Fresh Pasta

I’ve been wanting to learn to make fresh pasta for quite a few years; I did make an attempt at it a while back, when I was replicating historical recipes (something I’m still really interested in). I found rolling the dough out with a rolling pin didn’t really work for me – I either didn’t have the upper body strength or the patience to get the thinness I was looking for. I’ve waffled on buying a pasta machine, because they’re a bit pricey and I’m not a fan of having kitchen gadgets take up space unless they’re really getting used. But then a friend lent theirs to me, and I’m making the most of it.

I’ve found the recipe below to be more fresh pasta than I need to feed 1-2 people, and I haven’t mastered the art of making ravioli and saving it without ending up with a mass of ravs stuck together. I’m experimenting with how to make a smaller amount, so I’m trying reducing it by dividing the amount of flour by the number of eggs (approx 90g of 00 flour per egg), and then multiplying by what I think would be an appropriate amount.

To make ravioli for two, I tried 2 eggs with 181 g 00 flour, and it worked beautifully. That might be a good bet if it’s your first time making pasta, as it’s not too overwhelming an amount.
I’ve also added a drizzle of olive oil and a pinch of salt, as Gordon Ramsay recommends.

This recipe is going to change as I learn, and I’ll try to make a note when I’ve updated it!

Ingredients

454g ’00’ Flour (you can find it in some grocery stores and specialty shops, it’s specifically fine-milled for pasta making)
270g eggs (approx 5 large eggs)
drizzle of olive oil
pinch of salt

Directions

Beat eggs
Pour flour onto wooden board, and make a well in the centre of the flour using the bottom of a bowl. Make the well quite wide, as it needs to contain the eggs while your beating them.
Add the pinch of salt and drizzle of olive oil to the well.
Pour the beaten eggs into the centre of the well, and use a fork to scramble the eggs, slowly working in the flour a little at a time
When the mixture in the well reaches the consistency of thick pancake batter, use a bench scraper to fold in the flour, cutting the flour into the mixture. Continue cutting the flour into the mixture until you can form a ball of dough.
Begin kneading the dough; if it’s too dry, use the bench scraper to remove any excess flour from the board. Continue to knead.
Once the dough is well-kneaded, use your fingers to pinch together a seam. If the seam easily pulls apart, the dough is too dry. Wet your hands and work that water into the dough until a seam that’s pinched together doesn’t pull apart.
Form the dough into a ball, cover in cling wrap, and leave to rest on the board for 15 minutes.
Remove cellophane; Dough should be shiny and smooth after resting
Begin kneading dough on a clean wooden board; the dough should seal itself, and if it doesn’t, repeat the steps with wet hands above.
After 5-10 minutes of kneading, re-wrap the dough. If using the same day, let it rest 2-3 hours on the table. If using it the next day, refrigerate overnight.
Remove the dough from the fridge at least an hour prior to use to come to room temperature
Coat a sheet tray in semolina flour
Unwrap dough; it should be bouncy, soft, and well-hydrated
Cut the dough into quarters, and keep half covered
Flatten the 1/4 of dough, trying to make it an evenly-flat rectangle or square
Using your pasta machine, start at the 0 or widest setting and roll the dough through. Flip the dough, and run it through again. You can absolutely use a rolling pin to roll out your pasta, and I’ve done it before, but I wasn’t like, wildly happy with the results; I just didn’t have the upper body strength or patience to get it to a thinness that I liked. If you can get your hands on a pasta machine, and use it to roll out your pasta, you may enjoy it more – though there’s definitely a skill to it that I haven’t quite mastered!
As you’re rolling out your sheets of dough, use more 00 flour to keep the sheet from sticking to itself; I’m noticing in the videos I’m watching that people add quite a bit of flour, so I’m experimenting with it to see what works
Repeat this process with higher or thinner settings until you get to the desired thinness – different settings are best for different types of pasta.
Once you’ve got your sheet of pasta, then you can move on to shapes and fillings, which I’ll include in my pasta recipes.

Below are the suggested thickness settings for various fresh pasta types when using the Mercato Atlas 150 pasta machine:

Fresh Pasta Type	Thickness Setting
Vermicelli	5
Spaghetti	4
Bigoli	2
Linguine	4
Capellini	8 or 9
Lasagna	6 or 7
Pappardelle	6 or 7
Ravioli	6 or 7
Fettuccine	5 or 6