Pasta fresca (Fresh pasta)
- Preparation time: 20 minutes.
- Standing time: 20 minutes.
- 600g plain flour, sifted.
- 3 eggs.
- Teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil.
- Salt.
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Pile the flour onto a clean work surface. Make a well in the middle and break the eggs onto it, together with the oil, salt and 10 ml of water. Use a fork to break the eggs and gradually beat them into the flour then, using your hands, knead gently until the dough is soft and elastic. Make it into a ball, cover and leave aside for ten minutes. Clean the work surface completely, dust it with flour and roll the pasta out with a long rolling pin. If you roll the dough out in a circular shape it will be easier to maintain an even thickness of about one millimetre. Leave to rest for ten minutes and then cut into strips thirty centimetres wide. Make these into a roll, folding them over widthwise four times. Use a large, sharp knife to cut them into the shape or size desired: pappardelle are 2.5cm wide, maccheroni 1.5cm, tagliatelle 5mm and taglierini 2mm.
The rolling pin should be about a metre long and the working surface or board on which the pasta is rolled out should be wide, smooth and wooden.
To quote the
Anonimo Toscano: "For lasagne. Take some good white flour; sprinkle with tepid waterFresh pasta". And from Maestro Martino: "MaccaroniFresh pasta make the pasta a bit thicker than for lasagne, and wind it around a stickFresh pasta".
