A penne for your thoughts...
You've been wondering how hard it is to make fresh, homemade pasta, right? With the help from a pasta maker machine, you can easily cut out the shapes & sizes to recreate your favorites in under an hour.
Yield: 1 lb of pasta dough
Prep Time: 1 hour
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Ingredients
2 cups flour 1/2 teaspoon sea salt 3 large eggs
Process
Combine the flour & salt
Make a well in the center of the flour & add the eggs, one egg at a time. This can get very messy so you can also opt for a standing mixer or large mixing bowl for this step.
Gently mix the eggs & flour in the well. This will become your dough.
Knead the pasta dough for 8-10 minutes.
Cover the dough tightly with plastic wrap, & rest for 45 minutes.
After resting, divide the dough into four portions & roll into a small, flat circle.
Take one section first, covering the others with saran wrap in the meanwhile.
Use a pasta machine to roll out and thin the pasta to your liking. You may need to send it through the roller more than a few times, and with each time decreasing the space between the rollers for a thinner pasta.
Set the pasta on a floured surface and make sure that if you fold the pasta, the more flour you sprinkle on, the less likely the pasta will stick to itself.
We made 4 types of pasta: thick pasta, thin pasta, bow tie pasta, and penne pasta.
For bow tie pasta, cut the thinned dough into small rectangles, set them horizontally, and pinch the dough in the middle on both sides to form a bow tie shape.
For penne, using a chopstick, roll the small square up around the chopstick to form the tubular shape.
For fettuccine, folder over the pasta until you have what looks to be a roll, and using a sharp knife, cut from one edge until there is none left. Depending on how you slice, the noodles will be thicker or thinner. We chose to do both.
Using a medium pot, boil water over medium/high heat. Cook the noodles for 3-4 minutes or until al dente, and transfer into a pasta strainer. Rinse lightly with cold water. Since we used fresh pasta, after we strained the pasta we threw it into an ice bath to prevent overcooking. We recommend doing this, as you will later cook the pasta again in whatever sauce you choose.
Serve immediately, or save the cooked/uncooked pasta in an airtight container and store in the refrigerator.