So I have tried so many complex and exotic dishes in my life.
But honestly, pasta has always freaked me out.
Supposedly it's one of the easiest dishes to prepare, but I always found it to be way more complicated than what it seems...until I decided to actually try it.
In fact, I have always found the so-called simple dishes to be harder and make me nervous.
So this time I decided to find my cooking-guts and gave it a try. I'll even tell you how I almost thought I completely failed this recipe, and then found some salvation! My own recipe will follow at the end.
But I've discovered that just like any other cooking, and especially with all 'dough', it's all about how you handle it and your emotions that go into the cooking.
If you're freaking out, the dough will freak out too and nothing will work. So...handle with care. Professionals who worked at hotels told me that semolina is essential. I've heard that, but just so happened to be OUT of semolina and had no interest in running out to fetch some. Pasta is stay-indoors foods.
And after going through my Silver Spoon and Jamie cookbooks, I realized that semolina was never mentioned. So, I decided to follow their advice.
You could use the traditional mound of flour with eggs in the center, but if you're ok with skipping on that small traditional detail, a food processor works wonders! Just place the eggs and flour in the processor and start blitzing away. Through the funnel, I added olive oil (not in the recipes, I just thought it felt 'Italian' to add some.
When I removed it, the trick is to press the 'crumbs' together until they stuck and started to kneed until it resembled dough.
After a while I noticed the texture was too tough and broke apart too easily. I returned it into the processor and added more flour and slowly added water through the funnel until the processor makes a dull sound and it looks like the dough is moving slowly inside.
I took it out, and the difference was amazing. This time when I started to kneed, it didn't take long until it formed a smooth ball that was not sticky or dry.
I heard once that It should be as smooth as baby's skin. It sounds morbid, but it's exactly right!
After you feel it the right texture, roll it out. If you're doing this by hand, divide it into small portions and roll out until desired thickness and cut into strips or shapes that you want. If you're using a machine, which is crazy simple and easier, you want to pass the slightly rolled out dough through the widest setting. You pass it through, fold it in half, lengthwise, and pass it through until it's smooth. Then you start passing it through adjusting the with smaller and smaller each time you pass it through until it's as thin as you like. This you can ct it out, or use the adjustment like I have and pass it through to automatically cut out the pasta.
Once you've got your pasta, make sure it evenly dusted with flour. From here, boil it straight away in very salted water (as the Mediterranean), or if you're going to save some, hang it to dry and store in an airtight container, or I suggest to make little round mounds, wrap it, bag it, Tupperware it, and then freeze it. To use again, just thaw it out and use.
I boiled some straight away with a homemade pomadora sauce (recipe to come in another post) , and the rest I froze for another rainy day. The good thing about fresh pasta is that for all the time it takes to make it, it only takes 2min to cook it. When done, have you sauce ready in a frying pan, and add it in straight from the pot without rinsing. That water with starch is something you want to add to the sauce. Mix it up there and then...serve hot with fresh grana padano cheese. Don't let anyone wait! Once the plate is received, it must be consumed!
Pasta Dough
4 cups flour
2 eggs (preferably organic)
1/4 cup olive oil
1 cup water
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