Fresh Egg Pasta
This simple 3-ingredient pasta always goes down a storm! The recipe is quick, easy and surprisingly delicious considering it uses such simple ingredients. A healthier alternative to shop-bought dried pasta which can be frozen and stored for future meals.
Equipment
- Pasta machine — Depending on how hard you want to make this process on yourself, a pasta machine can be substituted for a rolling pin. This will give you quite the arm workout!
- Mixing bowl — The Lékué silicon bread bowl is a particular favourite of mine which I have loved using over the past few years. It is a serious game changer for bread and dough making as it eliminates the mess created on the countertop from flour. Even though I adore it, I must admit it is not necessarily can instead you can use your normal work surface for kneading the pasta dough - if you are prepared to deal with the mess after…
- Pasta drying wrack — This is another nice to have but defiantly not necessity bit of equipment. Up until now I have always made my pasta with nothing more than a rolling pin so it is needless to say the range of equipment I had was very limited! This Christmas I got a pasta maker and parsers drying rack as presents and it has honestly revolutionised the way I can make the pasta. Now it is a far quicker and enjoyable experience so if you do have a pasta maker or are willing to spend a little bit of money, it is defiantly worth the investment.
Ingredients
- 2 Cups 00’ flour This is specialised flour for making pizza and pasta. It could be replaced with normal/plain flour in an absolute last case scenario but using the proper flour will make all the difference to the taste and texture of your pasta.
- 2-3 Eggs Eggs Depending on how large your eggs are will vary the how many eggs you will need.
- 10 g Salt This is only a rough guide to the amount of salt needed and can be increased or reduced depending on your personal preference - my advice is to add more than you think you need.
- Water This may be needed if the egg to flour ratio is off and the dough is too dry.
Instructions
- In a bowl (or on a work surface if you are prepared to deal with the mess!) add the flour and salt, then with your fingers create a well in the middle for the eggs.
- Crack the eggs into the well in the centre of the flour and slowly incorporate the flour edges into the egg (this will have a bit of a scrambled egg consistency.
- Keep bring the material together until a big ball has formed. If there is excess flour that will not stick to the ball, add a dew drops of water and keep trying to combine. Add water in very small increments until all the flour is incorporated - be very cebul not to over add water or you will need more flour again. If the dough is too wet and keeps sticking to your hands you can add more flour until the dough is dry enough to pull away from your fingers and the side.
- Kneed this ball (on the side or in the flexible silicon bowl) for around 5 minutes. This process stretches the gluten and will give the pasta its great taste and texture! You will know the pasta is ready when you can lightly press down on the surface of the dough and it will bounce back up.
- Let the dough rest for an hour in a warm dry place, while covered in a cloth.
- When the dough is ready cut it into smaller sections (5-6) so it can be more easily passed through the pasta machine. Start on the largest setting, this is sully the smallest number displayed on the setting wheel of the machine - check your machine’s instructions for further clarification on how it works. Flatten one of the smaller pasta ball sections in your fingers then pass through the pasta machine.
- Fold the dough in half and pass through the machine again. Repeat this process 4 times.
- Pass the dough through this same largest setting twice more, without folding it in half.
- Reset the machine to the next level and pass the pasta through twice more. Repeat this process through the next several levels of your machine until a thin sheet has formed.
- If your machine has a linguine setting this, pass the sheet of dough through to create this flattened string like pasta. Otherwise the sheet can be loosely folded a a few times then cut with a knife in thin strips to create the same linguine style of pasta.
- The linguine can be draped over the pasta drying wrack for around 10 to 15 minutes to try out then can be placed in a storage box or bag and left in the fridge for up to 3 days or placed in the freezer for several weeks.
- To cook the pasta, bring a pan of water to the boil and add a pinch of salt then place the pasta in the water and let it cook for 3 to 5 minutes, or until it starts to float to the surface.
- This pasta can be served with any sources you like or even just plain melted butter and sea salt (this is something that always goes down the storm in my house!)