Making fresh homemade pasta is easy, in fact, very easy and gives great satisfaction. Today we will talk about fresh egg pasta made with only re-milled durum wheat semolina. We can create all the pasta shapes we want, long, short, stuffed, sheets for lasagna and cannelloni, and so on. The taste of semolina pasta is delicious, full-bodied, and pairs well with all kinds of sauces and gravies, whether meat, fish, or vegetable.
- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Economical
- Rest time: 1 Hour
- Preparation time: 15 Minutes
- Portions: 28 oz
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients
- 17.6 oz re-milled durum wheat semolina
- 5 medium whole eggs
- 1 g fine salt
- as needed room temperature water (only if necessary)
Steps
On the worktable, place the semolina and the pinch of fine salt, create a well in the center, and add the whole eggs.
I used 1 egg for every 100 grams of semolina, but it’s not always the case, as it depends on the size of the eggs, so it may be necessary to add one less or one more (if the dough is too hard).
Using a fork, start to bring some semolina towards the center of the well and mix it with the eggs.
At this point, start kneading with your hands until you get a soft, smooth dough that doesn’t stick to your hands. Let it rest under a bowl, under a damp cotton cloth (without detergent smells), or sealed in plastic wrap, to prevent the surface from drying out.
After an hour, take the dough again and form the types of pasta we desire, both long and short: tagliolini, tagliatelle, fettuccine, maltagliati, sheets for lasagna or cannelloni; or orecchiette, cavatelli (my personal interpretation made with egg pasta), etc…
The extra idea for drying. If we have prepared too much pasta or if we want to consume it later, we can dry it.
Below I will suggest two alternatives
1) Pasta drying. It’s enough to place the pasta we’ve already shaped on kitchen towels, without detergent or softener smells, sprinkled with plenty of durum wheat semolina (spacing it well) and let it dry from 12 to 24 hours at most, turning it after 6 hours or 12 hours, covering the pasta with light towels or light veils. Cotton towels absorb the moisture that the pasta releases as it dries.
2) Sheet drying. After rolling out the sheets, sprinkle the cloths with some semolina, place the sheets and let them dry for only an hour, turning them after half an hour.
After an hour we can shape the sheets as we wish. This way, it will be much easier to cut and shape sheets for lasagna and cannelloni, tagliatelle, tagliolini, pappardelle, malfatti, quadrucci, and so on.
Once this is done, place the formed pasta back on the towels, spacing it well, to allow for even drying, cover them with another towel or light veil and let them dry for 12 or 24 hours, as per our needs. Perfectly dried pasta can be stored in food bags for up to two or three days in a cool, dry place.
