"Fresh Paparadelle Pasta

By RoketJSquerl

Ingredients

• Fresh pasta for 4 – 6 people
• You’ll need a pasta machine for this recipe (unless of course you want to roll the sheets out by hand..)
• 400 g of tipo 00 flour or bakers flour
• 4 free-range eggs
• Extra flour and semolina for dusting

Details

Adapted from slowsundays.com.au

Preparation

Step 1

Place the flour and eggs in a food processor with a dough blade. Process until the mixture starts to resemble breadcrumbs. At this point, slowly add in a little cold water until the mixture starts to form into a ball. You may need to scrape down the sides of your food processor with a spatula to incorporate any dry bits. Add a little more water if necessary. Once a ball has formed, continue to process for a minute or two longer to knead the dough. Turn the sticky dough out onto a floured surface and knead it for a couple of seconds, adding a little more flour if it’s too wet, until you have a nicely floured ball of dough.

Wrap the dough tightly in plastic wrap and place in the fridge for at least half an hour. When you take it out it should be smooth and shiny. Cut the dough up into approximately 1.5cm discs. You don’t want to cut the discs too large or your pasta strands will be too long.

Place a piece of the cut dough in the 0 setting on your pasta machine and run through. Then fold it in half and put back through again. Do this a few times to further knead the dough. You want to end up with a square or rectangle shape so your pasta strands are nice and even. Dust the pasta sheet with flour as you go so it doesn’t stick together.

Pass the pasta sheet through setting 1, 2, 3 and so on, once only, until setting 6. I find if you go any further the pasta is too delicate. Don’t forget to continue dusting the pasta with flour.

Dust your finished pasta sheet with semolina. Now you can either pass it through the fettuccine or spaghetti cutter on your pasta machine, or alternatively, fold it up and then cut it into 1cm strips as shown in the photos. Unfold each strand and set aside on a floured surface to dry. Sprinkle with more semolina if necessary. Repeat with the remaining dough.

Leave your fresh pasta to dry for a few of hours (the time will vary depending on the conditions in your kitchen). You can cook your fresh pasta the same day, leave in the fridge for up to two days or freeze it for a few weeks (drop frozen pasta directly into boiling water).

Bring a pot of water to the boil and add a generous pinch of salt. Add the pasta and cook for a few minutes until al dente. The longer you leave it to dry, the longer it will need in the water.

Notes

Always allow 100g of flour and 1 egg per person keeping in mind that the serving sizes are generous.

Using semolina to dust your pasta prevents it from sticking together as it’s nice and coarse.

You can always hang your pasta to dry if you have a piece of wooden dowelling – just rest it on a couple of chairs.