How to Make Egg Pasta (an in-depth guide)

you know that part in salmon nose red salt fat as it hit series where she makes the most sexy mouth-watering pasta in Tuscany that's what we're making today we will leave no stone unturned and answer all those persistent pasta questions is double zero flour really better than all-purpose should you salt your pasta dough or should you salt the water or should you sold both and why should you use a food processor was well method should you roll with the machine or rolling pin and what's the best way to store pasta after making it when people tell me about their first attempt at fresh pasta they usually describe a disaster basically three hours wasted to produce pasta that's worse than the dry stuff salt in the box that's what my first attempt felt like - and today we'll talk about all those rookie mistakes and how to prevent them the first mistake is choosing a pasta instructor based on their personality or they Italian heritage I know they make it look easy and so fun the problem is that they are trying to teach you to make pasta the way they learned to make pasta by touch and few think of this chefs as native speakers of pasta just like native speakers of a language you don't need to think about grammar and vocabulary these chefs don't need to think about measurements they can adjust as they go intuitive pasta making is not for people learning from books and screens unless you have an Italian grandma or experienced pasta chef hiding in your closet somewhere think of yourself as a foreign language speaker of pasta you need a lot of details and accurate measurements if you want to make quick progress first let's talk about the flour you might have heard that initely pasta is made with double zero flour and if you want the real deal you should buy double zero well actually I've been making past out of King Arthur unbleached all-purpose flour for years but last year I wanted to try double zero to see what the hype was all about there was only one problem I quickly realized that there were many double zero flowers out there what does double zero even mean I did a research in other words I googled and here's what I have learned in the u.s. we differentiate between flours based on their protein content cake flour has very little protein bread flour has a lot of protein and all-purpose flour is in the middle but double zero has nothing to do with protein it has to do with the grind the finer the grind the Moi's eros double zero flour is very powdery it is ground more finely than American flour but you could have a double zero cake flour double zero bread flour in a double zero all-purpose flour just like not all American flour makes the best chocolate chip cookies not all double zero Italian flour makes the best pasta so I thought if I'm going to seek out a specialty flour I might as well get the right one the one that's intended for pasta use I bought it on Amazon and that's what I did my experiments on the protein content of this flour is eleven and a half to twelve and a half percent which is somewhere between King Arthur all-purpose and bread flour so was it worth it yes it was past the meet with King Arthur all-purpose flour is either firm or soft depending on how long you cook it it doesn't have the chewy state that you get the double zero with it they'll gradually yield state if double zero flour is a lot more expensive than all-purpose if you don't want to splurge in the dental you get the basic technique down that's totally understandable but at some point definitely give it a shot this second biggest mistake of rookie pasta makers is sloppy measurements pastas never the same twice so you and you know why because flour is a powder and it's compressible so measuring it with cups is insanely inaccurate the eggs are different too weighing large eggs in their shells I found some as small as 54 grams and as big as 70 grams I know Simon was shooting for an easy-to-remember formula of one cup of flour 1 egg and one yolk but but the formula is not a pin on your luggage combination lock it doesn't need to be memorable it needs to be reliable and reproducible so here's what actually works 300 grams of flour 285 grams of wet ingredients here is how to get the wet ingredients start with two large eggs then add three large yolks then add enough water to get 285 grams is it possible that you'll reach hundred 85 grams with eggs alone very unlikely maybe if you're using jumbo eggs or something in that case whisk them all together and pour a little bit out until you get 285 grams yes humidity and environmental factors make a small difference - but weighing all your ingredients will put you very close to your target and I'll show you how to make that final adjustment if necessary so we've got flour we've got eggs what about salt in her book Simon suggests that adding salt to the pasta dough will make it firmer and harder to knead I have tested this theory and found no difference in the dough texture with salt versus without salt but what about the flavor before the pasta ends up in your mouth it needs to be very thoroughly salted how you get that salt in there it's actually up to you I prefer to add two teaspoons of diamond crystal kosher salt to the dough or one teaspoon of table salt please don't use Morton's kosher for this it doesn't dissolve well if you use this amount of salt in the dough you still need to salt the water a lot but not an absolutely insane amount sameen's salt free dough requires a really insane amount of salt in the water which makes it too dangerous to use for thinning out the sauce you can easily make your sauce too salty Nicky from Serious Eats calm came to the same conclusion about salt in her pasta testing I think it's comforting when you can recreate someone else's results it's a thankless job both in science and then cooking but someone's got to do it okay we've got our ingredients let's make the dough put the flour and salt into the food processor and buzz them to combine add the eggs and water and spin things around until you get the dough yes you could have done it by hand but this is way faster if you don't have a food processor and want the details on the well method check out the link below the video I explained it thoroughly in my water-based video several years ago get the dough out of the processor and shake out all the flour that got stuck under the blade and all the other bits and pieces the dough won't be homogeneous at this point so if you want those measurements to work you do need to get absolutely everything out of your processor work your dough for a minute before making a decision on adjustments it will feel a bit wet when it first comes out but in about a minute it will settle down so don't even think about adding more flour until you've been kneading it for a full minute during the first minute your hands will be very sticky so you might want to rub them really well to get all this dough off and they need those crumbs on our dough is doing great but if it was sticking to the counter after the first minute of kneading I would need in about a tablespoon of flour wait for it to get completely absorbed and then decide if I need even more flour kneading pasta dough is very different from bread dough pasta dough is tough it won't cooperate if you try to fold it all the way in half and rotate 90 degrees on each turn see it doesn't