Pasta Alluovo Fresh Egg Pasta Recipes

PASTA ALL'UOVO

Steps:

• Pile the flour in a mound on a work surface. Break the eggs into the centre and add the salt. Stir the eggs into the flour, with a fork at first and then with your hands, until it forms a coarse paste. Add a little more flour if too moist.
• Now the pasta dough has to be kneaded. It should be smooth and workable, not too soft but not too hard. Do this in the machine or by hand.
• If the latter, clean your hands and the work surface first. Lightly flour the surface and your hands, and knead the dough with the heel or palm of one hand, pushing it away from you and folding it back towards you. Collect all the bits from the work surface and incorporate them into the dough. Flour the surface and your hands from time to time. After about 10 - 15 minutes the dough should be ready. Allow it to rest for 15 - 30 minutes before rolling, but cover with a cloth.
• Once again, dust the clean work surface and the rolling pin with flour. Take a part of the dough (leaving the rest still covered), and begin to roll it out gently. Always roll away from you, each time rotating the dough by a quarter turn.
• The thickness required is dependent on the type of pasta: 1.5 - 2mm (1/16 inch) for stuffed pasta, and 3 - 4mm (1/8 inch) for lasagne and cannelloni. If you are making stuffed pasta such as ravioli, then use the pasta straightaway. If you are making lasagne, cut the sheets and place them on a floured cloth to dry a little. If you are cutting ribbons, fold the sheet of pasta into a loose roll and cut it into ribbons of the desired width. Open out the rolls gently and allow them to dry for a further 10 minutes or so before cooking.
• If using a machine to roll the dough, you have to force a section of the pasta dough through at a time until the dough becomes smooth. Then you decrease the gap each time through the rollers, so that the dough becomes thinner and longer. Repeat this until you obtain the desired thickness. Then either put it through the cutting rollers to make various sizes of ribbon, or cut into sheets.
• Cook fresh pasta in a large saucepan, preferably with a rounded base. Use one litre (1 3/4 pints) water per 115g (4 oz) pasta, plus two teaspoons of salt. When you put the pasta into the pot, give it a quick stir to prevent it from sticking together (it is only with lasagne, which must be immersed one sheet at a time, that it is necessary to add a few drops of oil to the water). Cooking time varies according to the kind of pasta, its thickness and whether it is stuffed, but home-made noodles and ribbons will take between three and five minutes. Stir the pasta while it is cooking, preferably with a long wooden fork. Always test the pasta when you think it should be almost done: it is ready when it is al dente, and slightly resistant. A little before it reaches that stage, take the saucepan off the heat, add a glass of cold water, and leave for a couple of seconds. Then drain the pasta and return immediately to the saucepan or a preheated dish, mixing it with a little sauce and perhaps some grated cheese. Serve it immediately.

PASTA ALL'UOVO (EGG DOUGH)

Steps:

