Home Made Pasta!

OK, so this may seem extreme, even by my standards, but seriously: pasta has 2 ingredients: flour & eggs. It takes about 3 minutes to make, then 30 mins to rest, then 10 mins to roll.

And you don't necessarily need the flash machine (though thank you brother! He bought me the ice-cream maker too . . . he is a good birthday appliance purchaser!). You can just use a rolling pin, or even a wine bottle dusted w/ flour!

This very basic recipe is by Jamie Oliver, who I've noted previously I used to be a little indifferent about, but I am now a mild convert: his stuff just works!

I also have a fresh pasta recipe in a wonderful River Cafe cookbook, but it is more fussy, so I think I'll work up to that one. I looked at their ice-cream recipe book once, and it had said to use 18 eggs! 18!!!

I prefer to keep things simpler, hence Mr Oliver prevails.

For this you will need 600g of '00' flour. The flour is very important - do not use regular plain, and certainly not self raising. The results will be unappetising at best, disastrous at worse. Thankfully many deli's & grocers now sell "Tipo 00" flour. Mine was purchased from Fratelli Fresh for only $3.50.

Sift the 600g of flour into a large bowl, and make a well in the centre. In a separate bowl, lightly whisk 6 eggs together (ideally organic - when a recipe is as simple as this, you need the freshest, best ingredients possible).

Pour the whisked eggs into the 'well' in the centre of the flour, and using the tips of your fingers, incorporate the flour, a little at a time, until it is all combined. Once combined, turn out on to a lightly floured surface to knead it. You need to knead the dough to release the gluten within the flour so that you will have lovely & spring 'al dente' pasta, and not a soggy mess. Pasta is the opposite to pastry - you DO want the gluten to activate when you make pasta.

So roll up your sleeves & get kneading! There is no trick to kneading: smooch the dough over the counter with your hands, pull it apart, roll back together, then throw it down onto the counter top, then pull it all back together again. Then repeat. And repeat. Roll it out, weave it back together again. Any which way you fancy, all you need to do is just keep working the dough until it starts to feel silky & smooth, instead of rough. This took me about 5 minutes, but I had had a G&T & was chatting, so it almost certainly can be done in less time!

Wrap your now smooth dough in clingwrap & pop it into the fridge for 30 minutes.

Clear your countertop. You want the largest, uninterrupted counter space possible. If you don't have a pasta maker, don't fear! Cut off a small-ish amount from the dough (something the size of your palm), and place it on the flour-dusted (tipo 00) countertop. Use a rolling pin (or wine bottle) and start rolling it out. Turn the dough itself every few rolls so it doesn't stick the the countertop. When you have the dough to the desired consistency, cut it into the shape you want, dust it with flower, and then hang it.  A clean coathanger is fine, but make sure the strands are separate;  don't do it like I did in this picture. It will all clump together, and you'll be standing over a pot of boiling water frantically trying to detangle it before dropping it into the pot!

If using a pasta maker, dust it with the 00 flour, cut a lump of pasta, the size of your palm, and flatten it with your hands. Set the pasta machine to the widest setting, and roll the dough through. Take the machine up a setting, and pass the dough through again. Fold the pasta in half (either by length, or width, whatever you think best), click the machine back to the widest setting, and roll it through again. Repeat this process another 5 times. It may seem like alot of work, but it only takes a few seconds, and the end result is a very silky pasta!

Now I stopped here, though Mr Oliver recommends continuing on until you have worked the pasta through each setting. My pasta was going with a very thick sauce, so I was happy keeping it thicker. Plus I was tired & wanted to get eating!

Heat a large saucepan of water until boiling, salt it well, then cook the pasta until al dente, around 5 minutes.

I served this with a sauce made of left overs and it was really lovely.             Saute 1 onion & a few cloves of garlic in a pan over low heat, until soft, but try not to give them too much colour. I then added the 1 rasher of smoked bacon I had in the fridge (diced). I then added the left over roast pork (diced). Next I threw in around 15 - 20 baby tomatoes (halved). Mix to incorporate, turn the heat to very low, pop the lid on. After half an hour I added half a bottle of passata. Put the lid back on, and let it cook down for an hour or so, stirring occasionally. Add some red wine if you fancy, and then 10 minutes before serving, throw in some rosemary.