Let's Cook with Meg and Ted

Fresh pasta recipes

Alastair Little's recipe

250gtype 00 flour
250gsemolina dura
6eggs

Combine all the ingredients in a food mixer with a dough hook and run at low speed until the dough forms a ball and starts to come away from the sides of the bowl (we just do this bit by hand). If too wet add a little flour, if too dry a few drops of water.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead the dough by pushing it with the heel of your hand, stretching it away from you and then pulling it back. Turn through a quarter circle and repeat. It needs about 100 kneads. You should have an elastic ball of dough. Wrap it in clingfilm and refrigerate for one hour or up to four hours, but no longer.

Slice dough into 8 pieces. Pass each piece of dough through rollers on a pasta machine set to the widest setting. Fold resulting dough into 3, turn 90 degrees and roll it through again. Change to next setting and roll dough through 3-4 times (or once or twice, like we often do). Continue in this manner until dough has passed through thinnest setting (or stop at about 6, which I prefer). If it gets too long to handle, cut it in half and keep going.

If you use extra large eggs and it's a bit too wet, gradually knead in more flour, and, if necessary, dust flour on the dough each time you put it through the rollers.

Alastair's hideously expensive and rich pasta dough
250gtype 00 flour
250gsemolina dura
16egg yolks
2whole eggs

Process as above. This one is great, if evil.





Steve Manfredi's recipe

Anne Weinert went to a pasta making class with Steve Manfredi of Bel Mondo (best Italian restaurant in Sydney, according to Anne), and send me this info:

"Steve uses eggs and unbleached organic plain flour only - rule of thumb is 1 egg to about each handful of flour. You can always add more flour, but you can't add extra eggs, so err on the side of wet for the first few tries.

"Make a shallow sided well (very important - if it has high sides, the egg gets out) - crack eggs in the middle, and 'pinch' the flour into the eggs as you go around and around, working it in together. Add flour if it is too sticky. Don't bother kneading it - use the pasta machine on the thickest setting to do this - run it through a few times, flouring and doubling over on itself between each run. Once it looks like the texture of fabric, then start to run it through the settings, to the second or third last one.

"I've found that 1 handful of flour and 1 egg is enough for fresh fettuccine for 2."





Stephanie Alexander's recipe

400gplain flour
3 teaspoonssalt
4eggs, lightly beaten

Combine flour and salt in a food processor. With motor running add eggs. Process for a few minutes until the dough clings together and feels springy (but not sticky). Tip it into a workbench, knead it for a few minutes, then wrap it in plastic film and let it rest for one hour at room temperature.

Divide dough in half. Press each piece into a rectangle about 8cm wide. Pass this piece of dough through rollers on a pasta machine set to the widest setting. Fold resulting dough into 3, turn 90 degrees and roll it through again. Change to next setting and roll dough through 3-4 times. Continue in this manner until dough has passed through thinnest setting. If it gets too long to handle, cut it in half and keep going.

If you're making cut pasta (linguine, spaghetti, etc), cut the pasta and then drape clean teatowels over chair backs and hang the pasta over them to dry. For lasagne or ravioli, leave the pieces of pasta flat on the table on a teatowel till you need them.

Note: We don't use a food processor for this. You just need to knead it a lot! Some say using a food processor results in a dough that's not as nice. Besides, kneading is fun.

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