To make homemade pasta for four diners, you will need:
- 300g bread flour
- 2g salt
- 5 eggs
- 15ml extra virgin olive oil
Before getting revved up by all this, remember that most Italian cooks make their own pasta. They do this because they can, because it tastes better and because it cooks quickly. Of course, they have been doing this all their lives, and in stark contrast, you haven’t. But what the heck, a man has got to start somewhere.
There are two routes to homemade pasta. The first is technology-free; the other is dependent on serious kitchen machines. These are a food processor, which you probably have, and a manually powered pasta roller, which you probably don’t. My former colleagues at the University of Natal gave my wife and me a pasta machine in 1982 as a wedding gift. It is seemingly carved out of a solid block of stainless steel, and is totally indestructible, with a design aesthetic that probably originates from the time of Julius Caesar.
It works perfectly every time. Alternatively, all you need is a work surface, a good rolling pin and a serious knife. This recipe assumes you have all three plus a food processor. To begin: set up the food processor. Pour in the flour and salt and give it a few powerful blitzes to get the show on the road. Separate three of the eggs, retaining only the yolks. Add these
to the food processor plus the remaining two whole eggs and the carefully measured olive oil.
Switch on and let the machine do its thing until the dough is ready. Too dry? Add a little more oil. Too wet? A little more flour should do the trick. Lightly flour a work surface and turn out the dough onto it. Knead for a minute or two by hand, wrap it in cling wrap and let it stand for an hour or so. Unwrap, then cut, the ball of dough in half. With your rolling pin, roll out each half into a thin (say 1mm to 2mm) sheet. With the point of your knife, cut the sheet into strips of about 5mm in width.
At this point you have two options: hang the pasta strips over an ultra-clean broom handle (bad idea – they stretch and drop onto the floor) or loosely bunch the strips together a few at a time and let them dry on a sheet of baking paper (much better idea).
You can cook these in lightly salted boiling water after 15 minutes or so. They will need only a few minutes, so test by taste to ensure the bite resistance you prefer. Serve at once with the pasta sauce of your choice. That’s it!
