One of the foods that I was practically brought up on was pasta. It was cheap, quick and easy. If you’re tight on time, you can easily boil up some pasta in 8 minutes, toss in some sauce, and you’re good to go. (It was actually the first food I learned how to cook.) Anyone who can boil water, can cook pasta. Pasta is one of the cheapest, most filling and most versatile dishes out there.

That being said, I have never had freshly made pasta. At least, not to my knowledge… I’m pretty sure that I haven’t been to a restaurant that makes their own pasta the same day it’s served. I had also always assumed that it was some difficult task that required the use of expensive machines, so making it myself seemed out of the question. I had pretty much written off “freshly made pasta” as something that I might only try if/when Joe and I ever go back to Italy.

Reading through the Concise Cook’s Book, I found a whole (short) section on pasta. Browsing through the couple of pages, I was shocked to see just how easy it really was to make your own pasta dough! So it was decided that I would try it, and as I’m writing this with the taste of the pasta still fresh in my memory, I can honestly tell you that this home-made pasta was the best pasta I have ever had in my life. When I took my first bite, the clouds opened up, and angels floated down and sang to me. {Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating a little bit…} It’s going to be really hard to reach into the cupboard, and make dried pasta out of the box again… Of course I will still use it as a quick dish, but if I’m having people over and want to really impress with a pasta dish, I will most definitely be coming back to this home-made pasta!

I’m going to post my version of the steps I took to make pasta. Instead of making noodles, I decided to make marble cheese stuffed pasta. For this pasta, I used my own tomato and bell pepper sauce. This is a long entry, with plenty of pictures so you can get a visual of the steps along the way! Enjoy!

Notes for fresh pasta:

• To cook: Fill a deep pot with a lot of water (you want the pot to have more than enough water for the pasta), and sprinkle in just under 1 tsp of salt. Bring the water to a boil on (just under) high heat, and then add your pasta. Stir a few times to make sure the pasta won’t stick together. Once the water returns to a boil, cook the pasta at this steady boil for 5 minutes. Do not over cook freshly made pasta, as it will get a really pasty gummy texture if overcooked. You can cook the pasta covered, or uncovered.
• To serve: After the 5 minutes are up, remove from heat and drain the water. Place the pasta into a bowl and toss with the sauce of your choice.

Making Fresh Pasta From Scratch

Ingredients:

• 1 1/3 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 eggs

You will need:

• rolling-pin
• fork
• bowl
• plastic wrap

Method For Making The Pasta:

• On a clean counter/work surface (if you have granite or some other natural stone counter, this works perfect), place the flour in a “mountain” type shape. Sprinkle the sale in with the flour.

• Crack both eggs into a bowl, and beat lightly. Then, create a hole in the middle of your flour mountain.
• Slowly and carefully, pour the eggs into the hole. This part is a bit messy, and I ended up dribbling eggs down the side and onto the rest of the counter. But with a quick hand, you can push the flour over the dribbled egg and push it all back inside the hole.
• With a fork, lightly whisk the eggs in the center of the flour, gradually incorporating more flour with each whisking motion.

• Continue to mix the eggs into the flour until the mixture is well blended.
• Once the mixture is blended together, you can start to knead it like dough.
• Knead the mixture lightly with one hand, while using your other hand to turn the dough after each single knead. Knead only until the dough will no longer pick up and keep flour.

• Set the dough aside for a moment, and use your hands and the fork to scrape and of the flour mixture that has stuck to the counter. With a damp paper towel, ensure that the counter is cleaned off, and dried.
• Grab the dough, and continue to knead again for about 8-10 minutes. Finish kneading the dough once it has become smooth and elastic.

• Wrap the dough in plastic wrap, and set aside on the counter for 30 minutes to 2 hours. I suggest setting it aside for the full 2 hours, as this makes it much easier to work with later on. However, if you are pressed for time, 30 minutes is adequate.

• After the dough has rested, remove 1/4 of the dough from the plastic wrap. Return the other 3/4 of the dough to the wrap, and set aside.
• On the clean surface, roll out the dough with the rolling-pin as you would bread dough. Do so with a light hand, and slowly, being careful not to rip the dough. Between each roll, it is best to move the actual dough so that it does not stick to the counter. Some would suggest adding more flour to the work surface, but I’ve found that this tends to dry out the dough.
• For pasta dough, you have to stretch it as you’re rolling it. This can be a bit tricky, and it’s really hard to explain how to do it. For this part, go with the feeling of the dough, and use your better judgement. When you are rolling the dough, you will have a feel for how elastic it is, and will know how far you can stretch it without it ripping. To stretch it, you simply set up the rolling-pin as if you are going to do a full roll, but then curl the end of the dough up over the roll. Place your left hand horizontally over the dough on the counter, and use your right hand to hold the dough over the rolling-pin. Slowly and carefully, gently pull the rolling-pin away from the counter in a smooth upward motion to stretch it slightly. Repeat this for the other end of the dough also.

• Continue to roll and stretch the dough until it is as thin as you can make it without ripping it. Again, this is something that you have to practice and get a feel for to know how to do it. The dough should be no more than 1/8 of an inch thick.

• If you are making noodles, you can simple cut the sheet of dough into strips and set aside while you do the rest of the dough. I wrap the finished pasta in plastic wrap while I work on the rest of the dough, but if you want the pasta dried out slightly you can just set aside on a plate until ready to cook.
• If you are making stuffed pasta (ravioli), use a sharp smooth knife to trim the edges of the sheet of dough to form a rectangle/square. This should be a big enough piece to make 3 medium-large sized pieces. On the bottom half of the rectangle, take your stuffing (I used grated cheese) and press it into a tight ball and flatten it slightly. (About the size of a quarter.) Place these stuffing balls on the bottom half of the dough, spaced evenly apart. Drape the upper half of the dough over the lower half, and press the corners down to stick. Using a sharp smooth knife, cut in between each piece of stuffing to make three individual pieces. With each piece, use either the back of a fork or your finger to press the ends together. It’s best to even pinch the ends to make sure there are no openings. Also, try to make sure there is as little air as possible in the stuffing pocket.

• Set aside the prepared pieces (again, wrap it in plastic wrap if you do not want it to dry out), and repeat the above steps with another 1/4 of the dough.

For this dough recipe (2 eggs with 1 1/3 cup flour), I found that I was able to make 12 pieces of stuffed pasta. The general rule of thumb for making pasta from scratch is: “1 egg per person”, so feel free to adjust the quantity accordingly.

When cooking the stuffed pasta, the pockets will puff out like little pillows, but they {probably} won’t burst.

To cook and serve the pasta, follow the notes mentioned above the ingredient list on “to cook fresh pasta”.

Here’s my pasta served with sauce! It looks messy, but it’s oh-so-good!