Yummy Homemade Pasta

Hello and welcome fellow bloggers, this is my first EVER blog!
I will be talking about homemade pasta, I will be starting with just a simple pasta dough and I will be referring back to it in future blogs.
Although I had made it prior, I was taught how to make proper pasta in Florence, in a wonderful cookery school called Giglio Cooking school with a wonderful chef called Marcella Ansaldo. Her way of cooking is about feel, what Marcella doesn't know about food isn't worth knowing!

I have made farfalle pasta for today, this is because it is sooooo simple but looks so good! Farfelle means butterflies in Italian, it doesn't take much imagination as to why! Every pasta has it sauce, farfelle pairs well with mild ingredients like fish and vegetables.

Farfalle for 4 friends

Pasta Dough
'00' Flour- 400g
Eggs- 4
Extra Virgin Olive Oil- 2 tbls
Pinch of salt

1) Sieve together the flour and salt on a flat surface make a well, then add the eggs and the oil.

2) Using a fork mix the egg and  oil, slowly incorporating the flour to avoid lumps if you feel that the dough is dry enough then stop adding flour. Knead the dough for 5 minutes to stretch the gluten make it into a ball and wrap in cling film, then set aside to rest for 30-40 mins. Let the dough do its thing.

3) I use a pasta roller to do my pasta however you can use a rolling-pin (or wine bottle) but you may struggle to get the pasta as thin as you may need it. Start off by having the roller on the widest setting, flatten the pasta with the palm of your hand then pass it through the roller. if it comes apart a little DO NOT FEAR! just sprinkle flour fold and pass though again. Continue doing this on the same level until the pasta has lost the very moist touch then keep going down a level so the roller get tighter and tighter.

4) By this point you will have a long stretch of pasta dough lie it down on a flat surface and with either a pattered wheel cutter or a knife cut rectangles out.

5) This is the part I love, taking the middle of the rectangle (landscape side) with your thumb and index finger in squeeze them together.

6) If you want eat it straight away bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and add the pasta, keep and eye on it as it will take moments to cook. If you're not going to eat it straight away bob it in the freezer on a tray, once it is frozen put it into a sandwich bag then put it back on the freezer, this avoid them sticking together. This is delicious mixed in with a wild mushroom sauce.

Handy Hint- When you are making the pasta, once to put it on a surface it is useful to flour it, use semolina instead of flour as it cooks better then flour.

Most importantly..... ENJOY!

Please comment on how you got on :)