Anne's All-Purpose Pasta Dough

By á-3915

Ingredients

• 1 pound all-purpose flour (about 3 and 3/4 cups), plus more for dusting
• 4 large eggs plus 1 yolk
• 1/4 cup EVOO
• Kosher Salt

Details

Servings 4
Preparation time 120mins
Cooking time 120mins

Preparation

Step 1

1. Mound the flour on a clean, dry work surface. Make a big hole (well) in the center of the flour pile--bigger is definitely better here. Crack the eggs into the hole along with the extra yolk, EVOO, and 2 tbsp. water. Season with salt. Using a fork, beat the eggs together with the EVOO, water, and salt and begin to incorporate the flour into the egg mixture. Be careful not to break the well or the egg mixture will run everywhere and you'll have a big fat mess on your hands. When enough is incorporated that you can handle the dough, use your hands to combine everything really well. If the mixture is tight and dry, wet your hands a bit. When the mixture is homogeneous, start kneading...

2. To knead the dough, it's VERY important to put your body weight into it, to get on top of the dough and really stretch it. Be careful not to tear it--the idea is that you stretch the dough, not rip it. Use the heels of your palms and roll the mixture over itself. When it's done, it should be smooth, supple. and velvety and look like the head of a preemie Cabbage patch doll. Kneading will take anywhere form 8 to 15 minutes, depending on how experienced you are. (Don't hold back: This is where the perfect, toothsome texture of your pasta is formed. Get in there and work it.)

3. When the pasta is read, wrap it in plastic and let it rest for at least an hour at room temperature before rolling. If you're making the dough ahead of time, wrap, refrigerate, and bring to room temperature before using.

4. To roll out pasta, you need to run the dough through the pasta roller a bunch of times to get it long and thin. To start, cut off about a quarter of the dough (remember, the bigger the piece you start with, the longer your dough is going to get), keeping the rest wrapped up so it doesn't dry out. Squish the dough to flatten it--this will help it run through the pasta roller more easily. Where do we start? We start at the beginning! Run the dough through the pasta roller starting on the widest setting, number 1. Then dust the dough with flour, fold it into thirds, and put the dough through this setting two more times. If the dough ever feels sticky or tacky, give it a little dusting of flour. Now adjust the setting to 2 and repeat the process again--changing the setting each time until your dough is the desired thickness. Once the dough is rolled out, be sure to keep the pasta sheets covered so they don't dry out. Depending on what I want to use the pasta for, I usually stop around 5 or 6. For long noodles, I keep it thicker, and for ravioli or stuffed pasta, I keep it thinner.

**All pasta machines are different, so you need to judge how your pasta machine works and adjust your rolling accordingly. Once you get the thickness you want, repeat this process with the remaining pieces of dough.