To make this beautiful tray of tagliatelle, about 5 portions, I have used:
– 400 gr of Durum Wheat Flour
– 4 eggs
– 2 tablespoons of Extra Virgin olive oil
– 2 tablespoons of warm water
– 3/4 teaspoon of salt
Put everything in a stand mixer (whose inventor I bless every day!) and let it work with its dough hook on for 10 minutes at medium speed. I went on kneading by hand for further 10 minutes. If you don’t have a stand mixer you can do everything by hand, it’s going to take at least 20 minutes of vigorous kneading and sweat but it’s very rewarding!
When the dough is smooth and uniform, make it into a ball, place it in some clingfilm and put it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
Flatten the dough with a rolling pin or with a pasta machine to 2 mm thickness.
Now you should have a large sheet of pasta that is quite dry, if it’s still too moist, dust it with some flour to make sure it won’t stick during the next step.
Roll the sheet of pasta into a log and cut it.
Your egg pasta is ready. Now you can cook it immediately or keep it. If you want to cook it straight away just put it in some salted boiling water. Let it boil for a few minutes, 3 to 5, it depends on its thickness, drain it and add a sauce of your choice.
If you want to keep it for later, spread it well on a clean cloth and let it dry. Put it in a paper bag and cook it within a couple of days. You can also freeze it. After drying just place it in a plastic bag and put it in the freezer.
Note: if you either dry it or freeze it it’ll need to cook longer once you boil it. The best thing is to try it while it’s cooking.
If you cut your sheet of pasta into strings, as we just did, you can make: tagliolini, fettuccine, tagliatelle or pappardelle depending on the width you give your strings, but you can cut it into squares, fill them with some filling you like, seal them into triangles and make stuffed pasta… Or cut it into large pieces and make lasagne!
