I learned how to make fresh pasta in Italy.  Nearly every home cook I met used the same proportion, 100 gms of flour to 1 egg so that’s how I make my pasta.  Sometimes if I want it really rich I’ll add a couple of extra yolks.  I also make it the old fashioned way a la fontana, but for a newbie it’s much easier to simply mix it all together in a bowl.

I love rolling the dough by hand using a super long thin dowel but I also have a double wide manual rolling machine and a home sized electric rolling machine. I recommend buying the Atlas manual pasta machine.  You can also use it to make crackers and matzo.

Print Recipe

Fresh Egg Pasta

Course

Master Recipe

Cuisine

Italian

Servings

4 people

Ingredients

• 400 gms all purpose flour
• 4 xlg eggs

Course Master Recipe Cuisine Italian Servings 4 people Ingredients 400 gms all purpose flour 4 xlg eggs

Instructions

1. Beat eggs in mixing bowl.
2. Add flour to beaten eggs. Mix with your fingers until the mass comes together.
3. Turn the shaggy mass out onto a lightly floured wood surface. Knead until the mixture comes together and is stiff but elastic. This will take about 10 minutes of kneading.
4. Very lightly flour a dinner plate and lay the kneaded dough on the flour. Cover the plate and pasta with a clean bowl turned upside down. Let the dough rest for an hour.

To Roll out the Pasta with a Machine

1. Take the rested pasta dough and cut a slice 1 inch thick and rewrap the remaining pasta. Flatten the pasta slice with the heel of your hand. If the dough feels a little tacky, lightly coat each side with flour.
2. Open the pasta machine rollers to their widest point. Begin to feed the pasta through the rollers. Repeat at this thickness 4 or 5 times, each time folding the sheet of pasta onto itself in thirds. You will see it become more uniform. At this point you are ready to roll the thick sheet you have into the thinness you want.
3. Cut the thick sheet of pasta in half so it's manageable once it starts to thin out and become longer. Then roll the sheet of pasta, passing it through each successive number twice until you achieve the thickness you desire.
4. For stuffed pastas, roll the dough to the thinnest or second thinnest setting. For fettucine, use the second or third thinnest setting. For lasagne or mandilli I use the second thinnest setting, but roll it through twice. When you roll the pasta for the last time, it will be easier to handle if you cut the sheet into 14-inch pieces as it comes out of the machine. Use flour only as necessary to prevent the pasta sheet from sticking to the rollers.
5. If you use the pasta sheet, sfoglia, for stuffed pasta, Fill and shape it immediately. To use the sfoglia for fettucine or other noodle shapes, it is necessary to allow the sheet to dry just enough so that it doesn't stick to itself during the cutting process. Lay the sheet of dough on a lightly-floured bedsheet or a few tea towels. Turn it occasionally. It should dry just enough to take on a leathery appearance, yet not so much that it becomes brittle. Drying will take take approximately 15 to 30 minutes depending on how warm and/or humid it is.

Powered by WP Ultimate Recipe