How to Make Homemade Pasta from Scratch Using a Machine
Making Homemade Pasta from Scratch
Last year when my husband and son asked me: what do you want for Christmas? I replied, a Marcato Atlas 150 Italian pasta machine, which had the right size to use at home and great reviews.
Though I had made pasta dishes many times in the past, I always wanted to learn to prepare homemade pasta from scratch.
We used a recipe from a book initially, and decided to prepare ravioli. Not a good idea for the first time you are preparing pasta, as making ravioli is a lot more complex than making fettucine or spaghetti, but it was a fun experience.
The kitchen and floor of our kitchen ended up covered in flour and pasta dough pieces.
The three of us participated in this project. We manually cut the pasta to make the raviolis after rolling the dough through the pasta machine and filled up the ravioli with a homemade meat filling.
The ravioli did not look that great, some pieces were falling apart, but after all and once the dish was completed with a nice pasta sauce, it tasted good, specially because we made it ourselves.
I guess a combination of first time doing something new and perhaps not having the best recipe possible, combined with a lack of practice on this, may not always bring you the best results. This is part of the learning experience though, but “practice makes the master” or “practice makes perfect”, and the more we practice, the better we get at it.
Recently my mom gave me a recipe to make pasta dough. This recipe can be doubled, tripled or multiplied by many times, depending on how many plates you are planning to serve. The same recipe works well whether you are using or not a pasta machine.
“Life is a combination of magic and pasta”, Federico Fellini
This time I was able to make pasta by myself and tried my mom’s recipe. The fettucine had a nice texture.
Next time you feel adventurous and decide to make your own pasta, try this recipe. There is no greater satisfaction that doing your own food from scratch. Certainly making your own homemade pasta dough and seeing the noodles take shape is an enjoyable experience.
If you are making fettucini, spaghetti, linguini, or any other long pasta, I recommend using a pasta drying rack like the one in the picture.
Have fun making your own pasta!
Homemade Pasta Dough and Making Fettucine with a Machine
Notes
For every 100 grs. of '00' or all purpose flour, add 1 egg, 1 teaspoon of olive oil and a pinch of salt. This will probably yield one large plate of pasta. Multiply all these amounts times the number of plates you would like to prepare.
Preparation time varies. The more you practice making pasta, the faster you will do it. In this case, the preparation includes 30 minutes when the pasta has to rest in the refrigerator.
Note: You can also use the pasta sheets, without cutting, to make lasagna.
Ingredients
- 400 grs. flour '00' or all purpose flour
- 4 eggs
- 4 teaspoons olive oil
- 4 pinches of salt (about 1/4 teaspoon)
- a little bit of extra flour
Instructions
- In a bowl pour the flour, the egg, oil and salt.
- Mix with a fork until all ingredients are well integrated.
- Place on the counter with a thin layer of flour and knead the dough with the bottom part of your hand, close to your wrist until it is elastic and smooth.
- With your hands round it until it looks like a ball.
- Place the dough ball inside a zippered bag and place in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
- Remove the dough from the refrigerator.
- Place a thin layer of flour on the counter and extend the dough either with the hands or with a rolling pin. Extend just a little bit, enough for the pasta to go through the pasta machine opening.
- Cut the pasta in two parts. You will work first with one part, then repeat procedure with the second part of the dough.
- Attach the pasta machine to the counter or table with the clamp and insert the crank into the hole of the smooth machine rollers.
- The pasta should go about 4 times through the pasta machine.
- Pull out the thickness-adjustment knob and turn to no. 0.
- Pat a little bit of flour on both sides of the dough and slide it through the machine. Crank the machine until the pasta sheets comes out completely through the other side.
- Repeat procedure changing the number to a higher one each time. That is put a little bit of flour on each side of the pasta dough sheet, place through the pasta machine on No. 1 next time.
- Keep repeating until you get to # 5 setting. You may do this only 4 times, through No. 0, 1, 3, and 5 instead, or go through each number until # 5.
- If the sheet is too long, cut in two sections, and slide one section at a time through the other side of the machine with the pasta cutters. Mine comes with an attachment for fettuccine and tagliolini. Additional pasta cutter attachments for spaghetti or other pasta shapes can be added.
- As you go, hang the pasta on a pasta dryer rack, if you have one, or make small nests of pasta.
- Boil water with 1 tablespoon of olive oil, 2 teaspoons of salt and a bay leave. Once it boils add the pasta.
- Separate the pasta lightly with a cooking fork.
- Cook for 5 to 8 minutes until "al dente".
- Check if it is cooked by removing one noodle and either bite (careful it is hot) or cut. If the center is still raw or looks dark, leave it cooking for a little bit longer.
- Remove from the heat and place the pasta in a colander.
- Remove the bay leave.
- Sprinkle cold water over the pasta. You may place under the sink for 30 seconds.
- Drain the water.
- Serve the pasta with your favorite sauce and sprinkle with shredded parmesan cheese.
- Recipe Author: Tila.
- Recipe "Cooking with Veronica": cookingwithveronica.com.
