Pasta Made By Hand

How I make Pasta by hand
(No machine or food processor)

First post of 2012! Finally! Now to get on to business. The art of making pasta at home is thought to be difficult. I know I thought it was, but now I can safely say it isn't nearly as hard nor does it need many hard to get ingredients. Everything you need should be in the pantry. So what do you need? Well my recipe is as follows...

Ingredients

- 1/2 cup flour 

- 1 egg

- tbsp of oil

- tsp of salt

Creation

 All-purpose flour... for now

I begin with a bowl. I know, everyone else uses the well method or a food processor, but they don't know how messy I am and washing an additional bowl ain't no thang. Plus I always seem to make pasta in black clothes... so yeah... Also this recipes makes for a single entree portion or two appetizers.  

 Lookin' good

Now it dumped on the cutting mat. This dough is going to need more flour, because for some odd reason I think it is easier to add flour than water when kneading. I don't know... I like to be different. Kneading is done   till the dough refuses to change shape and sticks to itself but nothing else.

 The crumbly mess has become smooooth

The dough must rest or rolling it out is going to be very difficult. This is about the time I think about what the pasta will be sauced with or filled with in this case. Today I had fresh spinach and parsley on hand, so chopped them up, wilted them in a pan with garlic and cream, then finish with Romano cheese. ...Or if i have all of that prepared I turn on the tv or listen to some music or maybe even wash dishes I don't need anymore like a good little chef...

 In order to roll out thin enough the dough must be cut in half so there are two sheets

Brisket Note: The pasta must be really thin. So thin that can see through it a bit. If I moved the pasta to cover the little blue logo on the cutting mat it I would be able to make it out slightly.

I ended with only enough for four large ravioli. So the rest goes to ribbon pasta. I know to use more spinach next time. Oh well. My homemade rolling pin looks so good. Had to throw that in somehow, cause there is always that inner joy that comes with making something at home.... like pasta....

 Fresh ravioli and tagliatelle

After fresh pasta is made its best to either cook immediately or freeze for later use. The tagliatelle will be frozen in this case. That will be a nice little midday lunch someday. When cooking fresh pasta a rule of thumb is it is done when they float, which is quite fast actually. Less than a minute for thin ribbon pastas. I have over cooked many pastas... many pastas.

Spinach Ravioli with a White Wine Cream Sauce

And that is that finished simple sauce with white wine and cream. Now relish in the glory of your homemade meal. So now what? Well the sky is the limit. You can do pretty much anything...

...like a faux carbonara...

...or a light tomato cream sauce. 

No those did not come from the that little bit of leftover pasta, just in case you were wondering I managed to make it multiply with magic. Though that would be quite awesome. Of course those dishes will be coming up soon and it goes without saying that this is...