Lots of things seem harder than they actually are. Driving is one. Starting a blog is another. For me, making fresh pasta was one too. Even before the internet confused me with a hundred recipes, all slightly different, I read about making pasta in cookbooks and it seemed impossible. Once or twice I even tried it and choked on the thick, slippery half-cooked noodles I created. Mmmm, I said trying to salvage the time and effort I had committed. But it turns out it’s not that hard and is quite rewarding. Maybe you relate to my failure or nervousness but I hope you will try again. I did.
Making pasta is not hard if you have the right tools. The main problem for me was that I’m something of a Luddite. I want to do everything “the old way” a tendency that places most potential hobbies on a scale from too hard to impossible. I got into wood working 30 years ago and I’ll build a table as soon as I finish making my own vise, plane, and chisels (for the handmade dovetail corners of course). With cooking I also eschewed modern constructs that cost money like pasta machines. I had a rolling pin. Not one I made, but it looked very old.
There are certain people, who tend to be Type-A or old and Italian, who can roll and cut pasta by hand. I’m not one and -brace yourself- you probably aren’t either. So buy a pasta machine and start having some fun. I use this hand crank pasta machine which is durable and inexpensive. You can buy electric models that cost more but we’re not grinding meat here. Cranking a pasta machine is easier than rolling down a car window…yes we still have a car with roll-down windows.
You will find many pasta dough recipes in books and online. I use a recipe from Serious Eats. They also have a great description of the science of pasta making. Here's the recipe: 10 ounces of flour, two large eggs, four additional egg yolks, and a teaspoon of salt. If you don’t have a kitchen scale, you should (I use this one). They are helpful since many ingredients like salt and flour cannot be measured properly without one.
I won’t go into depth with the recipe because you can find it at Serious Eats. My goal is to give you confidence to actually do it. So here are some things that could go wrong and why they don’t matter. Maybe you don’t have a scale so you plunge your measuring cup into the bag of flour, lift out two packed cups, and find your dough is too dry. Just add another egg or even a dash of water and proceed with the needing. It will work. Maybe you don’t have 6 eggs or don’t have a use for 4 egg whites. Just use 4 whole eggs and it will work. I do it all the time.
You have probably seen the process of dumping flour on the counter, making a well, adding the eggs, then slowly mixing and drawing in the flour with a fork. That is the old way and it works but I have also just dumped everything in a bowl or in a stand mixer instead of on the countertop and it also works.
You would think from the proliferation of no-knead bread recipes that, as our phone-tapping thumbs have gotten stronger, our arms have atrophied to the point we can no longer push soft dough against a counter. It’s easy -push, fold, turn- and only takes 3 minutes. I’m sure you can do it. Aren’t we all looking for more ways to exercise these days?
Wrap your smooth round dough in plastic and let it rest for half an hour while you exercise your beer-drinking arm.
Cut the dough in quarters and roll one of them thin enough to fit in a pasta machine set on the widest opening. Run it through, fold it in thirds, roll it flat, and run it through again. That's called laminating and makes the dough stronger. You should do it two or three times. Now just keep decreasing the width of your pasta machine until you get the thickness you want. I use third from last for fettuccine and second from last for angel hair.
Now the fun part. Take your sheet of dough and cut it in half or in thirds depending on how long you want your noodles, which probably depends on if you have kids or not. Crank it through the cutting attachment and out come noodles. Fluff them with flour and set them in little nests on a tray. Keep going. It will take about ten minutes to finish rolling and cutting all the dough.
Now the really fun part. Boil salted water. Drop in a nest or two of noodles. In 2-3 minutes fish them out with a strainer, deep fry spider, or tongs. Put them on a plate, hit’em with some pesto, and hand it to a kid. Drop in the next couple nests. As you boil the last nests for yourself you will hear the gratifying happy sounds of children who just found their new favorite thing and your partner exclaiming “Holy shit! You made this?” Yes you did.
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