Homemade Pasta!

Homemade pasta might sound hard, but it's not. And it's super fun to make...remember playing with the playdough pasta toy? ya, it's like that, but you can EAT IT!!!! :) I have been obsessed with making pasta ever since I photographed a cooking class in Italy last summer. We already had the paste machine (thanks Mom!) but I'd been too intimidated to use it. If you have one, get it out! And let me know how it turns out. :)

Ingredients:

2 Cups Flour
3 eggs
1 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt

Directions:

Add all ingredients to a stand mixer.
Mix on low until all ingredients are incorporated (about 5 min) If it’s too sticky, add a bit of flour. I live in a really dry climate, so I always have to add a Tble of water. Your dough should form a ball and be pulling all ingredients clean off the bowl.

Knead for another 5 min.

Wrap ball in plastic wrap for 20-ish minutes. It’s fun to see how the texture changes as it relaxes...it gets warm and pliable. 

Cut ball into 8 equal pieces and keep wrapped up so they don’t dry out while you are working.

Dab first dough ball in some flour to prevent sticking, then pass it through your pasta machine at the largest setting. Fold in thirds and do it again. Fold again and pass it through again on the largest setting. Starting here, from now on, change the pasta setting by one and pass it through one time on each setting, getting thinner and thinner (no more folding). I stop when I’m one setting away from the smallest. 

Set long strip of dough on a floured surface while you repeat the process with the rest of the dough balls. 

Using a pasta shaping attachment, pass each strip of long dough through the machine (I usually do spaghetti or linguini). Dust with flour if there is any sticking. 

Boil water and cook for 2 minutes. Yum!