Food Blog:
Cook In.
Eat Out.
Miss Tenacity.
New Mexico.
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Thursday, June 2
Accomplished: Fresh Pasta
Put a little check mark next to the item on the culinary "to do" list that reads:
#35. Make fresh pasta.
I had intended to use a classic Batali formula, but ended up using the semolina I already had in the cupboard, whose previous purpose was for rolling out pizza dough and rolling it on and off the paddle. Semolina is shaped like little ball bearings, so it lets things slide quite well.
When you moisten it with egg, however, it actually can be made into a dough, and thusly I made pasta tonight. Being in the desert required some serious tweaking of the moisture I added, and unfortunately making a small batch with already roly-poly flour I had to mix the ingredients in a bowl instead of using the infamous well method so beloved on Molto Mario.
Here is my modified take on the formula:
Fresh Semolina Egg Pasta (serves 4-6)
1 cup semolina (fine grain, it should say on the bag it is meant for pasta)
1/4 tsp kosher salt
2 large eggs
drizzle of olive oil (optional)
Mix the flour and salt, and then gently beat in the eggs & oil with a fork until the dough gets rag-like in consistency. Turn it out onto a clean and large surface and start working it into a dough mass that you can knead. Once it has come together, knead for 3-5 minutes, until it feels a bit more loose and moist. Bring it together into a tight ball.
Wrap in plastic and let it sit on the counter for at least 30 minutes, but up to several hours.
Unwrap the ball and place it on a heavily floured surface (this time AP flour is going to make the work easier - you don't want the ball bearings at this stage). Flatten it out just a little and then start rolling it with your burliest rolling pin. [You obviously could use a pasta machine, but since I don't have one, you get the manual instructions....] It might be a bit rubbery - as you roll it out it will seem like it rolls a half inch and then retracts a quarter inch. Keep working it, letting it rest for a minute now and then to let the dough relax into its new shape. Keep rolling and rolling and rolling until it is as thin as you dare, but still strong and rather dry.
At 1/16" or less in thickness, you are ready to cut it. Get a large pot of salted water on to boil, and proceed with the slicing.
Rolled out, my ending shape was like a tornado, elongated but pointy. No matter....I trimmed into fettucine shape, just running my paring knife down across at a more or less consistent width, all the way down the long yellow pancake.
Once the water is boiling and the pasta is cut, drop it into the water and cook it 4-5 minutes. You will need to test a few times to make sure you don't overcook, but you also don't want it to taste like raw flour.
Drain it when ready, don't rinse, and toss with a simple sauce. The raggedy nature of manually rolled pasta will allow sauce to adhere beautifully, so a carbonara would be great or a bright green pesto. I happened to have some leftover arribiata with sausage, so I used that.
The flavor was excellent - no comparison to any dried pasta I have ever had. It was a little bit chewy, which may have been unacceptable to a pasta purist, but I liked it just fine.
Time posted: 21:27 [permalink]
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CONTACT ME: tenacity -at- gmail.com
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