Friday, August 15, 2008

Homemade Pasta

I've been wanting to try my hand at making pasta for a very long time. Ever since I got a little confident after baking bread at home. A friend gave me a pasta machine - which I had yearned for - but to my utter amazement, I never took it out of its box! After wanting it for 6 months, I'm still surprised that I never did take it out.

And then I saw this video and wondered why I had even wanted the machine. It looked so simple to make pasta even without a machine. And it was very simple. It really was! For anyone else who is as apprehensive as I was, do try it and you'll be as happy as I am!


Homemade Pasta

1 cup All-Purpose Flour OR 1/2 cup All-Purpose + 1/2 cup Whole Wheat Flour
1 egg

Make a little mound of the flour and make a well in the center. Break an egg carefully into the well (as you can see from the picture, I wasn't very careful!).


Start by beating the egg with a fork while slowly incorporating the walls of the flour around until all the flour has been incorporated and it has come together into a dough. Pour the dough out onto a well-floured surface and knead for 10 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic. Cover and let rest for 1/2 hour.


Roll out the dough with a rolling pin to as thin as possible. This is where the video was invaluable. It is amazing how well that chap rolls out the dough. I did a fairly good job.


With a sharp knife, cut the dough into the desired shape. I wanted tagliatelle, and so I folded the dough down from the top until the middle, and fold the bottom half until the middle, like so:

And then cut into pieces. To unravel, slide the knife down the underside of the pieces and lift the knife up.


Voila! Perfect pieces of tagliatelle. I tossed the uncooked pasta with some olive oil because I was scared that the pasta would clump together when cooked.


Throw the pasta into a pot of heavily salted boiling water. When they rise to the top, or after about 5-7 minutes, they're done. Drain and cook with preferred sauce or no sauce at all (like I did). I tossed it with olive oil, garlic and crushed red pepper. Delicious!


Here's another entry for DK's AWED: Italian!

40 comments:

James said...

I know why I use my pasta machine ... because my rolling pin skills aren't quite as awesome as his! Wow, he makes it look easy.

Yours look pretty fab, too! Good job!

Rosie said...

AWESOME!! I wish my skills in rolling pasta were half as good as yours!! Just brilliant indeed.

Rosie x

Jersey Girl Cooks said...

What great rolling skills you have. I just love homemade pasta.

Arundathi said...

James - isn't he great? I enjoyed just watching him in action! :)

Rosie - Thank you thank you! But not half as good as that chap!

Lisa - I love the homemade too - what a difference it makes!

Unknown said...

I didnt know it was this easy to make pasta..You made it like a pro girl!

Deeba PAB said...

Arundathi...this is fab. I think I'd better begin rolling my own pasta soo. You're egging me on to try! Lov Deeba

Deeba PAB said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Rajani said...

wow once again you demystified it. fantastic!

Bharti said...

Wow! home made pasta! That's just amazing.

anudivya said...

Hey Arundathi, this is my first time on your blog, and the first recipe I saw blew me off! I never realized that one could make pasta without a pasta maker/attachment. I will try it on one of my days when I am more patient.
Great work.

Divya

Ranjani said...

wow! You never cease to amaze me with your "from scratch" recipes- way to go!!

Anonymous said...

awesome! just one word!! awesome!!

Beth (jamandcream) said...

Ive never made pasta from scratch. It on my to do list. I think Im just really scared it will go belly up

Arundathi said...

Divya - thanks! yes it is easy - do try it!

Deeba - Do try it! :D

Rajani - thanks!

Bharti - thanks!

Divya - welcome to the blog. do try it.

Ranjani - lol! thanks!

Arundati - thank you dear!

Beth - Do try it - its not as easy to mess up as you might think! :) lol! believe me, if there was someway to mess this up, i would've found out! :)

Lisa Turner said...

You inspire me to try making my own pasta. I don't have a pasta machine, so this is a perfect recipe to try.

Lavanya Raj said...

You are Rocking Arundathi..they just look lik ethe store bought one's..

Sunshinemom said...

Your rock!! They look so good and so yummy too! Someone is very very independent:)

Sunshinemom said...

A genie waits...get ready to welcome her from my blog:)

Sangeeth said...

great pasta girl....I have answered your question in my blog....

Shobana senthilkumar said...

Homemade pasta...hmmmm awesome...

Jayashree said...

OMG....you made pasta at home....from the scratch....great going, girl!!!

Dragon said...

You make it sound so easy. :)

delhibelle said...

wow anu..don't know what else to say..you're awesome!!

Nidhi said...

Wow...They look nothing less than Amazing!

I m definitely goin to try this really soon.

Srivalli said...

Anu..thats simply awesome..great way to go..

Anonymous said...

As someone who's always used a machine to roll out their pasta, I'm extremely impressed. It looks great!

Neha said...

nice one dear, i don't have the machine with me, so i think that's perfect for me to try...., really Gr8

Nirmala said...

I am going to try this!

Arundathi said...

Thanks everyone!

I do hope everyone tries it - it really is that simple! :D

bee said...

seriously freaking fantabulously awesome.

Arundathi said...

LOL! Thanks, Bee! :)

Valerie Harrison (bellini) said...

I don't have a pasta machine so this is great:D

Anonymous said...

Great girl. Pasta is looking awesome

Unknown said...

Arundhati,U made homemade pasta, oh my god that is incredible, looks fantastic.

Arundathi said...

Valli - isn't it! I'm going to give my machine away because this is so much fun to do!

Hima - Thanks!

Pearlsofeast - :D thanks!

Beyond Curries said...

So far the posts I have seen today, this is the best. The pasta looks so authentic and tempting. Especially the way you have dressed up the pasta is too simple yet sounds very delicious.

Do you by chance know the purpose of eggs in this recipe? In the organic whole wheat pasta I buy here, eggs are not mentioned in the recipe. But the regular brands do have eggs. So I will try your seasoning in the whole wheat pasta I buy.

Medhaa said...

this is great and a must try. thank you

Arundathi said...

@ Madhuram - actually I'm not sure. I wonder why whole wheat pasta doesn't have eggs. Gotta find out more - will let you know if I get an answer.

Medhaa - sure, you're welcome!

Nitya said...

Arundhati, chanced upon this site and am delighted.
Is all purpose flour the same as maida?? (I am used to the one in the US that is not maida. I am now in Bangalore and the maida just does not sound right).

Any whole wheat version that you can share??

Thanks!

Arundathi said...


@Nitya - I've only used regular maida from Nilgiris, so not sure about using other stuff. Whole wheat should work in a similar way, just needs more water and a little more fat to make it softer. Hope that helps.