Have you ever made homemade pasta?
It tastes SO good. And it’s another one of those things that you can do from scratch – you know, instead of buying stuff whose ingredients you can’t pronounce from the grocery store.
The cool thing about homemade pasta is that you can let it dry out and store it just like the stuff you buy at the store. Which is good, because this recipe makes quite a bit of pasta.
Note: I used the pasta maker that I got for Christmas this year to make this pasta. Pasta makers are REALLY fun, and while I highly recommend them, you can do this the old fashioned way, with a well-floured countertop, a rolling pin, (some elbow grease), and a sharp knife (to cut the pasta!). Your pasta won’t necessarily look uniform in shape and size, but it will still be delicious.
- 2 cups all purpose white flour
- 2 large eggs
- That is all. Seriously.
- Make a big pile of the flour on your kitchen counter. Yup. This recipe may only have two ingredients, but it's gonna be messy! Get ready.
- In the centre of your flour pile, make an indentation and crack two eggs into it. Here's a tip: set your flour pile far enough back on the counter that if, perhaps, the stronghold of flour breaks and the eggs come slip sliding down onto the counter, you can quickly recover them rather than losing them to the floor and, inevitably, the dog.
- I may or may not be speaking from experience here.
- Using a fork and a whisking-type motion, begin to mix the eggs and flour together, pulling in the flour from around the eggs little by little, until you start to form a thick mixture, which will eventually start to look like a shaggy dough. Now you can go at it with your hands, kneading it until it forms a smooth ball. If the mixture is a little dry, just add lukewarm water, bit by bit, until you're able to achieve a smooth consistency.
- Wrap the dough in saran wrap and allow to rest for at least 20 minutes (I've made my dough the night before though, to cut down on dinner-related effort the subsequent night...so you can do that too).
- After that, roll your dough out - either using a rolling pin and muscles, or your pasta maker. If you're not using a pasta maker, make sure that you're working with manageable pieces of dough and rolling them really thin (a couple milimeters) on a well-floured surface. Slice into the desired shape using a sharp knife.
The first sheet of pasta dough. What you don’t see here is me jumping around the kitchen and giggling, and running my fingers over the impossibly thin, perfectly formed sheet. You see, I rarely do things right the first time around.
Once your pasta is cut, however you’ve chosen to do it, you can toss it into boiling water and eat it right away, or you can hang it, piece by piece, ALL over the kitchen, allowing it to dry slightly before refrigerating it for eating another time.
Several sheets later…..
Also: you should note – this pasta is so tasty that it doesn’t need much help in the sauce department. It will taste great tossed in olive oil and garlic! I have also made this as a side for my chicken scallopine….it was awesome!!!
Enjoy!
