Pasta Alluovo Egg Dough Food

PASTA ALL'UOVO

Steps:

• Pile the flour in a mound on a work surface. Break the eggs into the centre and add the salt. Stir the eggs into the flour, with a fork at first and then with your hands, until it forms a coarse paste. Add a little more flour if too moist.
• Now the pasta dough has to be kneaded. It should be smooth and workable, not too soft but not too hard. Do this in the machine or by hand.
• If the latter, clean your hands and the work surface first. Lightly flour the surface and your hands, and knead the dough with the heel or palm of one hand, pushing it away from you and folding it back towards you. Collect all the bits from the work surface and incorporate them into the dough. Flour the surface and your hands from time to time. After about 10 - 15 minutes the dough should be ready. Allow it to rest for 15 - 30 minutes before rolling, but cover with a cloth.
• Once again, dust the clean work surface and the rolling pin with flour. Take a part of the dough (leaving the rest still covered), and begin to roll it out gently. Always roll away from you, each time rotating the dough by a quarter turn.
• The thickness required is dependent on the type of pasta: 1.5 - 2mm (1/16 inch) for stuffed pasta, and 3 - 4mm (1/8 inch) for lasagne and cannelloni. If you are making stuffed pasta such as ravioli, then use the pasta straightaway. If you are making lasagne, cut the sheets and place them on a floured cloth to dry a little. If you are cutting ribbons, fold the sheet of pasta into a loose roll and cut it into ribbons of the desired width. Open out the rolls gently and allow them to dry for a further 10 minutes or so before cooking.
• If using a machine to roll the dough, you have to force a section of the pasta dough through at a time until the dough becomes smooth. Then you decrease the gap each time through the rollers, so that the dough becomes thinner and longer. Repeat this until you obtain the desired thickness. Then either put it through the cutting rollers to make various sizes of ribbon, or cut into sheets.
• Cook fresh pasta in a large saucepan, preferably with a rounded base. Use one litre (1 3/4 pints) water per 115g (4 oz) pasta, plus two teaspoons of salt. When you put the pasta into the pot, give it a quick stir to prevent it from sticking together (it is only with lasagne, which must be immersed one sheet at a time, that it is necessary to add a few drops of oil to the water). Cooking time varies according to the kind of pasta, its thickness and whether it is stuffed, but home-made noodles and ribbons will take between three and five minutes. Stir the pasta while it is cooking, preferably with a long wooden fork. Always test the pasta when you think it should be almost done: it is ready when it is al dente, and slightly resistant. A little before it reaches that stage, take the saucepan off the heat, add a glass of cold water, and leave for a couple of seconds. Then drain the pasta and return immediately to the saucepan or a preheated dish, mixing it with a little sauce and perhaps some grated cheese. Serve it immediately.

FRESH EGG PASTA DOUGH

Steps:

• In a food processor combine the flour, salt, eggs, oil and 4 tablespoons water and process until the mixture begins to form a ball, adding more water, 1 teaspoon at a time, if the dough is too dry. Process 30 seconds more to knead it. Remove the dough from the processor and let it rest, covered with an inverted bowl, at room temperature for 1 hour.
• Set the smooth rollers of a pasta machine at the highest number. (The rollers will be wide apart.) Divide the dough into 4 pieces, flatten 1 piece into a rectangle, and cover the remaining pieces with an inverted bowl. Dust the rectangle with flour and feed it through the rollers. Fold the rectangle in half and feed it through the rollers 6-8 more times, folding in half each time and dusting with flour if necessary to keep it from sticking. Turn the dial down one notch and feed the dough through the rollers without folding. Continue to feed the dough through the rollers without folding, turning the dial lower one notch each time, until the lowest notch is reached. Roll the remaining pieces of pasta dough in the same manner.
• Use the blades of a pasta machine that will cut 1/4-inch wide strips. Feed one end of a sheet of pasta dough through the blades, holding the other end straight up from the machine. Catch the strips from underneath the machine before the sheet goes completely through the rollers and put the cut strips lightly across floured jelly-roll pans or let them hang over the top of straight-backed chairs or on hangars. Let the pasta dry for 5 minutes, before cooking.

BASIC DOUGH FOR FRESH EGG PASTA

Steps:

• Put flour and salt in a mixing bowl. Add eggs and yolks, and mix with hands or wooden spoon for a minute or so, until dough comes together. (Alternatively, use a stand mixer with a paddle attachment.) If dough seems dry or crumbly, add 1 or 2 tablespoons cold water, but only enough to keep the dough together.
• Turn dough out onto a board and knead to form a ball. Flatten dough ball to a 1-inch-thick disk, wrap in plastic, and let rest at room temperature for at least 1 hour (several hours is fine).
• Divide dough into 4 pieces. Knead each piece until smooth. Roll with a rolling pin or pasta machine as thinly as possible (but not quite paper-thin). Cut each sheet in half, making 8 smaller sheets. Dust dough sheets lightly with semolina to keep them from sticking. Stack 2 or 3 sheets, roll loosely, then cut into 1/2-inch-wide noodles or other desired shape. Continue until all dough is used. Gently fluff noodles and spread on a semolina-dusted baking sheet. Refrigerate, uncovered, until ready to cook.