Author: Addie

Why do I want to make homemade pasta?

This last week I had the urge to explore making homemade pasta. The urge was sparked by a recent trip to Rome for a work meetup. We got to eat so much delicious food and my culinary side was heavily inspired and re-ignited.

Dry pasta we normally buy at the store is fine, we can make some delicious things with it. But homemade fresh pasta just puts an extra edge to the flavor and texture of a dish to another level of deliciousness.

I have made pasta dough before, ages ago, but mostly for ravioli or gnocchi. Ive watched Chef make homemade pasta noodles a handful of times in my days working back at a fresh Mediterranean restaurant, but this is never something I really got into myself. Because of this new itch, I purchased a cheap hand powered pasta roller/cutter and got to playing!

3 Different Pastas

In searching online for some basic pasta recipes one may find some mixed results: some use more or less egg, some do or do not use oil or salt, water, etc. so I figured id try a couple variations throughout the week. In the course of the week I made pasta 3 times, each with a slightly different recipe and used in a different dish.

All 3 worked pretty well, and it wasn’t as difficult as I thought! Around the 3rd time I felt like I was really getting into the groove of making it, meaning it no longer feels like a daunting task that is going to require an impractical amount of time for a regular meal.

Pasta 1 – Flour and Egg, no one else is invited to this party.

• 2 cups flour (half semola, half all purpose)
• 3 eggs
• 1 more egg and a dredger of flour (00) to bring it together

I started with 2 cups of flour and 3 eggs. As the initial dough formed it wouldnt fully come together, so I added an extra egg and continued to dredge with flour as the dough came together.

I rolled this pasta to a medium size and cut into fettuccini. The dough made for a nice, dense, thick, very ‘al dente’ (but not undercooked) type of noodle. I used this in an attempt to make “Cacio e pepe”. I may have made a couple minor mistakes in the process, but overall this was all very good together.

Notes on the dish: I started with a little too much pasta water in the dish, making it a little too watery at first. I accounted for this by adding a bit more of the cheese to thicken it up. Unfortunately, this resulted in a little bit of the lumpyness you can see above – if I start with a little less pasta water next time this texture will be perfect!

Pasta 2 – Flour, egg, oil, salt, and water.

• 2 cups flour (half semola, half 00)
• 2 eggs
• a dash of oil
• a pinch of salt
• water – to bring it together

Here I mixed up the first 4 ingredients, using water on my hands (or spritzing on the dough) in the process to give it the moisture it needed to come together.

I rolled this pasta thin and cut it into spaghetti. The dough made for a very light pasta, almost like an angel hair. There wasn’t much ‘dente’ but that could have been my fault in possibly overcooking the noodles. I used this in an attempt to make Spaghetti Carbonara. Once again, some minor mistakes in the process but overall very good.

Notes on the dish: The sauce thickened up in the time between being plated and me taking the picture. I ended up throwing this back in the pan and mixing in a tiny bit more pasta water to cream it back up. This was delicious, but I would prefer a thicker and/or more dense noodle for this.

Pasta 3 – Hybrid between 1 and 2 – everyones invited!

• 3 cups flour (half semola, half 00)
• 4 eggs
• 2 dashes of olive oil
• 2 pinches of salt
• water to bring it together

This approach was a little more egg than approach 2, in an attempt to find a happy medium between it and approach 1. “2 dashes? 2 pinches? what does this mean?” – Really the smallest amount of oil you are going to pour out of a bottle, or the smallest pinch of salt that wouldn’t be negligible. I split the ingredients in 2 to form the dough separately, since my step daughter wanted to help and learn how to make pasta too!

Once again, we mixed the main ingredients and used a little bit of water at a time to give it enough moisture to come together. This indeed did seem like a perfect balance between 1 and 2 – light enough but with the right amount of bite. It would have made a great thick spaghetti for the Carbonara, but this time we rolled it (to about a 6 or 7 i think) and ended up using it to make Lasagne! It was delicious and these noodles’ texture were perfect for it.

Notes on the dish: This lasagne layers a bolognese meat sauce with a bechamel creamy cheese sauce. The last of the bechemel that I used to garnish was a bit too thick, you can see it in that plated picture it almost looks like ranch dressing (not what we want! lol). I did not add any ricotta or shredded cheese into the layering. My kids both dislike the texture of ricotta, which is why I went for the bechamel variation for the cheese instead. Similarly, melting mozzarella on top just makes a rubbery half-burnt layer to try and sink your fork through when eating. Merging the cheese into a cream sauce first makes this fantastic. This was delicious. I could have added some freshly grated mozzarella and/or parm inside some of the layers, which I may try as an addition next time.

Notes

After mixing, I let the pasta rest covered by a damp cloth or plastic wrap for about 20 minutes before rolling and cutting. Although I’m not getting into the process of how to mix the dough and shape it, I figured id at least mention this. I haven’t tried skipping this step, but Ive seen it noted as important in most pasta making recipes. Those 20 minutes are a great time to start making a side, a sauce, and/or just get things cleaned up a bit!

Favorites?

I think I might make all 3 of these pastas again depending on what I want to use them with, but in general “pasta 3” seems like a really nice all-around choice.

Interested in the recipes for the individual dishes and sauces? Well, maybe I’l have to write recipe posts for these in the future…