Making Fresh Pasta

Making pasta dough

Pasta as we know it does seem to have been first made in Italy although noodles were being made in China at least 4,000 years ago. Some believe that Marco Polo first brought noodles to Italy and these developed into what we now know as pasta. What really makes pasta is the quality of the flour that is used. It needs to be really hard, high gluten flour to get the al dente texture. In Italy pasta must be made with durum wheat or durum semolina wheat. I buy special pasta flour from Italian catering shops or my local health food store that stocks excellent organic pasta flour.

Dried pasta is made from just flour and water. It is then shaped, usually mechanically although it can be done by hand, and then dried. Fresh pasta is made using egg rather than water to moisten the dough. It can also be dried but it is really at its best when made absolutely fresh and dropped into boiling water just as soon as you have finished rolling and cutting it.

Making fresh pasta can be hard work by hand and I strongly recommend getting a pasta rolling machine if you are going to make your own. I made my first pasta by hand with a rolling pin and it took hours to get it thin enough.

The ingredients are pretty simple and the way I work it out is that for each person for a main course you need

• 1 large free range egg
• 100g (3.5 oz) pasta flour

Pasta machine and drier

Sift your flour onto a work top. Make a well and break the eggs into it. Using a fork break up the eggs and gradually work the flour from the rim into the dough until it is combined. Then you have to knead the dough for 5 minutes. If you don't have a pasta machine you need to do this for 10 minutes. The dough will seem very hard and not very pliable. Cover it with an upturned bowl and leave to rest for 20-30 minutes. The dough will now be soft and elastic.

Now divide the dough by the number of eggs you used. If you are doing this by hand roll it with a rolling pin until you have it about 1 mm thin. If you are using a machine. Set the rollers at the widest setting. Pass the dough through once. Fold it in two and roll again. Repeat this until it has been through 10 times. Now start to narrow the roller gap one stage at a time and pass the dough through in a long strip. When you get to the narrowest setting you will have a piece of dough about a metre long.

Cut this into three lengths and pass it through the cutter blades for whatever shape you want. Hang the pasta up to dry. I have a really handy gadget for this which has 12 sticks to hang the pasta on. If you don't have one of these you can arrange broom handles suspended between chairs and any other handy surface to hang the pasta on.

Now simply drop the pasta into a large pot of salted water that is at a rolling boil. Put the lid back on immediately and bring back to the boil. Stir it and boil with the lid off for 2 to 3 minutes when the pasta should be al dente. If you have let it dry it will take longer to cook so test a piece at a time until it is just right.

Fresh pasta is best served with a wet clinging sauce rather than a lumpy one. It also turns lasagne into a whole other experience.