Homemade Tagliatelle Food

HOMEMADE TAGLIATELLE

Steps:

• Place flour on a marble or wooden work surface. Make a well in the center and crack in eggs; add salt. Gently beat eggs using a fork, incorporating the surrounding flour, until mixture is runny. Pull remaining flour into the center using a bench scraper, incorporating it until dough forms a ball.
• Knead dough with your hands by flattening the ball, stretching it, and folding the top towards the center. Turn 45 degrees and repeat until dough is soft and smooth, about 10 minutes.
• Shape dough into a ball. Place in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate until firm, 30 minutes to 1 hour.
• Divide the dough into 3 equal portions. Flatten the first portion and pass through the thickest setting of the pasta machine. Dust with more flour, fold in half like a book and repeat 3 to 4 times, flouring, folding, and passing through the thickest setting,until the dough is smooth in texture, even in size, and no longer sticky.
• Move the pasta machine to a middle setting and pass each sheet through once. Move to the next-to-last setting and pass through once. Cut in half. Repeat with remaining 2 portions.
• Add the tagliatelle attachment to the pasta machine and pass each piece through. Roll the machine handle with one hand and collect the pasta with the other.
• Gently toss pasta with some more flour. Air dry for 30 minutes.
• Cook tagliatelle in plenty of salted, boiling water until tender yet firm to the bite, 3 to 5 minutes.

HOMEMADE PASTA

Steps:

• Add all ingredients to a food processor.
• Process until mixture starts to form a ball. You should knead the dough for at about ten minutes until it bouncers back when pressed down with your finger.
• You may want to start with a little less water depending on the size of your eggs and moistness of your flour.
• Wrap ball in plastic wrap and let rest for about an hour.
• Then make your pasta using your pasta machine or rolling out. Enjoy -- .

A BASIC RECIPE FOR FRESH EGG PASTA

Steps:

• Place the flour on a board or in a bowl. Make a well in the centre and crack the eggs into it. Beat the eggs with a fork until smooth.
• Using the tips of your fingers, mix the eggs with the flour, incorporating a little at a time, until everything is combined.
• Knead the pieces of dough together - with a bit of work and some love and attention they'll all bind together to give you one big, smooth lump of dough!
• Once you've made your dough you need to knead and work it with your hands to develop the gluten in the flour, otherwise your pasta will be flabby and soft when you cook it, instead of springy and al dente. There's no secret to kneading. You just have to bash the dough about a bit with your hands, squashing it into the table, reshaping it, pulling it, stretching it, squashing it again. It's quite hard work, and after a few minutes it's easy to see why the average Italian grandmother has arms like Frank Bruno! You'll know when to stop - it's when your pasta starts to feel smooth and silky instead of rough and floury.
• Wrap the dough in clingfilm and put it in the fridge to rest for at least 30 minutes - make sure the clingfilm covers it well or it will dry out and go crusty round the edges (this will give you crusty lumps through your pasta when you roll it out, and nobody likes crusty lumps!).
• How to roll your pasta: first of all, if you haven't got a pasta machine it's not the end of the world! All the mammas I met while travelling round Italy rolled pasta with their trusty rolling pins and they wouldn't even consider having a pasta machine in the house! When it comes to rolling, the main problem you'll have is getting the pasta thin enough to work with. It's quite difficult to get a big lump of dough rolled out in one piece, and you need a very long rolling pin to do the job properly. The way around this is to roll lots of small pieces of pasta rather than a few big ones. You'll be rolling your pasta into a more circular shape than the long rectangular shapes you'll get from a machine, but use your head and you'll be all right!
• If using a machine to roll your pasta, make sure it's clamped firmly to a clean work surface before you start (use the longest available work surface you have). If your surface is cluttered with bits of paper, the kettle, the bread bin, the kids' homework and stuff like that, shift all this out of the way for the time being. It won't take a minute, and starting with a clear space to work in will make things much easier, I promise.
• Dust your work surface with some Tipo 00 flour, take a lump of pasta dough the size of a large orange and press it out flat with your fingertips. Set the pasta machine at its widest setting - and roll the lump of pasta dough through it. Lightly dust the pasta with flour if it sticks at all.
• Click the machine down a setting and roll the pasta dough through again. Fold the pasta in half, click the pasta machine back up to the widest setting and roll the dough through again. Repeat this process five or six times. It might seem like you're getting nowhere, but in fact you're working the dough, and once you've folded it and fed it through the rollers a few times, you'll feel the difference. It'll be smooth as silk and this means you're making wicked pasta!
• Now it's time to roll the dough out properly, working it through all the settings on the machine, from the widest down to around the narrowest. Lightly dust both sides of the pasta with a little flour every time you run it through.
• When you've got down to the narrowest setting, to give yourself a tidy sheet of pasta, fold the pasta in half lengthways, then in half again, then in half again once more until you've got a square-ish piece of dough. Turn it 90 degrees and feed it through the machine at the widest setting. As you roll it down through the settings for the last time, you should end up with a lovely rectangular silky sheet of dough with straight sides - just like a real pro! If your dough is a little cracked at the edges, fold it in half just once, click the machine back two settings and feed it through again. That should sort things out.
• Whether you're rolling by hand or by machine you'll need to know when to stop. If you're making pasta like tagliatelle, lasagne or stracchi you'll need to roll the pasta down to between the thickness of a beer mat and a playing card; if you're making a stuffed pasta like ravioli or tortellini, you'll need to roll it down slightly thinner or to the point where you can clearly see your hand or lines of newsprint through it.
• Once you've rolled your pasta the way you want it, you need to shape or cut it straight away. Pasta dries much quicker than you think, so whatever recipe you're doing, don't leave it more than a minute or two before cutting or shaping it. You can lay over a damp clean tea towel which will stop it from drying.

