The Basics of Pasta Pt 1:

Casual Homemade Pasta: Sheeted and Rolled

Pasta in its most basic sense is two ingredients: flour and some kind of liquid. The basic recipe for a rolled out pasta, or a pasta that is put through a sheeter, uses eggs in some quantity as the liquid of choice, giving the dough more elastic strength when rolled thin and cooked. No one wants noodles disintegrating on their fork. Alternatively, short pastas such as cavatelli often omit the eggs and use water instead, because the short nubby shape of the pasta, alongside the lower hydration percentage, allows the pasta to hold its shape without the use of egg. For homemade hand cut spaghetti, tagliatelle, pappardelle, and more, the basic recipe takes into account the crowd you're feeding. In Italy the rule of thumb is to use 100g of flour per person. This isn't going to be a big pasta feast, but 100g is still a portion to have at mealtime alongside a secondo dish. Then for every 100g of flour, one egg is used, about 50g of egg. This basic recipe allows you to scale up your pasta production to feed a full dinner party of ten people or more, or scale down to just have a portion of pasta for one.

Optional variations for sheeted pasta include changing the choice of flour and add-ins like pureed beets or spinach for color. I tend to include about 20% semolina flour, replacing some of the All Purpose flour. I think it just gives the cooked pasta a little bit more of a substantial bite, but it does require a little bit more liquid. Semolina isn't a requirement, just a preference in some applications. Here in the US its not common to find 00 four in the supermarket, which is another reason why the addition of eggs is needed. Italian 00 four has a higher gluten content, closer to that of bread flour in the US, which allows the dough to be held together even without the addition of eggs. But its somewhat unreasonable to call this an ultra simple quick recipe if it calls a special flour thats not readily available. Either way, the addition of eggs still acts as a safety net for an elastic easy to work with dough, and the lower gluten content of All Purpose flour means that the dough doesn't need to rest for as long in order to relax and be able to roll out.

The use of a scale is extremely helpful. 100g of flour could be measured with Imperial Cups but it gets a little inconsistent when insuring the proper hydration of the dough because you're also not weighing the eggs. 1 cup of flour is about 120g, so 100g of flour measures out to roughly to 3/4 of a cup plus one tablespoon... not ideal. Invest in a cheap scale and your life will improve. Think of all the dishes you wont have to do when your weighing your ingredients!

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The Basics of Pasta pt 1:

Ingredients:

Flour - 100g per person

Eggs - 1 egg for every 100g of flour

Water - in a small bowl nearby for adjustments

Pinch of salt (optional but nice to have)

For two servings, measure out 160g of All Purpose flour and 40g semolina (or all AP flour). After throughly mixing, make a well in the center of the flour, and with the bowl still on the scale, crack in the eggs. Here you can see each of my eggs was about 50g, meaning that my hydration is about 50%. For sheeted pastas 50% might feel a little low, especially with the addition of semolina, but start here and add water later on when kneading. Sheeted pastas work well anywhere from 51%-57% hydration depending on the gluten development and flour being used.

Add just a pinch of salt into the eggs and scramble. As you mix, the flour around the sides will begin to make a loose dough. Keep stirring, gradually incorporating the flour in with the eggs. Soon it will become a very dry shaggy dough. I switched to my hands after picture 3, and started kneading in the bowl.

Dump the dry shaggy dough onto your work surface and begin to knead, gathering all the dry bits back into the dough. My dough was feeling pretty tough, so with my water bowl nearby, I wet my hands and continued to knead the firm dough. I repeated that a couple time until the dough was smooth but still pretty dry and firm. When folded, it doesn't really stick to itself because its on the firmer side and isn't wet enough to be sticky. BUT don't be scared, this is why the resting stage is important.

The current interactive time at this point had been 10 min.

Wrap the dough in plastic wrap or a plastic bag and leave on the counter. This is a crucial step in the process because the flour needs to hydrate and the gluten needs to relax in order to roll out. But don't be fooled, this also doesn't need to take hours if your in a rush or just hangry. Ideally the dough sits for 30 min on the counter or even longer in the fridge. But I live life on the edge, and decided to roll my dough out after 15 min. Quick and easy like I said.

I realized after I already floured my work surface and dough that I shouldn't have done that. When working with a dough that isn't fully rested and relaxed, or even just a firm dough in general, you can use the stickiness of your work surface to your advantage. When rolling the dough out, it might want to retract and spring back, this is a sign of not rested enough, but we persist because were hungry. Allow the dough to stick you the counter as you roll it out, using the elastic tension to your advantage. Roll it and letting it sit for just a second stuck to the counter, so the gluten relaxes in this strenuous state. Then lift up, rotate, and repeat.

If you watch videos of nonna's rolling out massive sheets of pasta with their mattarelli, you will see them use several techniques including pulling the sheet of past taught while simultaneously rolling the stretched dough. Once the dough is extremely thin and almost translucent, like thin leather, begin to heavily flour both sides as you finish your rolling. The dough should be dry, thin, and almost feel like a raw flexible hide.

With one last dash of flour, fold the top quarter of the dough down, and then fold it over itself again. Finish folding the dough in this booklet form and cut in half.

This is where you can decide what kind of pasta shape you want, whether it be a hand cut spaghetti, a tagliatelle (shown here), or a wider pappardelle.

With claw like fingers, jostle the pasta loose from itself and throughly flour the noodles they separate.

In under an hour I had homemade pasta, and that was while I was taking pictures and trying to get nice lighting. In my daily life, the active time of this recipe while accounting for measuring, kneading, and rolling is under 20 min. Rest time is up to you but I'm impatient so its normally shorter than advised.

From here you can leave the pasta floured on the counter while you make your sauce, cook the pasta immediately in salted boiling water, or place the pasta on a baking sheet or plate, placing it in the freezer and then transferring to a bag for a quick dinner later. Fresh pasta cooks quick so it only needs about 2-3 min in boiling water, because it will finish additional cooking in your sauce of choice.

Here I used 150g of flour to 1 egg and then 25g of water because I didn't feel like using another egg. Pasta is very forgiving but you just have to learn what to feel for.