Day 3 in Milan, I was so in love with all the pasta dishes. Determined to make the most authentic Italian dishes at home, I booked ahead a two day Italian cooking class at La Cucina Italiana. It is the most prestige private cooking school in town. 80% of their students are Italians and they too want to make Italian food the right way.
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One great thing about making fresh pasta, it is basically the same recipe but you can make many different kinds of pasta. It all starts from a very basic dough. One special ingredient that will make this recipe authentic is the Durum flour, some people call it pasta flour, a bit yellow in color and a very strong flour. This is what make the pasta al dante! If you cannot find this, chef said to substitute with strong flour, or bread flour.
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| Durum Flour |
Basic Fresh Pasta Dough Recipe:
200g All purpose flour
50g Durum flour (Strong flour)
2 Eggs
2 Egg yolks
1 tsp Extra Virgin olive oil (light flavored ones)
pinch of salt
Method:Mix both flour together and create a big well in the middle.
Add remaining ingredients into the well.
Start from the middle, slowly mix liquid into flour until a dough is form. Knead about 8-10mins. Dough should be moist, soft but not too sticky. If it is too dry, spray in a little water.
Cover with plastic wrap and let it rest at room temperature for one hour. Cut dough into smaller size to fit into pasta machine
Starting with the widest setting of the pasta machine insert dough. Sprinkle flour on dough before you insert into machine if it is sticky. Insert dough through machine and decrease setting each time for about 4-5 times. If the dough is too thin, fold in half and insert again into the machine
Stop at about 1/16 inch or second to the thinest setting and it should be thin enough for most pasta.
Theory:
I made this recipe at home and find it a bit dry. So if your eggs are too small or maybe it is a dry day, add a little more left over egg white to the dough until dough is smooth. I find a spray bottle with water also handy, give it s spritz and slowly work on it. Towards the end the dough might seem hard to knead, it is perfect, you want it to be hard so it will be el dante. The dough should also be just dry enough and not stick to you hands. If you want to make color pasta, just substitute the volume of one egg with either cooked chopped spinich, tomato paste or squid ink. You can even make chocolate pasta by adding some coco powder. You might need a little extra moisture with that dough.
Let pasta sheet dry for about 10 mins to prevent from sticking, roll it up loosely and cut into 1/4 inch strips. Pasta can be kept in fridge covered with plastic wrap for up to about three days.
Lasagna:Cut into squares or your desired shapes. Boiled in salt water for about 3 mins and run through cold water. Then add sauces and ingredients to make 5 layers and put into oven until sauce is hot. No need to cook for a long time since noodles are already cooked
Raviolis:
Using a long pasta sheet, fold into half and make a line in the middle.
Brush a small amount of water onto the small half of the sheet, just enough for it to stick.
Pipe your fillings about one inch apart onto the smaller half sheet.
Fold the larger half of the sheet over, covering the fillings.
Press in between fillings to remove air and seal in the fillings within the pasta sheets.
Cut sheets with knife or pasta cutter and raviolis are ready to be cooked
Cook in a large pot of salted water for about 2-3 minutes, mix with your favorite sauce and serve!
Try this at home and let me know how it turns out!
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| Spinach Ricotta Raviolis with Sage Butter sauce |