TAGLIATELLE BOLOGNESE SAUCE

Steps:

• Heat the oil in a large pan over medium-high heat. Add the mirepoix (carrot, celery and onion) and cook for 10 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for another minute. Add the beef, breaking it apart with a long wooden spoon, and cook until brown, about 15 minutes. Add the paprika, salt, pepper, beef broth, white wine, basil and bay leaves and simmer for 15 minutes.
• Pour the tomatoes into a large bowl and crush them with your hands. Transfer to the pan and cook until you have thick saucy consistency, another 30 minutes.
• Serve the Bolognese sauce in a pasta bowl over fresh tagliatelle, and sprinkle with shaved Parmesan.

TAGLIATELLE BOLOGNESE

Steps:

• Reconstitute the mushrooms in boiling water for 20 minutes until tender, drain and coarsely chop.
• Puree the mushrooms, pancetta, onion, celery stalks, carrots, garlic, together in a blender.
• In a heavy-bottomed pot add olive oil, bay leaves, herbs and cook gently until fragrant, then add vegetable puree and continue to cook for a further 5 to 10 minutes.
• Raise the heat a bit and add the ground pork and beef; brown until the meat is no longer pink, breaking up the clumps with a wooden spoon. Add the milk and simmer until the liquid is evaporated, about 10 minutes. Carefully pour in the tomatoes, and wine and season with salt and pepper. Bring the sauce to a boil, then lower the heat and cover. Slowly simmer for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, stirring now and then, until the sauce is very thick. Taste again for salt and pepper.
• When you are ready to serve, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, add the pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until tender yet firm (as they say in Italian "al dente"). Drain the pasta well and toss with the Bolognese sauce.
• Serve with a good scoop of fresh ricotta cheese and garnish with some shredded basil, grated Parmigiano and a drizzle of olive oil.

EVAN FUNKE'S HANDMADE TAGLIATELLE PASTA

Steps:

