How to make pasta from scratch - by Charlotte

The best pasta in the world: a simple and easy pasta recipe 

My Italian flatmate showed me how to make fresh pasta from scratch and it was surprisingly simple and easy! You just need a couple of hours for prep and cooking time. Traditionally home-made pasta is made with durham wheat flour and water in the south of Italy, but we made it with eggs, typical for the north of Italy. Without the use of a pasta machine we decided to make tagliatelle - a firm family favourite!

Ingredients

• When you’re making pasta from scratch you need to use one egg for each person you’re making it for and 100 grams of flour per egg.
• Sprinkle of flour for rolling.

Instructions

Sieve the flour onto a clean, preferably wooden surface in the shape of a mound. Dig a big enough hole in the middle to crack all the eggs into. Stir until it’s all been absorbed into dough, if the mound collapses just carry on. This technique is a good way for the flour to be absorbed slowly.


Knead the dough, using the underside of your wrists, until the dough is really smooth - this usually takes about 10 minutes, but the longer you do it for the better.


Cover and rest the dough for about 30 minutes. Again, the longer you leave it the better.


Roll the dough, spreading it as thinly and evenly as possible. 1-2mm should be fine.

If you’re making tagliatelle cut the dough into strips using a knife. And lightly fold and rest on trays. Leave for about an hour or freeze.

Keep the offcuts – these are known as maltagliati and are perfect for freezing and adding to things like soup!

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