Basic Pasta Dough

By á-170456

Ingredients

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 8 large egg yolks
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup water more or less
• Semolina or all-purpose flour for dusting

Details

Servings 1

Preparation

Step 1

In a food processor fitted with the steel blade, combine the flour, egg yolks, salt, olive oil, and 3 tablespoons of the water. Process until the dough begins to hold together, then stop the machine and pinch the dough to test it. If it is too dry, add up to 1 more tablespoon of water and process until it forms a moist ball. Turn out onto a lightly floured smooth work surface and knead by hand, until a smooth ball is formed. Loosely wrap in plastic wrap and let rest at room temperature for 20 minutes to 1 hour.

Cut the dough into 4 equal pieces. Keep the other pieces covered in plastic while you roll out one piece at a time, by hand with a rolling pin or through the rollers of a pasta machine, stretching the dough to the desired thickness.

If using a pasta machine, set the rollers at the widest opening. Flatten the first piece of dough into a thick strip no wider than the machine, to enable it to pass through the rollers. If necessary, dust the pasta very lightly with flour. Run the pasta through the machine. Fold in thirds, crosswise, and run through the machine again. Repeat this procedure two more times, until the dough is smooth and somewhat elastic.

Set the machine to the next smaller opening and run the dough through the rollers. Continue rolling and stretching the dough, using the smaller opening each time, until the next to the last or the last opening is reached, dusting lightly with flour only as necessary. (The strip of dough will be long. If you don't have enough space on your worktable, halfway through the rolling process cut the strip of dough in half and continue to work with each piece separately, keeping the unused dough covered.)

Adjust the cutting mechanism to the desired width, cut the noodles, and allow them to dry before cooking. A convenient way to dry pasta is to arrange the cut pasta on a pastry tray sprinkled with flour, preferably semolina flour. As one layer is completed, sprinkle flour over the noodles, place a piece of parchment paper over them, and continue layering with noodles and flour. Dry for at least 15 to 20 minutes.

Repeat with the remaining pieces of dough.

This recipe yields about 1 1/2 pounds, 6 to 8 servings