Fresh Egg Pasta
Source of Recipe
Bernice
Recipe Introduction
Note from original author: I can't argue with Joyce Goldstein when she says fresh homemade egg pasta is the best choice for making her classic lasagna. I have yet to find a store-bought pasta that matches the rich flavor & light, ethereal texture of good homemade pasta. Making your own pasta takes a bit of time -- the dough is fast to make, but rolling it into thin sheets takes about 45 minutes (though it goes faster with practice). You'll need a food processor, a pasta rolling machine & lots of kitchen towels, along with counter space for laying out your pasta sheets.
List of Ingredients
Fresh Egg Pasta
10 ozs (2 1/4 cups) unbleached all purpose flour, more for kneading & rolling
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
Recipe
Making The Dough:
Put the flour & salt in a food processor fitted with the dough blade.
Pulse three of four times to blend.
With the processor running, pour the olive oil down the feed tube, then slowly pour in the lightly beaten eggs.
Continue processing until the dough clumps around the blade; about 10 seconds.
It will be a little wet & sticky.
Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface & knead it by hand until it's smooth; about 2 minutes.
If it seems very sticky & too wet, add a little more flour & continue kneading for 1 more minute.
Shape the dough into a ball & dust it lightly with flour.
Wrap it tightly with plastic wrap & let it rest at room temperature for 30 minutes (or you can refrigerate or freeze).
Rolling Out The Dough:
Unwrap the dough ball & cut it into four equal pieces. (Let the refrigerated dough come to room temperature. Let the frozen dough defrost in the refrigerator & let it come to room temperature.)
Take one piece of the dough & leave the other three covered in plastic wrap.
Flatten the piece of dough with the palm of your hand until it's about 1/2 inch thick & shape it as close to a rectangle as possible.
Dust the flattened piece lightly with flour & pass it through the machine rollers at the widest setting.
Fold it in three, like a letter.
Dust the dough with more flour & pass it through again, still folded, starting from a short side.
Repeat this step tow or three times, folding the dough in three each time & dusting with flour as needed.
Then, without folding the dough, repeatedly pass it through the machine rollers, reducing the space between the rollers after each pass (dust the dough with flour on sides before each pass).
When the dough becomes so long that it is difficult to manage, trim the uneven ends & cut the dough in half crosswise to make two more-manageable lengths of dough.
Continue passing each piece through progressively narrower settings.
If you're making pasta sheets for lasagna, stop on the second or third narrowest setting.
The pasta should be slightly translucent, but not too thin that it will tear.
For other types of pasta, life fettuccine, linguine or ravioli, continue to the thinnest setting.
As you finish rolling each sheet, set it on a lightly floured kitchen cloth & cover with another cloth to prevent the dough from drying out.
Or, if not using within an hour or so, layer the sheets between parchment paper, plastic wrap, or waxed paper to keep them from sticking together.
Then, refrigerate or freeze them.
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