Homemade Pasta

When I first started making pasta about a decade  ago, I had many, many pasta making fiascoes.  I remember being practically in tears over this massive conglomerate of pasta that would not stop sticking to itself.  It ended up cooking into what resembled something between tumbleweed and a dumpling, and was deeply dissatisfying.  Both my technique and my ingredients were to blame.  For instance, though most recipes will instruct you to use all purpose flour for your pasta, I find the 00 caputo flour from Italy so much easier to work with.  This was the first step for me towards easy pasta making.  If you are in Seattle you can buy it in bulk from Big John’s PFI near the International District.  You can also buy it in twenty and fifty five pound bags online–I like the red bag Napoli Antimo Caputo Tipo “00”.  The 00 caputo flour has revolutionized not only my pasta, but also pizza dough and gnocchi, and is well worth keeping a good supply on hand.

I have worked to make the pasta process as painless as possible for myself, and can now usually prepare the pasta and sauce in about an hour.  To start, although this might be considered somewhat sacrilegious, I just drop the flour and eggs into the stand mixer with a the dough hook attached and let it work itself out for ten minutes or so.  After it is has been well kneaded by the machine, it is a good idea to let it rest for about twenty minutes while you work on your sauce.  It helps the gluten relax and makes it easier to work with.  After it has had a nice rest, you divide it into pieces and begin the rolling.  It is essential that you continue to keep the pasta well dusted in flour as you work with it, and doubly important if it happens to be humid.  I spent several years either hand rolling or using a hand crank pasta roller, but a few years ago I saw the Kitchen Aid stand mixer pasta attachments in action on an episode of Iron Chef, and had to have them.  This has made pasta rolling and cutting quick and practically effortless.

Homemade Pasta Dough
Makes 1 pound of pasta

2 1/3 cup 00 caputo flour, plus more for dusting
4 large eggs

Measure the flour into the bowl of a stand mixer.  Make a well in the flour and break the eggs into the flour.  Attach the dough hook and knead on low speed for about ten minutes, scraping down the bowl as needed.  Or you can do this step by hand by mixing the eggs into the flour with a fork until a shaggy dough forms.  Turn the shaggy dough onto the counter, form a ball and knead for ten minutes.  After kneading, lightly dust the ball of dough with flour, cover with saran wrap and allow to rest for about twenty minutes.

Divide the dough into eight even pieces, keeping the pieces you aren’t working with covered.  Starting with one of the pieces, dust each side with flour, and send through the pasta roller on the widest setting.  With the long side towards you, fold the right outer third over the center, and then the left outer third over that.  Turn so that short side goes through the pasta roller first, and roll again.  Repeat the folds and rolling on the widest setting two more times.  Place on a flour dusted counter top and repeat with the other seven pieces.  This step helps develop the dough and is essential.

The folds are now complete.  Now run each piece through the pasta roller, working from widest to narrow setting.  For instance on my pasta roller, I run all the pieces through the “1” width setting, then all the pieces through, “2” width setting,  then “3” width setting and so on until I reach “5” width setting.  That is where I leave it for taglietelle, but would go thinner for lasagna.  Somewhere between “4” and “5” the pasta becomes very long and usually needs to be cut in half.  Remember to continue dusting with flour as needed as you are rolling. Allow the pasta to dry on each side for few minutes, then cut into the desired shape–tagliatelle, linguine, pappardelle, lasagna etc.

When the pasta is ready to be cooked, have a large 8 quart pot of water at full boil.  Add what seems like too much salt, about a tablespoon, and bring back to a boil.  Have your colander ready to drain the pasta because the process is quick.  Drop all the pasta in quickly, and stir to separate  with tongs.  If you are making more than a pound you will definitely want to cook it in batches or use a larger pot. Once the pasta floats, start checking it about every thirty seconds.   It should be cooked al dente, with a with a little firmness to the bite, and drained immediately.  It will continuing cooking a bit after it has been drained and mixed with the sauce.