Tuesday, 24 September 2013

Homemade linguine

Had a great pasta making day with some friends today! It was a lot of fun and fantastic to have your own pasta made with ingredients you know and trust (free range eggs for example).

We let our kids run around and play together (you know, decorate the wardrobe with felt pens, jump off the couch onto bean bags etc...) whilst we got together in the kitchen and made pasta.

We brought our own flour and two people had brought fresh eggs from their own or their neighbours' chickens. I decided to go a step healthier and bought some bio-dynamic wholemeal spelt flour from my local organic shop.

This was the basic recipe:

200 grams of plain flour
2 eggs
pinch of salt
1 tablespoon of olive oil

**NOTE- if using wholemeal flour, use 150 grams of wholemeal flour and 50 grams of plain flour. Don't sift wholemeal flour.

- Sift the salt and flour together (unless using wholemeal flour).

- Lightly whisk eggs and olive oil together

- Either combine in a mixer with a dough hook or place the flour in a mound on a clean surface, make a well in the centre, place the egg mixture in the well, and gently fold the flour into the middle until completely combined.

- Knead the dough into a smooth ball.

- Cover in cling wrap and let it 'rest' in the fridge for 30 minutes. This makes the dough more elastic and less likely to fall apart.

- After 30 minutes unwrap the dough and roll it flat with a rolling pin on a floured surface. Either cut out desired shapes or cut into thin strips and put through a pasta machine (several times through the flat roller on progressively thinner settings and then through the cutting roller) for spaghetti, linguine or fettuccine.

- Lay the pasta on baking paper or hang it over a pole (chair, rack, wooden spoon resting between two saucepans- anything much will do) to dry for a few hours.

- If transporting- place in a container with a little polenta and shake it around a bit, this will soak up some of the moisture and prevent it from sticking together.


- When cooking, fresh pasta doesn't need much time. Add to boiling salted water for as long as it takes the pasta to rise to the top of the water, remove and drain immediately.

- Add your favourite sauce, or just olive oil, cracked black pepper and Parmesan cheese and enjoy!



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