How to Make Pasta the Easy Way

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Making the perfect home made pasta is one of the first things that you should learn when trying to master authentic Italian dishes from the comfort of your own kitchen, and thankfully, how to make pasta is a topic well documented on the internet.

First things first, you must get your ingredients together. The quantities will vary depending on the amount of pasta dough you wish to make, but for arguments sake, you will need approximately 150 grams of (preferably) Italian flour, two medium eggs (one whole and the other for the yolk only) and also salt. The flour must be sieved to ensure no lumps are present and should then be placed into a bowl with a small well in the middle so your eggs can be cracked into and to sprinkle your salt over. Using a fork, you must gently mix the ingredients after which it's time to get your hands dirty!

Using your hands, mix everything together until a thick dough has been created and if the dough seems a little too dry, add more of the egg mixture until the consistency is just right. When this has been achieved, the dough should be kneaded in the same way you would knead dough for bread. This should continue for around seven minutes or until the dough has formed an elasticised feel and is nice and springy to the touch. This is when it is time to split the dough into sections to make rolling and shaping a much easier process.

Using a pasta machine such as the Imperia pasta machine is a great way for this rolling process and can help make the pasta into a consistent and thin strip which can then be shaped to make the different varieties of pasta. Before you start the this shaping process however, the pasta dough must be covered by a cloth for about fifteen minutes at room temperature as this will make it easier to work with.

Learning how to make pasta the proper way is one of the best pleasures you could have in your kitchen and the taste of freshly made varieties of pasta will always have a much better tsate than the commercially sold, dried varieties.