.
- 2)
Now with a fork, start beating the eggs as if you were making scrambled eggs, gradually incorporating flour bit by bit to keep the stability of the mound.
- 3)
When the egg mixture starts to become rather gooey, you can start shaping the dough with both your hands, without fear the structure will collapse.
- 4)
For the first few minutes, the dough will seem very dry, not coming together and will have you thinking “man, I don’t need this, I’ll just cook some packaged pasta”, but don’t be tempted, few more minutes into kneading and it will look marvelous.
- 5)
You have to kneed the dough for at least 10 minutes to develop the gluten in the flour, making the dough elastic, if you were to shortly kneed the pasta just to form the dough ball, your pasta will be mushy and soft.
- 6)
There is no secret to exact kneading, you just have to use your force and beat it as much, I use the standard technique by pressing the heal of my palm into the middle of the dough and pushing it forward then reverse, constantly applying hard pressure. Once the dough is smooth, not sticking to the surface and springs back once pinched with a finger it’s ready.
- 7)
Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and place in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
- 8)
Once chilled, take 1/5th of the dough and keep the rest constantly wrapped in foil, fresh pasta dries very fast if unattended so keep it covered either with plastic wrap or damp cloth all the time.
- 9)
Now i’m using a pasta machine, they’re really convenient and cheap, but of course, the same rule applies to using a rolling pin, just takes more time and effort.
- 10)
Take the portion of the dough, dust the work surface with flour generously and flatten the piece of dough with your hands shaping it roughly to a rectangle. Once shaped, dust with some more flour and pass through the machine on the widest setting once. Now fold your dough into thirds as if you were laminating puff pastry, dust again, rotate the dough 90* and pass through the widest setting twice. To visualize this process, check the video:
- 11)
Now to properly roll out your pasta, pass the sheet once through the widest and going down to the narrowest setting. Depending on which pasta you’re making the thickness will vary. If you’re making ravioli, go all the way through the narrowest, if you’re making fettucine or papardelle, stop 2-3 gears from the narrowest.
Here’s the standard dimensions of typical pasta types if you’re feeling like a pro:
- 12)
Once you rolled your pasta to desired thickness. Shape and cut it immediately to prevent it from drying. Dust generously with flour so pieces of pasta don’t stick to each other and cover with a damp cloth.
- 13)
If you’re not going to use pasta immediately, freeze it, it will keep for up to months. If you don’t have a freezer, cook the pasta immediately, unce cooked, transfer into ice cold water to cool off then place inside a container with a few tablespoons of oil and toss well to coat the pasta evenly. This way the pasta will keep in the fridge for up to 5 days.
To make tagliatelle.
- 1)
Following the previous guide up to step 11. Roll the pasta to 1.2 mm thickness or 6th gear on the machine.
- 2)
Use your knife and trim off any uneven edges so that you’re left with a rectangle.
- 3)
Dust the pasta sheet with flour and start folding as if it was a strudel.
- 4)
Now cut the sheets with your knife (be careful not to apply too much pressure as the layers may stick to one another like this.)
Of course the process is same which ever stripped pasta you’re making, just different widths between cuts.
- 5)
Now unfold the strips, dust lightly with flour again and grab them with your hand and place onto a floured surface.
- 6)
To cook tagliatelle, drown them in boiling salted water and cook for 3 minutes fresh, 5-6 minutes frozen.
To make ravioli
- 1)
Following the previous guide up to step 11. Roll the pasta to 0.8 mm thickness or 8th gear on the machine.
- 2)
You should be left with a very long rectangle sheet of pasta.
- 3)
Place about one teaspoon of your ravioli filling about 1.5 cm from the bottom of the sheet and 3 cm sideways between each filling.
- 4)
Once done your sheet should look like this (Don’t bother making it perfect unless you have severe OCD).
- 5)
Now fold the sheet in half.
- 6)
With your fingers, press down around all 4 edges of your induvidual ravioli piece.
- 7)
Now run your pasta cutter along all the sides of your pasta sheet (If you don’t have a pasta roller don’t be discouraged, just cut the cubes with your knife, it will still taste the same, just won’t be as sassy.)
- 8)
As you’re working, place each finished ravioli under a towel dusted with flour.
- 9)
To cook ravioli, drown them in boiling salted water and cook for 4 minutes fresh, 6 minutes frozen.