Home-made Pasta

Happy International Pasta Day!

Making home-made pasta was actually my COVID hobby. Some people planted beautiful gardens or learned to play a new musical instrument. I taught myself to make home-made pasta. That is not to say that it is hard; it just requires patience.

If you haven't done this before, be prepared to start rolling out some dough, then find that it is either too moist or too dry, and then go back to kneading it and adding either more flour or more water. Like I said, patience.

Ingredients:

2 cups flour, plus more for dusting (our gluten free flour blend works great)

4 eggs

1 egg yolk

1/4 teaspoon salt

Instructions:

1. Place the flour in a bowl and create a well. Add the eggs and egg yolk into the well. Using a fork, break up the the eggs and slowly mix in the flour. When the mixture forms a rough dough, pour onto a lightly floured surface and kneed for 2-3 minutes. Cut into 8 pieces and cover 7 of them with a damp towel or beeswax wrap.

2. Dust the workspace and the first piece of dough with flour and flatten with the heel of your hand. Using a pasta roller set to the thickest setting, roll the pasta into a sheet. Dust with flour and fold in both sides to create straight edges, then run through the pasta roller again. Slowly reduce the thickness of the pasta until you get to your desired thickness (I like 4 or 5). Then cut your sheet to your desired shape or run through the pasta cutter. Gently place cut pasta into a bowl.

3. Repeat the process with the remaining 7 pieces of dough.

4. Bring a large, salted pot of water to a boil and cook pasta for 2-3 minutes, stirring repeatedly.

5. Drain and serve with your favourite sauce.