I make fresh pasta quite often, and although it sounds like a lot of work, it’s not that difficult, provided you have the dough made ahead, and you have a pasta machine. Although my standard pasta dough is made with whole eggs, on occasion if I have leftover egg yolks, I would use them by making pasta dough and freezing it. The eponymous River Café cookbook uses only yolks for their pasta, making it super rich and a deep yellow colour.
Classic Italian cookbooks will always suggest making the dough by hand, but my preferred way is to use the food processor. It’s so much easier and there’s no mess.
Thumb rule for pasta is 1 whole egg for every 100g of flour. In the recipe below, you can enrich the pasta by substituting 1 whole egg by 2 egg yolks. There’s no need to add any salt or olive oil. Occasionally, I replace some portion of the flour (20-30%) with fine durum semolina (it’s yellowish is colour), which makes a higher protein, sturdier pasta. In this case, I add a tablespoon or so of olive oil.
Pasta dough freezes well, so it makes sense to make double and freeze half. That way it’s easy enough to quickly put together a week night filled pasta dish, or just make something simple like fresh pappardelle or tagliatelle. Children love rolling out the pasta using the machine, so it’s a great way to get them to help in the kitchen.
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600g of dough
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- 400 g plain flour use “00” Italian flour if you can find it (see note above to use a mix of flours)
- 4 whole eggs
- 1 tablespoon olive oil (optional)
Ingredients
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- Measure out the flour in a large mixing bowl. Make a well in the middle of the flour and add the eggs and the olive oil. Using a fork, beat together the eggs and oil and begin to incorporate the flour, starting with the inner edge.
- Once about half the flour is incorporated start kneading with both hands, using palms. When the dough comes together in a cohesive mass, transfer it to lightly floured work surface and continue kneading for about 5 minutes. The dough should be elastic and a little sticky. Oil the surface of the dough and cover with cling wrap. Allow to rest for at least 30 minutes at room temperature before using. Else refrigerate or freeze tightly wrapped.
- Place the flour in the bowl of a food processor, fitted with the dough blade.
- Add all the eggs and olive oil.
- Pulse / mix on low speed until dough comes together.
- Once, transfer the dough to lightly floured work surface and continue kneading by hand for a minute to bring it together. Oil the surface of the dough and cover with cling wrap. Allow to rest for at least 30 minutes at room temperature before using. Else refrigerate or freeze tightly wrapped.
- Divide the dough into smaller, manageable portions, and run it thorugh the widest setting at least 5-8 times. Every time, fold it over and turn it 90 degrees before feeding again into the machine. At any stage, if the dough looks sticky, flour it.
- Once this is done, the pasta should start looking smooth and satiny. Now take it to the thinner settings as needed. For the silkiest pasta, take it through each setting twice. Use as needed.
To freeze, pat the dough into a flat disc. Lightly oil the surface and tightly wrap in cling wrap. Then place in another zipped plastic bag, removing all the air, before placing in the freezer.