Fresh Egg Pasta for Lasagna

By stancec44

Makes 1 pound (enough for 1 large 9-by-13-inch lasagna or 2 smaller pans)
Here is Domenica Marchetti’s go-to, five-ingredient pasta recipe, not only for lasagna sheets, but for many other pasta shapes, including ravioli. Be sure to add the lesser amount of all-purpose flour (2 cups) to the food processor to mix the dough at the start; you can always knead in more as needed; it’s much easier to work in more flour than to add liquid if the dough is too stiff or dry. A pasta rolling machine is helpful here; the author uses a hand-cranked Marcato Atlas machine.

Ingredients

• 2 to 21 ⁄4 cups all-purpose our (see headnote) 1 tablespoon semolina our,
• plus more for dusting
• 1 ⁄2 teaspoon ne salt
• 3 extra-large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 to 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Details

Servings 1
Adapted from portlandoregonian.or.newsmemory.com

Preparation

Step 1

Combine 2 cups of the all-purpose flour, 1 tablespoon of the semolina flour and the salt in a food processor; pulse to incor- porate. Pour in the eggs and 1 tablespoon of the oil. Pulse just long enough for the mixture to resemble small curds. Pinch together a bit of the mixture; it should form a soft ball. If it seems dry, add the remaining tablespoon of oil and pulse briefly to incorporate. If the dough seems sticky, add more flour, a tablespoon at a time, and pulse to incorporate.

Sprinkle a little of the remaining all-pur- pose flour on a clean work surface and turn the dough mixture out onto it. Bring it together to form a rough mass and knead for several minutes, until smooth, incorporating only as much flour as necessary to form a firm, smooth ball. Wrap the dough tightly in plastic wrap and let it rest for 20 to 30 minutes.

Set up a pasta-rolling machine or a mixer with a pasta-roller attachment, with the rollers on the widest setting. Dust the work surface around the machine with semolina and keep more on hand for sprinkling on the dough as needed.

Cut the dough into 4 equal quarters and rewrap three. Flatten the remaining piece of dough and feed it through the machine. Lay it on the work surface and fold it in thirds, like a business letter. Sprinkle with a little semolina and feed it through the rollers again. Continue to fold and feed the dough through the widest setting two more times. Move the roller setting to the next narrower notch and feed the dough through this setting twice. Continue to pass the dough through the rollers twice on each setting until you have a strip that is about 28 inches long and about 1/16-inch thick — setting 6 on a Marcato Atlas hand- cranked machine. You should be able to see the shadow of your hand through the sheet.

Sprinkle a little semolina flour on a baking sheet and lay the pasta sheets there as you work. To cook the pasta, see accompanying recipes.