Recipe: Fresh Egg Pasta

the appetizer:

Pasta Sfoglia by Ron and Colleen Suhanosky, includes recipes like Fresh Egg Pasta; Triangoloni, ricotta, amaretti, radicchio, balsamic; and Bucatini all'amatriciana.

Cookbook

Fresh Egg Pasta

Makes about 1 pound dough
Serves 4-6

Sitting at the table in my great-grandmother's kitchen, watching her make pasta, is where my story begins. At her home every Sunday, instead of playing with my sisters, I gravitated toward the kitchen, fond of the comfort I felt being around big nonna—my mother's grandmother. I liked the way she moved around her kitchen.

I watched her make many pasta dishes, and for those that required fresh pasta, I watched her make that, too. I bought my first hand-crank pasta maker when I was sixteen, and it wasn't long before I started to experiment with making my own versions of her egg pasta. Over the years, I have refined my dough recipe until I finally settled on this one. I've also realized that anelectric machine is the most expeditious way to roll and cut pasta. Because the electric machine works so quickly and precisely, the task of making fresh pasta becomes less intimidating.

I find that the food processor method works best when you're making a small amount of dough. The blade of the processor not only incorporates the ingredients, but also helps to knead the dough.

2 cups all-purpose flour
3 eggs
2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Rice flour for dusting

1. Add the all-purpose flour, eggs, extra virgin olive oil, and salt to the bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade. Pulse several times until the dough resembles medium crumbs.

2. Turn out the dough onto a clean, dry, rice flour-dusted work surface. Gather the dough together and knead it until it comes together and is smooth and elastic. Cover the dough with a kitchen towel or plastic film and let rest for at least 10 minutes or up to 2 hours.

Storage: The dough, tightly wrapped with plastic film, can be refrigerated for up to 2 days or frozen for up to 2 weeks. Defrost in the refrigerator. The dough will discolor slightly, but its flavor will not be affected.

This dough is used for: pappardelle, tagliatelle, fettuccine, lasagne, rotoli, spaghetti, and filled pasta.

Filled Pasta: Cuscinetti, Ravioli, Triangoloni, Tortellini, Lasagne, Cannelloni, and Rotoli with an electric pasta maker

1. Divide the dough into 3 equal pieces. Flatten each piece into a disk and dust with rice flour.

2. Set the roller of the electric pasta maker at number 1. Feed the disks, one at a time, through the roller three times. Fold each end of the dough to meet in the middle and press down on the middle to seal. Feed the open side of the dough through the roller three times. Fold the ends to meet in the middle and press down to seal.

3. Adjust the setting to number 2. Feed the open side of the dough through the roller twice.

4. Adjust the setting to number 3. Feed the dough through the roller twice. The sheet will be quite long now. Cut it in half and feed each piece through the roller once more.

5. Adjust the setting to number 4. Feed the pasta sfoglie through the roller twice.

6. Adjust the setting to number 5. Feed the pasta sfoglie through the roller twice. For tortellini, feed the pasta sfoglie through number 5 three times. Dust each sfoglie with rice flour and layer one on top of the other. If you aren't going to use the pasta sfoglie right away, cover them with a slightly dampened kitchen towel to keep them from drying out. Do not refrigerate—the sfoglie will stick together.

7. Cut the pasta sfoglie according to the individual recipes.

Filled Pasta with A Hand-Crank Pasta Maker: Proceed as directed for the electric pasta maker, except at number 5, feed the pasta sfoglie through three times. For tortellini, four times.

from:
Pasta Sfoglia
From Our Table To Yours, More Than 100 Fresh, Seasonal Pasta Dishes
by Ron and Colleen Suhanosky
Wiley 2009
Hardcover; $29.95; 204 pages
ISBN-10: 0470371331
ISBN: 978-0-470-37133-6
Recipe reprinted by permission.

Buy Pasta Sfoglia