• Hand method:
• Sift the flour onto a large wooden board. Form the flour into a mound with the approximate profile of Mount Fuji. Form your hand into a loose fist, and, with the back of the fingers, gently ream out the center of the mound until you have something that resembles a low, broad volcano with a very deep crater. Italian cooks call this a fountain, fontana, for the pool of liquid in the center, but it's definitely a cone.
• Break all the eggs into the crater one by one. Pierce the yolks with a fork and begin gingerly to use the fork to incorporate them into the flour with a movement something like scrambling eggs. Incorporate the liquid from the center outward. The walls of the crater will keep the liquid from running out.
• When the liquid has absorbed enough flour that you now have a messy, wet dough surrounded by flour, knock what's left of the volcano in toward the center and begin to knead with your hands to incorporate the rest of the flour into the dough. Scrape up all the remaining flour and the dough bits and squeeze them into the dough.
• Food processor method:
• Put all the ingredients in the container of a food processor fitted with the steel blade (not pastry hooks or the like). Let rip at high speed until you see crumbs forming. Keep going until the dough forms a ball. You may become convinced that your dough will never form a single ball, only many little ones. In that case, give up because you risk overheating the dough. Pour what you have out on the wooden board; use your hands to form the pieces into a single loaf of dough.
• Kneading:
• The biggest mistake people make, says Oretta, is not using enough force. Skip the gym the day you make pasta and make kneading your workout. The women of Scandriglia, where Oretta has her country house, recommend making fettuccine as a remedy for backache in preference to those boring exercises. On the other hand, my friend Antonietta, who learned to make pasta as a child in Basilicata, tells me southern men enjoy watching the undulating hips of southern women as they knead the pasta dough. If it helps to put on some music and do the maccheroni mambo as you knead, go right ahead.
• Plant your feet firmly on the floor and the heels of your hands firmly on the dough in front of you. A dining table will usually be a more comfortable height than a kitchen counter, which may be too high. With all your strength, and leaning in with your whole body, push the dough forward hard with the heel of one hand, then with the heel of the other hand. Then fold it over and continue the movement, alternating hands-or whatever works for you. You're pushing the whole piece of dough forward, so it moves on the board.
• After each completed movement, give the dough a quarter turn and repeat. Keep this up for 30 minutes, or as long as you can stand. If you've used the food processor, 15 or 20 minutes will do. You can quit early, too, if you plan to use a rolling machine: send the dough through one extra pass for each minute of kneading saved.
• As you work, the dough may seem dry, but you don't want it to be wet and sticky. It needs just enough moisture to hold it together, not a drop more. If your dough is so dry that you are quite sure it will never hold together, you can add a teensy bit of water. (It used to be quite normal to use water to save eggs, which could be sold for cash.) Your goal is a single smooth loaf of dough that is not sticky to the touch. If the flour is either very freshly ground (hence moister) or very old (drier), you'll have to adjust by feel. When it feels just right-moist but not tacky, considerably drier than the average dog's nose-set it aside for a moment.
• You'll probably need to clean the board about halfway through the process. Use a plastic scraper or the blunt side of a large knife to scrape up any bits that have stuck to the board. (Sharp knives may damage your nice wooden board, and their edges are dulled by scraping.) Likewise wash your hands, which are doubtless also encrusted with bits of dried dough by this time.
• Resting:
• Once you have a beautifully silky loaf of dough, let it rest for 30 minutes to let the gluten develop. Wrap it in foil, or just place it on the board and invert a bowl over it until you're ready. By this time, you probably need to put your feet up too.
• When the dough and you have rested, you can proceed to the next stage. Depending on what kind of pasta you want to make, this may involve rolling and cutting to make a pasta sheet (sfoglia) or pulling pieces directly from the loaf of dough and shaping them by hand.

FRESH EGG PASTA

Steps:

• In a food processor, pulse together flour and salt. Add eggs, yolks and oil and run the machine until the dough holds together. If dough looks dry, add another teaspoon olive oil. If dough looks wet, add a little flour until dough is tacky and elastic.
• Dump dough onto a work surface and knead briefly until very smooth. Wrap in plastic and rest at room temperature for 1 hour or in the fridge overnight. (If pressed for time, the dough can be used after a 30-minute rest; just note that it would be slightly harder to roll out.)
• Cut the dough into 4 pieces, keeping them covered with plastic wrap or a dish towel when not in use. (If you're rolling the dough out by hand, rather than using a pasta machine, cut it into 2 pieces instead.) Using a pasta roller set to the thickest (widest) setting, roll one piece of dough out into a sheet. Fold the sheet in thirds like a letter and pass it through the machine 2 more times on the same setting.
• Reduce the setting, and repeat rolling and folding the dough, passing it through the machine 2 or 3 times before going to the next setting. For pappardelle and fettuccine, stop rolling when the dough is about 1 or 2 settings wider than the thinnest one on your roller. For lasagna noodles, and for ravioli and other stuffed or filled pasta, go to the thinnest setting. (To roll dough by hand, see note below.)
• Shape the pasta. For pappardelle, cut rolled pasta into 1-inch-wide strips. For fettuccine, run the rolled sheets through the fettuccine setting on your roller. Place cut pasta on a flour-dusted sheet tray and cover with a dish towel while rolling and cutting the remaining dough. Make sure to sprinkle flour over the cut pasta before you place another layer on top. If not using immediately, cover the sheet pan with a dish towel to keep the dough supple.
• Bring a large pot of well-salted water to a boil, add fresh pasta and boil for 1 to 3 minutes, depending on thickness of the pasta. Drain well.