Think fresh pasta, and one’s mind travels to labouriously rolling out the pasta dough, struggling to put it through the pasta laminator while securing the rest of it without letting it fall apart and then carefully cutting out thin silky tagliatelle or attentively folding the edges of a delicately stuffed plump tortellini. One wrong move and it could lead to the whole dough collapsing without a warning.
Making pasta is an art and like every other kind of art, it needs the right guidance and some luck to bind it all together. On World Pasta Day, we thought it might be a good idea to learn how to make a batch of pasta from scratch.
Here are a few recipes:
Homemade Spinach & Cheese Ravioli Recipe
Ingredients
4 – Large eggs
4 tbsp – Water
1 3/4 cups – All-purpose flour, plus more for preparing
1 3/4 cups – Semolina flour
1/2 teaspoon – Salt
Filling
1 cup – Frozen spinach, defrosted, drained and chopped
3 cups – Ricotta cheese
1/4 cup – Parmesan cheese, grated
Method
* Adds eggs, water, flour and salt to the bowl of a stand mixer. Using the flat beater attachment, beat for 30 to 60 seconds on speed 2 and mix for 30 to 60 seconds. Add more water if the dough is too dry, in 1/2 tablespoon increments.
* Remove flat beater and change with the dough hook. Knead for 2 minutes on speed 2. Remove the dough and knead by hand for 2 minutes on a marble pastry board. Allow the dough to rest covered for 20 to 30 minutes.
* Cut dough into four pieces before processing with pasta sheet attachment. Work with one piece at a time, be sure to cover the other pieces of dough. Take one piece and flatten into a rectangular shape. Add flour to both sides. Attach the pasta sheet roller to your stand mixer and set it to 1. Turn on the stand mixer to speed 2 and run the pasta dough through the pasta sheet roller. While on 1, fold the dough in half and run it through again.
* Add a little bit of flour on each side of the dough/sheet between in pass through the pasta sheet roller, change setting to 2 and pass the pasta dough through the sheet roller twice. Change to 3 and pass the pasta through twice and then the same for 4.
* After rolling the pasta out, get the ravioli maker out and lay the pasta sheet on top of the filler (white plastic). Push the pasta sheet into the ravioli cavities and adjust the sheet as needed. Fill each ravioli with about a teaspoon, I use my fingers to ensure it gets all the way in there and there’s no air pockets.
* After you’re finished filling your pasta, add another pasta sheet on top and using your hands, you’re going to push down to ensure the sheets are pressed together; you don’t want any air pockets.
* Then cut the pasta sheet at the end with kitchen shears.
* Once again, press down with your hands and pat it a little, we want to make sure to seal the raviolis. Flip the ravioli filler and remove the filled pasta sheets. Then put the ravioli cutter on the ravioli sheets and line it up correctly. And then flip it over with the ravioli sheets. We’re going to use this to cut the raviolis. Run a rolling pin over the top, back and forth. Gently pull apart the raviolis and you’re done.
* To make baked or fried ravioli appetizers, see below. When boiling your ravioli pasta, it only needs 5 to 7 minutes to boil, for frozen pasta just add a couple of minutes longer.
Fusilli Pasta
Ingredients
100g – Semolina flour
50g – Warm water
A pinch of salt
Method
* Make a dough with the three ingredients and knead until nice and smooth. Let the dough rest, covered, for at least half an hour.
* Roll the dough into a thick salami and cut it into 5-6 pieces. Keep them covered while you shape the fusilli. Roll each piece into a thin snake (1/4 inch / 6 mm thick), then cut into pieces about 2 1/2 inch / 6.5 cm long. Shape each piece into a fusilli with the skewer.
* Place a piece of dough on the working surface on a diagonal. Place the skewer at the bottom end of the piece of dough, then roll the skewer away from you until the dough is all wrapped around it. Rock the skewer back and forth a few times while pressing it gently with your hands to the right and left of the rolled dough. Do not press hard or the dough will stick to the skewer.
* Gently slide the fusilli off the skewer and lay it out to dry on a lightly floured section of the kneading board (or a baking sheet lined with a cotton kitchen towel).
* Have at least two skewers ready to work with and exchange them every few pieces of pasta. Insert the skewers into some flour in between uses, so they dry.
* Repeat until you have used up the prepared dough.
Tagliatelle
Ingredients
2 cups – Flour
Salt according to taste
1 teaspoon – Extra virgin olive oil
4 – Whole eggs
2 – Egg yolks
Method
* Put 2 cups flour onto a cold surface and use a fork to form a well in centre.
* Season the centre of the well with salt and add olive oil.
* Crack eggs into bowl and gently whisk together. Add a third of whisked eggs into well. Use the fork to gradually incorporate flour into the eggs.
* Once mostly soaked in, add another third, continuing to mix into the flour, careful not to let eggs slide out.
* Create another well in the middle of the flour and egg mixture and add the remaining egg, combining until the dough looks like crumbs.
* Once all the egg is incorporated, flour your hands and begin forming a ball.
* Continue to flour your hands and knead the ball of dough until firm and elastic, turning and twisting the ball for about 10 minutes.
* Wrap in plastic wrap and rest for at least 20 minutes before rolling.
* Take the dough and roll it out thinly.
* Pass it through a pasta laminator.
* Put it through the machine for the long silky Tagliatelle and let it dry. Cook in in your favourite sauce.