• Sift the flour onto your work surface and make an 8-inch-wide well in the center. (You should be able to see the work surface in the middle, and the well's walls should be high enough to contain the eggs.)
• Beat the eggs in a medium bowl, then pour the eggs into the well. Working from the interior edge of the well, use a fork to incorporate the flour into the eggs, flicking about 1 teaspoon of flour mixture onto the eggs at a time and whisking to combine. Continue incorporating the flour, flicking then whisking, until you've integrated almost half the flour and the dough is the consistency of pancake batter.
• Using a bench scraper, scrape any remaining flour from the work surface onto the dough. Working in a clockwise motion, cut the dough together as if you were making biscuits: Scraping underneath the mixture, lift and fold it over itself and cut into it vertically a few times to help integrate the flour and eggs. Continue working the dough until a shaggy mass forms, 2 to 3 minutes. Knead with your hands until it forms a rough ball.
• Anchoring the portion of the dough closest to you firmly to the surface with one hand, use the heel of the other hand to push the far end of the dough away from you quickly and energetically. Fold it over itself, then continue pushing it away from you using the heels of your palms. Rotate the dough a quarter turn and repeat the kneading, pushing the dough away then folding the furthest portion back over itself and rotating until the dough is a compact, slightly tacky mass, 3 to 5 minutes.
• Using the bench scraper, scrape any dry bits of dough from your work surface and discard. Wash - but do not dry - your hands and continue kneading the dough by pressing it against the work surface and away from you using the heels of your palms and folding it over itself until it is relatively smooth, with a slightly dimpled texture, an indication of gluten formation, 3 to 5 minutes more.
• Wrap the dough tightly in plastic wrap, smoothing out any air pockets between the plastic wrap and the dough. Set aside to rest at room temperature for 15 minutes.
• Unwrap the dough and halve it crosswise using a sharp knife. On a lightly floured surface, knead one piece of dough energetically with both hands, pushing the dough against the surface and away from you, folding it over itself then rotating the dough clockwise by 1- to 2-inch increments, like the hour markings on a clock. If the dough feels too dry, spray it and your hands with water, a little at a time every few rounds, until it loses its dryness. (A spray bottle will best distribute the liquid evenly, but you could also dip your hands into a bowl of water.) If you are closing the round ball and find that it is not sealing, spray that with a touch of water to help it along. Continue kneading until the dough is soft and smooth all the way around, lightens in color and becomes firmer, 3 to 5 minutes.
• Wrap the dough tightly in plastic wrap, eliminating any air pockets between the plastic wrap and the dough. Repeat the kneading process with the second piece of dough. Let the dough balls rest at room temperature for 2 to 3 hours (or up to 48 hours in the refrigerator) before rolling them out to make fresh pasta. (Do not freeze the dough.) If you've refrigerated your dough, make sure to let it first come back down to room temperature for at least 30 minutes before removing it from its plastic wrap and rolling it out.
• On a lightly floured work surface, flatten the dough ball with your palm to form a uniformly thick disk that is about 6 inches wide. Using a rolling pin positioned at the center of the dough, roll the rolling pin away from you with firm, even pressure, stretching the dough into a half oval. Lift the pin and bring it back to the center and roll the rolling pin toward you, creating a full oval. Rotate 90 degrees and repeat until the pasta dough is a rounded square that is at least 20 inches wide - the wider the better, as it'll result in a thinner, more delicate pasta. (Evan Funke recommends rolling out the dough until it is the thickness of 4 stacked pieces of paper, but do the best you can.) Cure the pasta dough by letting it sit out on your work surface until dry to the touch, 7 to 10 minutes. Flip the pasta dough and dry the other side, another 7 to 10 minutes. While flattened pasta dough is curing, roll out the other ball of dough. Once both doughs have been rolled out and cured, fold each pasta dough in half, press gently along the crease, and unfold. Using a sharp knife, cut the pasta in half along the crease.
• Position the half-moon-shaped pieces of dough with the round ends closest to you and the cut ends facing away from you. Starting at the round edge, fold the pasta away from you in 3-inch increments until you have a loose roll.
• Beginning at the end of one roll, using a sharp knife, square off the edges at the left and right, discarding the uneven strip at both ends, and cut each pasta roll crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick strips. Using one hand, grasp 6 to 8 pasta strands in the middle. Lift them off the work surface and shake to unfurl. Place the strands on a clean work surface or large sheet pan in a horizontal orientation, then gently tug them in the center to form into a U-shape. Repeat with the remaining dough strands. Cook right away or refrigerate for up to 24 hours in a high-sided container lined with paper towels and loosely covered.
• To dry your tagliatelle in the traditional way, shape them into nests: Gather 20 to 25 strands, grasping them from the middle, and lift them off the work surface. With your other hand, grab the dangling ends closest to that hand. (You're grabbing the cluster of pasta by one end.) Release your other hand and allow the strands to dangle over the top of your fingers. Loosely wrap the strands up and over your hand until they are completely wrapped. Lower the nest onto the work surface and release. Repeat with the remaining strands.
• When you're ready to cook the fresh or dried pasta, simply drop it into boiling salted water and cook until tender and starting to float, 1 to 4 minutes, depending on how thinly you have rolled out your dough.

CHICKEN & BACON PASTA

Steps:

• Heat the oil and butter in a medium saucepan over a low heat and fry the onion for 10 mins, or until softened and translucent. Add the garlic and cook for 2 mins more. Add the cream, mascarpone, parmesan and stock cube. Give it a stir and add the cooked chicken and bacon to heat through.
• Meanwhile, cook the pasta following pack instructions. Reserve 100ml of the pasta water. Toss the pasta in the creamy sauce and enough of the reserved water to loosen. Season with black pepper. Top with the parsley and serve with a green salad.