Directions: |
Directions: Place the flour on a table in a mound and make a well in the center. Put the eggs and salt into the well.
Mix the eggs together with a fork without disturbing the flour.
Using a fork gently mix little by little , once all blended use a bench knife or your fingers to mix together well.
After the wet and dry ingredients have been combined using the dough knife, bring the mixture together with your hands to form a ball. If the dough seems to dry, add a little more egg mixture. If the mixture is too wet and sticks to your fingers, rub your hands with flour and form the dough into a ball.
Knead the pasta dough as you would bread dough. Pushing down and away from you with the palm of your hand. Turn the dough ninety degrees, fold the dough over on itself and push down and away again. Continue this until the dough is smooth, about 7 minutes.
Using the bench knife, cut the dough into 3 equal sections. Form each section into a ball. Cover the dough balls with a towel or bowl and let rest for 15 minutes.
Flatten one of the dough balls with the palm of your hand until it's about 1/2 an inch thick and no wider than the slot of the pasta machine. With the slot of the pasta machine on its widest setting (usually 1), turn the handle while feeding the dough into the slot. Gently hold the flattened dough as it comes out of the pasta machine, but don't pull on it. ( if you don't have a pasta machine rolling it is fine)
After the dough has completely passed through the pasta machine, turn the slot down to the next smallest setting and pass the dough through the slot. Continue to do this, making the slot smaller by one each time. Don't try to skip a number, as this will only cause the machine to jam and you'll end up with a mess and no pasta.
As you continue rolling the pasta, your sheet of dough will get longer and longer. Try to gently hold the dough as it exits the pasta machine so it doesn't tear. This is a great time to have an assistant help you.
Continue passing the dough through the machine until it's about an 1/16th of an inch thick.
Feed the dough into the cutting blades. Try to have your hand under the center of the cut dough, so you can pick it all up in one bunch.
Alternatively, if you don't have a pasta machine, you can fold the rolled dough into a square. Cut the open end of the square a quarter inch at a time. Immediately, unroll the pasta and lay flat.
Immediately after cutting the dough, hang the pasta on a dowel or other object (a clothes drying rack works great). You can also lay the pasta flat on a towel, but it is more likely to stick together.
The pasta can be used right away or will keep up to a week. |
This recipe for Fresh Homemade Pasta is from