Fresh Pasta


Ok, I've made home-made pasta, yes, time-consuming but not difficult to make and the good news is that you can make your pasta on a day where you have the time, freeze it, forget about and it'll be ready to use on another day where you're busy making sauces and other dishes for your guests or family. And believe me it's pretty special serving your guests with something as delicious as home-made pasta!!! I will be posting some home-made sauces to go with your pasta on my Food page, so feel free to check them out.


Ingredients

3 cups of flour
5 egg yolks
½ tsp salt
Enough water to make smooth dough (if needed)


Method

1. Put your flour in a bowl or a work surface, mix in the salt. Now start adding the eggs one at a time and using your hands incorporate in the flour to form dough. If you can't get all the flour hydrated into the dough, add some of the water until you can form a nice firm dough.

2. Knead the dough for about 10 minutes, or until it is smooth and stretchy. Cover the dough with cling-film so it won't dry out. Allow the dough to rest for 20 minutes or more so that the proteins in the dough can relax and this will make rolling much easier.

3. I don't own a pasta machine so I just used my rolling pin. Just cut the dough in batches and roll out on a surface dusted with flour.

4. You'll need to roll the pasta down to between the thickness of a beer mat and a playing card; if you're making stuffed pasta like ravioli you need to get it thinner.


5. You can now cut it into thin strips and wrap around a pencil to make fussili (spiral shapes) or little squares which you can pinch in the middle to make farfalle (little bows or butterflies). This is the fun part and it's nice to include the kids and really any shape will do, so just let them have fun with it.


6. Lay the shapes on a floured surface until you've used up all your dough... When done, I placed them on a floured tray and froze them and then put them in a bag and back in the freezer.


7. To cook, put pasta in salted boiling water. Once your pasta floats to the surface that's when it's ready to serve with some delicious sauces.

Enjoy!!


Androulla xxx

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