Homemade Pasta

Let's face it, we eat too quickly in America. We settle for stuff in a box, dried, preserved, frozen because it's fast and easy. It's full of preservatives. It's over salted. It's over sugared. It's just not that great. But we settle, because we don't make the time to enjoy preparing food, cooking food, and eating food as a family. Are your kids spending too much time on Snapchat or Instagram? Have them start making dinner with you from scratch. There are few things better in life than preparing food from scratch, turning it into something delicious, and enjoying it together. Pasta is simple. Fresh pasta is divine. These two dough recipes can be used to make all sorts of different pastas from Ravioli to Fettuccine to Pappardelle to Spaghetti. Pair it with my marinara sauce and watch people smile as they rediscover the simplest of dishes in a fresh and delicious way.
Ingredients
  • 1 1/2 cups of wheat flour
  • 1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour (or 00 flour)
  • 1 tsp fine sea salt
  • 4 large eggs
  • 1 1/2 TBS olive oil
  • 4TBSP water
Wheat Pasta
  1.  Sift the wheat flour if so desired.
    1. I like to mill my own wheat flour. Once milled, for the wheat pasta, I like to pass the wheat flour through a sifter a half dozen times to get some of the bran out. I discard this and use just the finer flour. It will still be plenty wheaty, but this makes it a little more pliable. If you don't want to sift, that's ok too. I've heard it both ways
  2. Combine the two flours and the salt in your kitchen aid mixer.
  3. Add the eggs, olive oil, and water and mix with your dough hook until it's combined into a ball.
  4. Place it on a well floured surface if you're an overachiever and then knead the dough until its not sticky (about 5 minutes)
    1. If you're like me, just keep it in the kitchen aid until its nice ball. Let's face it, kneading dough is hard.
  5. Let it rest under a bowl for about 1 hour. 
  6. Cut it into eight equal pieces. 
  7. Use your handy dandy pasta maker to roll it into sheets of happiness. Then cut it as you wish.  I like to make ravioli first, then reform a ball with the leftover dough to make fettuccini. 
  8. Once your pasta is cut, hang it to dry (I hang it on the back of the kitchen chairs)
  9. Dry it for about 10 minutes or so. Then cook it in boiling water that is well salted for about 3 minutes. 
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Ingredients
  • 400 grams of semolina or 00 flour
  • 4 eggs
The rule is 1 egg for every 100 grams of flour. So make as much or as little as you want.
The other rule is to use fresh eggs. So go get a chicken, a rooster, and make it happen. 
Italian Pasta (Egg pasta dough - pasta all'uovo)
  1.  Weigh your flour out and then make a mound on your clean work surface.
  2. Make a well in the center.
  3. Put your eggs in the well.
  4. Slowly beat your eggs with a fork working the flour in from the sides.
  5. Start mixing it with your hands. If the dough seems dry, get your hands wet and keep working the dough until you have a nice ball.
  6. Lightly flour your work surface again and knead the dough by pressing the heal of one hand into the ball, fold it back over, press it down, and so forth.
  7. Flour it as you go to prevent it sticking and knead it for about 10 minutes.
  8. Roll the dough into a ball and let it rest for about 1 hour covered with a towel or bowl. 
  9. Cut it into four pieces and press them out so it is ready for your pasta machine.
  10. Start with with the widest number and stretch it out! Fold it over and do it a few times on the widest settings. Continue to go on down, flouring as you need to until you get to your desired thickness. 
  11. Once flattened, let it rest for a few minutes before you shape it into your desired pasta. 
  12. Boil it in salty water for one maybe two minutes.
  13. Take it out with tongs, never use a colander with fresh pasta or you will get flour mush on your pasta.
  14. Butter it, sauce it, cheese it, enjoy it!

Ravioli 

Ravioli always seemed so exotic and fancy to me that I never tried making it. That is until one Thanksgiving when I was making fresh pasta and decided to just put some leftover sweet potato casserole on some dough and ravioli it. Turns out, ravioli is stupid simple, and you can just be creative and put what you want in it. Take some ricotta cheese, parmesan, some gruyere, and now you have cheesy ravioli. (For those who like precision: 1/2 cup ricotta, 1/4 cup fontina or gruyere, 1/4 cup parmigiano, a dash of nutmeg, a bit of salt and pepper). The combinations are endless and easy to make. Experimenting in the kitchen is super fun and a great way to keep your kids engaged!