Pasta

Over the summer I discovered just how easy it was to make my own pasta. I kept meaning to write out a step by step but somehow just never got around to it. Well, today is the day for clearing up loose ends so I thought I’d better get on with it! Also, I got a pasta machine for Christmas so I doubt I’ll be making it this way again. No doubt I’ll be posting another recipe for the machine method next year!

Now one of the great things about this recipe is that you can scale it up as you wish. You can also make extras, dry it and save it for later.

Serves 2

1 large egg
100g ’00’ pasta flour

Start with your flour and your egg.

– On a clean worksurface make a well in the flour and crack the egg into the centre.
– Use your fingers to work the egg into the flour until you have a dough.

Mix until it comes together as dough.

– Knead the dough for about 10 minutes until it is soft, supple and elastic.
– Leave the dough to rest for 20 minutes.
– Roll the dough out to a thickness of less than 1mm. It will swell when you cook it so make sure it is good and thin.
– Cut the dough into strips, you can use your rolling pin to keep the lines straight.

Roll out the dough.

– Separate out the strands of pasta and lay on a tea towel.

Dry the pasta.

– If you want to dry it for later use then it’s easiest to coil bundles of the pasta in nests until dry then store in an airtight box.
– Cook in boiling salted water for 6 minutes. Drain and serve as you wish.