I had always been intrigued and somewhat intimidated at the thought of making fresh pasta. Then, visiting the Williams Sonoma website one day, I was seduced by their video on easy it was to use the Kitchen Aid Mixer attachment. In no time, son Adam and I were up to our elbows in flour and eggs, having a wonderful time making fresh pasta.
The dough contains surprisingly few ingredients: eggs, flour, salt, and olive oil. Combining them was a little more tricky. We elected the “by hand” method for our first attempt and were soon convulsed in laughter as we tried to beat the eggs and oil together in a well of flour. The idea was to gradually incorporate the flour while not breaching the walls of the well. Well, we breached. Repeatedly. It didn’t seem to matter, however, and soon our mess looked just like the one in the book. The tricky part was getting the final elastic dough. That took twenty minutes of valiant effort on both our parts to knead the dough into submission, but we succeeded and triumphed!
Then came the fun part – feeding the dough through the rollers to achieve the desired thinness, steadily reducing the width of the roller gap with each pass until the last notch is reached. Unfortunately, the original recipe didn’t mention cutting each disc into four pieces, so the pasta grew enormously long, requiring both of us to hold it aloft. We then cut into 14-16″ sections through the cutting blade. .attachment for the final run.
The verdict? Well worth the effort. We were confident that a bit of practice would smooth out the process, which turned out to be the case.
There were no leftovers.
This recipe reflects everything we have learned since our first hilarious adventure.
PrintFresh Pasta
- Yield: About 700 g or 1½ lb of dough 1x
Ingredients
- 480 g or 4 c 00 Fine Flour
- 6 g or 2 tsp fine sea salt
- 30 ml or 2 tbsp olive oil
- 5 large eggs
Instructions
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the flour, salt and olive oil (30 seconds).
- In a medium bowl, beat the eggs thoroughly. With the mixer on low speed, slowly drizzle in the eggs and beat until the flour mixture has absorbed them. Switch to the dough hook and knead it until it is smooth and elastic (5-8 minutes).
- Transfer the dough to a work surface and shape it into two balls. Wrap each separately with plastic wrap, then flatten into discs. Let stand at room temperature for at least 30 minutes or up to 2 hours.
- Attach the pasta roller to the stand mixer.
- Unwrap one dough disc and dust lightly with flour. Cut each disk into four pieces; rewrap the remaining pieces. Working with one piece at a time, flatten it into a rectangle. Run the dough through the rollers at the widest setting; lay the pasta on the work surface, fold it into thirds, and run it back through the rollers. Repeat the process twice more: folding it into thirds and running it through the rollers at the widest setting.
- Make the dough thinner by running it through the rollers at the second-to-widest setting. Set the rollers one notch narrower each time until the desired thinness is reached. Transfer the dough to a baking sheet, and cover loosely with plastic wrap. Repeat with the remaining dough.
- Attach a pasta cutter to the mixer and cut the pasta into the desired shape. Cut the full-width pasta into the desired lengths if you are making lasagne.
- If not cooking the pasta immediately, transfer it to a baking sheet and dust lightly with flour to prevent sticking. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 24 hours.
Helen – the first time I tried homemade pasta I also selected the by hand method for the initial mixing. I went all the way – including putting the ingredients, as instructed directly on a flat surface (I have a huge plastic cutting board. I started beating the eggs and turning in the flour – easy enough, but after a while the kitchen was a cloud of flour dust and I had only one small clump of dough moistened. Suddenly I felt something wet on my foot (wearing sandals). Yep…much of the egg had slipped away, stealth like, under the mound of flour and headed for the floor.
Haven’t tried that method since. Always use a bowl. Perhaps I shall brave it again one day but in
the meantime, I think I will try your wonderful recipe on fresh (but store bought) noodles.
Hi Mary – it was indeed extremely messy, but we managed to keep everything on the flat surface for the most part, but barely! Next time I would use a bowl, too, and probably beat the eggs and olive oil first in a separate bowl, then make a well in the centre of the flour in a large shallow bowl – maybe a big pie plate?