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Fresh Pasta
Here is my recipe for pasta. This quantity is OK for 6-8 hungry people.
If you think that this is too much you can cut it in half.
Ingredients
6 Tablespoons semolina
500g plain flour
6 eggs.
All we are trying to do is to make this into a smooth dough. It is
HEAPS easier if you sieve the flour and and semolina first, so Sieve
both of these into a large bowl. Then break the eggs into a separate
bowl. Mix the eggs with a fork for around a minute so mix them up ,
then pour the eggs into the flour. You need to 'wet' the flour with the
eggs. Do this by stirring the flour with the blade of an ordinary
knife, (the type of knife you use for spreading jam on bread). This
mixing will slowly form a dough as it mixes. You will want to
knead the dough as it start to form, but if
it is sticking to the bowl, sprinkle just enough flour on he inside of
the bowl so that it
doesn't stick any more. Once it is getting stiff, it might easier to
knead the dough on a flat, floured table. You will want to resist the
temptation to make it wet with water; if the dough is cracking up as
you knead it, then that is normally because the egg has not wetted all
the flour. If the cracks will not go then only use enough water to wet
your hands, and knead with that.
Kneading can be
a bit of a struggle unless you are heavier than this 6-year old's
sterling effort...
This kneading might take 5-10 minutes once everything is wetted, but
still lumpy. Keep kneading
until the texture is consistent throughout, with no lumps in it. Cut
the nice, smooth dough into lumps
a bit smaller than a tennis ball, wrap each ball in Glad Wrap
(clingwrap), and put
it in the fridge. The dough needs to rest in the fridge for a
couple
of hours before use.
Cooking it.
You need one of those pasta making machines. Take out one ball, and cut
it into 3 or 4 parts, and roll each into the size of a thin sausage.
Run
the sausage through the flattening bit of the pasta maker several
times, making the dough
thinner with each pass. NEVER
wash the pasta maker, and use it lightly
floured. Thicknesses 2, 5, 6 in sequences usually work, leaving you
with a thin sheet , ready for lasagna, ocutting into something long and
thin. If this is your
choice, put your
thin dough into the cutting bit, and collect the cut peices onto a
slowly rotating
plate to stop it getting tangled. Put these peices straight away into
boiling
water with a dollop of olive oil on the top. It only needs to stay in
there as long as the next sausage goes through the machine: a couple of
minutes. Whan you take the pasta out, keep it lubricated with a splash
of oil, so that it will slip around.
Sauce? Fulfil your dreams!! If you're stuck, try one of these
pestos.
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