Cooking technology has grown dramatically since Julia Child entered our homes on The French Chef in 1963.
Like many, I purchased the pasta attachment for my Kitchen Aid mixer, which is great for making large quantities of pasta. This recipe requires NO technology only a rolling pin. If you don't have a rolling pin - I've seen people use an empty clean wine bottle as a rolling pin. Sometimes reverting to "old-school" methods just makes sense and requires less clean-up.
In cooking classes in Verona and Venice, both cities used similar measurements for delicious pasta. The pasta can be shaped into any style you like once combined including lasagna sheets and ravioli. Tagliatelle noodles are long and about 1/4 inch wide, pictured here that I made in both locations. This recipe serves two people, and it can be doubled or tripled for up to six servings.
(Larger portions would be easier using a pasta machine or mixer attachment. If using a pasta machine or the Kitchen Aid attachment (photo below), instead of rolling the two pasta balls, put through the machine six times to arrive at the proper thin thickness before cutting noodles or using mixer attachment. The rest of these instructions are the same from that point.)
Fresh pasta cooks much faster in boiling water than purchased pasta. Also, fresh pasta has much less salt, so it is necessary to heavily salt the boiling water before placing the noodles in. The water should "taste" like sea water. There is no comparison in taste between handmade, fresh pasta and boxed - you owe it to yourself to make this once to be convinced!
Read all directions first.
Pasta alla Venice and Verona
(serves 2, time required about 90 minutes with resting and cooking, can be made same day or day before)
Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 egg
pinch salt
1 tablespoon room temp water (at a time)
Method:
On wood or stone surface, place all the flour make a hole in the middle of pile.
Place egg in middle of flour hole, add pinch of salt and the tablespoon of water.
With a fork, begin by beating the egg mixture and slowly draw in the flour to form a ball. Add small amounts of water if too dry.
A ball should form quickly.
Kneed the ball for 10 minutes. Try not to add too much flour to surface the dough should be sticking together like Play Dough texture. Kneeding is important as it releases the gluten from the flour to prevent noodles from rising during cooking. Be rough! You can throw it down on the surface. It needs a complete 10 minutes to make the perfect noodle.
Place ball in plastic wrap leave at room temp and let it rest for 30 minutes (you, too)
Divide the ball into 2 portions.
Rollout each into a rectangle shape very thin. Italians say you should be able to read the newspaper through your dough then it is thin enough for shaping noodles. Leave uncovered on work surface.
Rest for 10 minutes.
Shaping for Tagliatelle:
Fold the rectangle starting with the short end until it forms a strip see photo below.
Cut into 1/4 inch strips as shown in photo. Puff them up gently in air and let them dry out on a piece of floured parchment paper. In Venice the noodles were left overnight, and in Verona they were boiled after resting 30 minutes. Both methods worked just fine. If leaving overnight, place tray of pasta uncovered in the refrigerator to continue drying. This is the difference between using eggs in Europe and eggs in the USA. I'll skip the science.
Cooking:
Boil large pot of water. Before adding noodles put 2 tablespoons of salt to the water. Cook until done about 3 minutes sample for doneness first. Drain add a few pats of butter as show. Top with Meatless or Meaty Ragú recipes posted earlier. Here are the links:
Meaty Ragu Recipe
Meatless Ragu Recipe
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| Finished pasta for 6! |
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| Tagliatelle close up of below line cut. |
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| Tagliatelle cut from line folded pasta. |
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| Tagliatelle dry out before cooking 30 minutes or overnight; 6 servings shown here. |
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| Device for Kitchen Aid no rolling required! |
