Cooking with Liam: Homemade Pasta

By: Liam Locke

Homemade pasta is often better than the store-bought kind.

Photo courtesy of betterwithbutter.com

Making delicious pasta from scratch is easier than you may think. As long as you give yourself time and are willing to be patient, you'll be churning out linguine in no time. The following recipe makes about one pound of fresh pasta. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

3 ½ cups flour

4 large eggs

Water

Salt

Tools Needed:

Baking sheet or something of that sort

Rolling pin or something round and sort of heavy (mason jar, bottle, etc.)

Pizza cutter or small knife (or a hand cranked pasta machine)

Large pasta pot

Preparation:

1.      On a counter or any flat surface in your kitchen dust the surface with a couple handfuls of flour.  (This is not the flour you need for the pasta itself listed in the ingredients; this is extra flour so the pasta does not stick to your surface you are making the pasta on).

2. Take your 3 ½ cups of flour and dump all of them in the center of your flat surface. 

3. Then place your hand in the middle of pile of flour and start pushing the middle of the pile out towards the edges of the pile in a circular motion.

4. There should be a hole in the middle of the pile now.  The hole should be moderately sized but not too small and not too gigantic.

5. Crack the eggs in the middle of the hole in the pile.

6. Use your hands to combine the ring of flour and the eggs in the middle of the ring. When it is ready to be kneaded the fresh pasta should not be sticky and should come together into a ball easily.

8. To knead the pasta dough just push into the ball of dough with your palms primarily.

9. Roll the ball out once done kneading and with the rolling pin. Roll it thinly.

10. Use the pizza cutter or the knife and cut thin strips out of the flat pasta dough.

11. Flour the baking sheet and place the pasta on the baking sheet.

12. Boil water to cook the pasta. Use plenty of water and a big pot. The more room the pasta has to move around in, the better it will cook and the less likely it will be that the individual pasta strands will stick together. Salt the water heavily.  The water should taste something close to sea water.

13. Cook the pasta in the boiling water until al dente.  About 1-3 minutes.