How to make your own pasta

January 5, 2012

Once you have tried homemade fresh pasta, you will never go back to storebought dried pasta! Don’t have a pasta machine? You can win one at Blend! Mastercard is collaborating with a Dutch website, haalmeeruitjecard.nl, and offered us the oppertunity to give you a present! Curious? More info after the jump!

Unlike regular webstores, customers who shop via this webstore portal with their creditcard get a percentage of the purchase amount back. This amount varies per webstore and can add up to as much as ten percent! For example, if you buy a pasta machine at Bijenkorf.nl, you can get 1,2% back. This might not seem a lot, but think of the money you will save when you add up all your online purchases! If you want to win this awesome pasta machine, check out the win page here for more info. Recipes for fettucini and ravioli can be found below.

1: For 2-3 people, you start by mixing 2 large eggs with 115g flour. Whisk the eggs and then gradually incorporate the flour.

2: Knead it for 8 minutes until it’s as smooth as baby skin.

3: Divide the mixture into 6 equal balls. Put each one through the machine, squash them down with your palm first.

4: Put it through the pasta machine at the thickest level. Then you fold it into thirds and put through again (narrow end first), and then repeat a couple of times. Keep reducing the thickness of the pasta maker and putting it through. When you’re making fettuccine, you can put the bits of dough through each thickness one after the other. But if you’re making stuffed pasta, you just work with one bit of dough at a time (leaving the rest wrapped in clingfilm to preserve stickiness).

At this point, you can cut the pasta with the machine to make fettucini, or continue to read to make ravioli.

5: Cut the pasta dough in equal squares and add your preferred filling (a recipe for pasta filled with Spinach, prosciutto and ricotta can be found at the end of this post).

6: Fold the squares into triangles.

7: Fold the triangles around your finger as above and close the flaps.

8: Cook for 3-5 minutes. Don’t leave the kitchen! It will easily overcook.

All done! Serve with a little butter and parmazan cheese.

Spinach, prosciutto and ricotta filling for pasta:
500g spinach
salt
2 1/2 tbsp finely chopped onion
75g prosciutto, chopped
45g butter
200g ricotta
1 egg yolk
60g freshly grated Parmesan
nutmeg

Wash the spinach in several changes of water. Take the spinach out of the water and put in a saucepan with just the water that clings to it. Add a large pinch of salt. Cover the pan and cook on a medium heat for about 10 minutes. Drain and, when cool enough to handle, squeeze out all the moisture and chop finely. Meanwhile, put the onion, prosciutto and butter in a small frying pan. Cook over a medium heat until the onion is translucent. Add the spinach. Cook for 2-3 minutes. Transfer the mixture to a bowl, and add the ricotta, egg yolk, grated Parmesan and a tiny grating of nutmeg. Combine the ingredients with a fork. Taste and add salt if necessary.
This makes enough for two quantities of the pasta above, so serving 4-6 people.

Enjoy! Recipy and photos via Nora the Kitchen Explorer.