You’ll love that you can make your own homemade pasta, trust me! Years ago a neighbour loaned me her hand-crank pasta machine. I was a little nervous but the fettuccine turned out so well I was really impressed! This meant, that we had to rush out and get the machine! We used it for a number of years and then upgraded to the pasta roller attachments for my KitchenAid stand mixer. I think my husband wanted to opt out of cranking the old machine and why he bought the attachments, allowing me to be the only two hands needed for the operation of making noodles!
Quantity for 3 People:
2 cups unbleached flour
1 tsp. water
1 tsp. EVO
1 tsp. salt
3 eggs, room temperature
Note: if you are serving the pasta with a meat sauce, this amount of pasta should be enough.
*Quantity for 4 People:
2 ½ cups unbleached flour
1 ½ tsp. water
1 ½ tsp. EVO
1 ½ tsp. salt
4 eggs, room temperature
Method For Processor:
Place flour in processor with salt. Do a couple of on/off turns to blend. Combine the eggs, water & EVO and drizzle into the feed tube with machine running. Combine until dough forms clumps. Do not over process. Remove to a work surface and knead for 1 minute. Wrap in plastic wrap and set aside to 30 minutes. Then continue to roll out the dough.
Method for Stand Mixer:
Place flour in mixing bowl with salt. Whisk together to blend. Add the eggs, water & EVO. Using the “paddle” blend on level 2 for 30 seconds. Remove the “paddle” & attach the dough hook. Knead the dough for 2 minutes on level 2.
Helpful tip: Make sure you hold down the bowl while it is doing the kneading or it will jump off it’s pins! It happened to me the first time!
Rolling Out The Dough: (using a hand cranked machine)
Cut dough into 3 or 4 pieces. Work with one piece of dough at a time; keep the others covered. Flatten the dough well with your hand. Put it through the rollers of the pasta machine on the widest setting. Lightly dust the dough with flour as needed. Fold the dough into 3rds and put through on the widest setting 7 – 9 times. The dough will feel a bit silky.
Reduce the space between the rollers by 1 setting at a time. Put the dough through the rollers. Reduce by 1 setting and put the dough through again. The sheets will become thinner and longer. Continue until you have reached setting 4 for spaghetti, 5 or 6 for fettuccine, depending on how thin you like your pasta. Cut them in half crosswise for easier handling. Drape the sheets of pasta over a rack (I use a clothes drying rack and let dry a bit (the edges will feel a bit dry), to make it easier to cut the pasta. Put the sheets of dough through the desired cutting rollers; toss with a bit of flour. Shake out the strands and place the cut pasta over a wooden dowel, pasta drying rack, or a floured towel on a baking sheet.
