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Home made pasta

Serves: 4-6

Notes

If you can get it, the best flour for the job is durum semolina, from which most Italian pastas are made. It’s a stronger flour than everyday household plain flour, although that will do. It’s best if the flour is unbleached.

Ingredients

• 300 g flour
• 3 large eggs
• Grated nutmeg (optional)
• Chopped parsley or cooked spinach (optional)
• Additional flour for dusting work surface

Method

On a work surface make a small hill of flour. Make a well in the centre. Break in the eggs. Stir them up with a fork or with your fingers. It is a good idea to have a spatula standing by because the eggs usually want to take off through the wall of your crater and you’ll have to round them up. Gradually add a little flour to the eggs from the inside of the crater. When the mixture stops being runny you can tumble the rest of the flour over the eggs and flour mix. Then knead lightly with your finger tips until you have a firm dough. If the eggs are very large you may find the mixture is a bit sloppy. You can add a bit more flour but not too much or your dough will be crumbly. Make the dough into a ball and put aside while you clean up the work surface and your hands. Now it’s time to knead the dough for 5 or 6 minutes. If you want, you can add herbs or spice at this stage. I like to add a little cooked spinach or chopped parsley for colour and grated nutmeg. All sorts of ingredients are added to give colour and flavour: tomato purée, even chocolate. Yes it’s true. Now make the dough into a bun shape. Dust the work surface with flour and this is where the fun part begins: The rolling. For this job I prefer to use a wooded rolling pin. Roll the dough stating from about a third of the way in and rolling away from you. Turn it a quarter turn after every roll. Try to keep it as round as possible. For making a simple ribbon pasta, such as fettuccine or tagliatelle, the pasta should be allowed to dry slightly. A good way of doing this is to hang it over the rolling pin resting between two chairs. It should hang long enough to get leathery. About 30 minutes on a cold day or about 3 minutes on a hot Australian summer’s day! Then you roll up pasta like a newspaper. If it is a bit sticky dust it lightly with flour. It should be feeling leathery. When it’s rolled up, simply cut through the roll to the thickness that you would like. Then gently pull the strands apart and let them dry for a few minutes before cooking. Do not disturb them too much at this stage or they will break. Gather them up and toss into lots of boiling water. Stir occasionally with a wooden spoon. A word of caution. It only takes seconds to cook fresh pasta. Make sure it doesn’t overcook. Try the bite test – it should be firm but not doughy. Drain and serve with sauce of your choice. I prefer a light tomato sauce with a sprinkling of parsley, parmesan and freshly ground black pepper.