Home made fresh pasta is cheap and delicious, either for an everyday meal, or for more elaborate pasta recipes for entertaining. You can buy a pasta maker, or pasta machine, and if you plan to make pasta regularly then it does speed the process up, but it isn’t necessary. Pasta is made from wheat flour, eggs and salt, all of which are cheap to buy, yet fresh pasta is very expensive in supermarkets! .
Lentil lasagna is a cheap and delicious dish, served with a bottle of red wine and a salad it is a lovely meal to make for friends, vegetarian or not!
To make pasta for four people
Ingredients
- 200g (7 oz) unbleached white or wholemeal flour. Hard wheat flour, used for bread making rather than cake making, is best thanks to its a higher gluten content. It is a fascinating adventure to grind your own flour from wheat grains using a hand grain mill.
- 2 eggs
- ½ teaspoon salt
Mix the flour and salt in a bowl, form a well, and break the eggs into the well. Using your fingertips or a spoon, mix the flour into the egg until you have a smooth, firm dough.
With A Pasta Maker
- Divide the dough into several balls, and put all but one back in the bowl. Cover the bowl with a damp, but not wet, cloth to prevent drying.
- Set the rollers of your pasta maker to the widest setting. Pass a dough ball throught the rollers, fold the flattened dough, turn a quarter turn, pass through the rollers again. Repeat around eight times.
- Tighten the rollers by one setting, and pass the sheet through the roller once only.Again tighten rollers one setting and repeat until you have you desired thickeness of pasta. It is easiest to run all your pasta sheets through on one setting before tightening the rollers on your pasta machine.
Without a Pasta Maker
- Lightly flour a clean work surface and knead the dough for around ten minutes, dampening with just a little water if the mixutre is crumbly. Divide the dough into several balls, and put all but one back in the bowl.
- Cover the bowl with a damp, but not wet, cloth to prevent drying.
- Roll out the first ball of dough using a rolling pin or a cleaned empty wine bottle until it is very thin, lightly flouring if necessary to avoid sticking.
Using your Home Made Pasta Sheets
When you first make pasta, make simple shapes such as lasagne or tagliatelle, thin strips of flat pasta. It is perfectly possible to make more complicated pasta shapes such as ravioli, but it is more fiddly and time-consuming, and can be frustrating until you are familiar with handling the fresh pasta dough.
Tagliatelle
Using a sharp knife, or the strip cutter on your pasta machine, cut your thin sheet of pasta into strips. Hand the strips up to dry for an hour; a simple way to do this is to support the two ends of a wooden spoon, or a clean wooden dowel on tall jars. Drape the pasta strips over the handle of the spoon or the wooden dowel.
Once dried, bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil, add the pasta and cook for 2-3 minutes only. Serve immediately, either simply with a little olive oil and herbs, or with a suitable sauce.
Lasagna
You do not need to dry lasagna or cook lasagne sheets before baking. You can use your fresh lasagne with any of your favourite lasagne recipes. Grease your oven dish, add a first layer of sauce, and cover with sheets of fresh pasta. Cover the pasta with sauce and then add another layer of pasta. Repeat alternating pasta/sauce layers to fill the dish. Add a topping of grated cheese or cheese sauce.
Bake in an oven at 200°C (400°F) for 45 minutes.
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