EASY ITALIAN FRESH EGG PASTA RECIPE
Egg pasta: ultimate recipe for preparing a perfect pastry: Tagliatelle, lasagne, ravioli, orecchiette or macaroni, if homemade they are much tastier.
Preparing fresh egg pasta at home has never been so easy! You will need a few simple ingredients to obtain a good egg pasta, you will only need flour, egg, salt: all ingredients that you most likely already have at home.
The ideal proportion between eggs and flour is always 1 egg per 100 g of flour.
You will only have to follow a few simple tips, sometimes banal but important for the success of egg pasta.
First of all, you need to wash your hands well after incorporating the flour into the eggs and before starting the process. This is to prevent dry residues stuck to your hands from mixing with the pasta.
It is essential to flour the work surface well during processing. It is also necessary to work the dough in a cool and ventilated environment, but without air currents which can cause the dough to dry out too quickly.
Finally, don’t forget to use a certain amount of energy when kneading: occasionally beat the dough on the work surface to make it more elastic. You shouldn’t get tired of working the ingredients too quickly because the intensity and duration of the processing will determine the compactness of the dough. The ideal processing time is around 10 minutes.
As you will have understood, preparing fresh pasta requires time, attention and patience, it is an art, to obtain pasta that has the right consistency, a pleasant roughness and perfect cooking.
Below you will find the doses and instructions for preparing the basic dough for homemade egg pasta that you can use to create any type of fresh pasta: ravioli, tagliatelle, tagliolini, lasagne.
For the laziest or technology lovers, I also leave you the instructions for kneading using the kneading machine and the pasta sheeting machine.
All you have to do is put on your apron and have fun making fresh egg pasta at home to amaze your family and guests
Ingredients
- Power 423,40 (Kcal)
- Carbohydrates 69,50 (g) of which sugars 1,80 (g)
- Proteins 21,42 (g)
- Fat 7,96 (g) of which saturated 3,35 (g)of which unsaturated 4,62 (g)
- Fibers 2,90 (g)
- Sodium 111,60 (mg)
Indicative values for a portion of 125 g processed in an automated way starting from the nutritional information available on the CREA* and FoodData Central** databases. It is not food and / or nutritional advice.
* CREATES Food and Nutrition Research Center: https://www.crea.gov.it/alimenti-e-nutrizione https://www.alimentinutrizione.it ** U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov
Tools
Steps
Let’s start by saying that tradition dictates that fresh pasta is made by hand and then rolled out with a rolling pin but obviously no one forbids using the kneading machine if you own it. In this recipe I will explain how to proceed in both ways to prepare egg pasta.
STEP 1
Pour the flour onto a work surface and form a fountain (keep a little flour aside which you will add only if necessary). Create the necessary space in the center of the flour to place the eggs. Pour the whole eggs inside, mix with a fork and begin to gradually incorporate the flour starting from the edges. Continue mixing in a circular motion. When most of the flour has been incorporated, start working with your hands. Work the dough vigorously on a pastry board for about 10 minutes until you obtain a homogeneous, smooth and elastic mixture.
STEP 2
Form the dough into a ball, wrap in cling film and leave to rest at room temperature for at least 30 minutes. Take the dough again, cut a small piece, flour it and start rolling out with your hands. Flatten the dough with your hands trying to give it a disc shape. Flour the work surface and begin rolling out the dough with a rolling pin. To obtain a sheet of uniform thickness, always start from the center of the dough by sliding the rolling pin in all directions.
STEP 3
As soon as the pastry begins to widen, rotate it 90° and continue rolling it out until it reaches the desired thickness. Your fresh homemade egg pasta is ready to be used to create your desired format: tagliatelle, lasagne, ravioli, tagliolini. Before cooking the pasta and after cutting it, place it on a tray dusted with a little flour or semolina until ready to cook.
Procedure for preparing egg pasta with a mixer
If you choose “technology” it would be better to replace a small quantity of flour (100 g) with re-milled semolina to obtain the same porosity as hand-kneaded egg pasta. As a general rule, the ratio between all-purpose flour and semolina must be 1 to 3. So for example, 300 g of all-purpose flour and 100 g of re-milled durum wheat semolina.
To prepare egg pasta with the mixer, all you need to do is pour the flour and eggs into the mixer bowl and mix at medium speed until the dough is smooth (I recommend a K-shaped hook).
At this point take the dough, form a ball, cover with cling film and leave to rest for at least 30 minutes at room temperature. To roll out the pastry, follow the instructions for hand-kneaded egg pasta.
Procedure for rolling out egg pasta with a sheeter machine
In Italy the machine for rolling out pasta is called “grandma duck”! To roll out the egg pasta using the sheeter machine, take a part of the egg pasta dough and flatten the dough with your hands. Flour the egg pasta dough before passing it through the hole of the sheeting machine. Always start with the greatest thickness. Once the dough has been rolled out, fold both edges towards the center of the pastry and press lightly. and pass the pastry through the sheeting machine again to the same thickness as before. At this point, fold the dough over itself again and move on to the thinnest thickness. Continue like this until you get to the thickness you want.
IMPORTANT NOTES
Summing up the golden rules for obtaining perfect egg pasta are:
1) Use a pastry board, the roughness of the wood is ideal for kneading.
2) The ideal proportion between eggs and flour is 1 egg per 100 g of flour.
3) Avoid working in drafts: they dry out the pasta quickly.
4) The dough must be worked vigorously for at least 10 minutes by beating it on the pastry board so that the dough becomes elastic.
5) According to Emilian currents, salt should not be added to the dough;
6) Keep the dough you are not working covered to prevent it from drying out.
7) Always flour the work surface to prevent the dough from sticking to the surface.
STORAGE
Egg pasta can be stored for one or two days in the refrigerator, in food bags or frozen in the freezer. In the latter case it must not be defrosted before cooking, but poured into boiling water while still frozen.
RECOMMENDED THICKNESS AND SIZES FOR DIFFERENT EGG PASTA FORMATS
Tagliatelle: 5 to 7 mm wide
Tagliolini: 2-3 mm wide
Pappardelle: 1.5-2 cm wide
Soup squares: 1 cm per side
Lasagne, Cannelloni: sheets as large as the pan (approximately 20×14 cm) or smaller sheets
Cappelletti: pastry squares of approximately 2.5 cm per side
Maltagliati: pastry lozenges made from leftover puff pastry,
Pasta sheet for filled pasta (ravioli, crescents, etc.): rectangular sheet approximately 1 mm thick
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
HOW TO COOK A PERFECT EGG PASTA?
Generally, fresh pasta cooks very quickly: from 2 minutes (for tagliolini) to 5 – 8 minutes for larger shapes (such as ravioli). When cooking egg pasta, it may be useful to add a teaspoon of oil to the water in the pan to prevent it from sticking.Conservazione
Varied doses for servings