want to stick together fold just a small amount of dough towards you press and rotate the dough slightly fold press repeat all the motions are a lot smaller with pasta dough than with bread dough the goal here is to very gradually wrap the dough and round itself which will develop gluten and elasticity see how the top looks like a spiral and the bottom is getting silky smooth if you don't look stuff underneath you might be smearing it too hard or grabbing it with your fingers while pressing down on it you don't want to rip the door underneath so when you press down make sure your fingertips up how do you know when your dough is needed for bread dough you can do a windowpane test where you stretch it into a very thin membrane pasta dough is too firm for that kind of test so I just go by time once my dough is out of the food processor I set my timer for eight minutes the third-biggest working mistake is insufficient kneading you can't open it pasta dough so if it's your first time and you have never needed anything before in your life go for ten minutes of kneading since it might take you a few minutes to become productive and know you can't knead it in a stand mixer pasta dough is too tough for machines when you're done kneading sprinkle the dough with flour on both sides wrap tightly in plastic and let it rest for at least thirty minutes at room temperature this will relax the gluten and prevent the dough from shrinking when you try to get it to that one millimeter thickness if you are not ready to roll after 30 minutes the worries just keep your dough at room temperature until you're ready as long as you roll it out the same day you make it now about the rolling you have three options Kitchen Aid attachment table attachment and the rolling pin if you have a KitchenAid mixer I strongly suggest you buy a pasta growing attachment it's way easier to use than the manual table thing the table attachment tends to wiggle but you can solve this problem by using the handle as a lover to help you tighten your machine to the table I've also placed a silicon trivet between the clamp and the table to provide a more sticky surface but that's optional remember to push into the handle as you roll otherwise it can fall out yeah this thing won't get any usability Awards before we start rolling out the dough let's prep the work surface to put it on when it's done there is nothing worse than getting a sheet of beautiful pasta out of the machine and getting it stuck to the counter I'm using semolina flour because it's great at venting sticking but you could use the same flower you used for making the dough just to clarify semolina is only good for storage not for rolling for rolling use all-purpose or double zero and be liberal with it you want to avoid sticking at all costs here is our pasta dough we are going to divide it into four parts wrap whichever parts you are not currently working with tightly in plastic to prevent them from drying flatten out the dough with your hands or a rolling pin until it so the thickness of a pancake set your machine to the first setting and feed the dough through fold the dough like a letter folding it into thirds flatten it out re flour it and feed it through do this process about four times until you get close to a rectangle we're still on the first setting by the way we didn't start to send the dough out yet if you feel that folding the dough in half will get you closer to the right shape do that when you're happy with the shape you can start to thin out the dough no you can't just jump from setting one two seven six you have to go through each setting I prefer to do each setting twice because there's always a bit of shrinkage after the first pass don't forget to add more flour if the dough feels at all sticky when you feed the dough through the machine you should let go of it as soon as it gets caught in the rollers this frees up your hand to catch the dough as it comes out and it stretches the dough over the back of the rollers helping it to thin out after the fourth or fifth setting you might want to cut the dough in half oh it will become very long and difficult to handle the question is where do we stop for any filled shapes and most ribbon pasta I like to stop at six although I do each setting twice I do the sixth setting only one otherwise the dough gets too thin here's what it looks like on a KitchenAid said the mixer to the lowest speed as soon as the rollers catch my dough I let a drop to help it stretch and catch it on the other side for very hard a ribbon pasta I stop at the fifth setting where the few caveats I put it through the fifth setting three times stretching it a bit as it comes out by the way the best way to carry pasta dough is on the back of your hands I'll stretch it out just a bit so that it's not there's been a sex but not as thick as five and last and most difficult way to roll out pasta dough is where the rolling pin I only suggest you attempt this if you are using double zero pasta flour all-purpose flour makes it very difficult to roll out your dough thinly enough the fourth rookie mistake is using American flour and the rolling pin which is a recipe for trouble sprinkle your work surface generously with flour and start rolling as soon as you dough is more oval this way rotated 90 degrees be extremely liberal with flour whatever it takes to avoid sticking always roll from the center to the outside now it's more oval this way again so we'll rotate it again keep going like this way past the point that you think is thin enough trust me it's not I find that it's much easier to roll the pasta with a ten if you have seen how thin it should be on that sixth setting of a machine actually not seen but more like felt it's really hard to see the differences between such small thicknesses in the video you want barely thicker than a sheet of phyllo dough it should feel like the kind of fabric you want to wear on a very hot and humid summer day if you don't have a rolling machine and they're thinking of making hand shapes like work a talk about tele sorry to break it to you but they won't taste good out of the stove you need water paste Oh for those eggs produce much firmer chewy pasta the dough we've made today is only tasty if you can get it very thin the water produces much softer pasta it's great for rustic thicker shapes but doesn't really work for thin sheets a link to my water pasta dough and some hand shapes below if you want to give them a shot if you are filling the pasta do so right away while it's still a tad sticky if you're cutting your pasta into ribbons let you pass the sheets dry out until they feel like leather they should still be pliable but not at all sticky when the first side feels good flip it and drive out a set it will take 15 to 30 minutes depending on humidity of the room if you don't want to cook your pasta right away you can stack slightly dry but still pliable sheets between parchment paper sprinkle them with flour and wrap them tightly in plastic wrap they lost just fine in the fridge for one to two days I like to cut though right before it goes into the pot to prevent it from sticking together if you didn't have time to dry your pasta to the texture of skin sprinkle it very liberally with semolina actually even if you dried it some sprinkle it just in case roll up your pasta from both directions toward the center and cut with the chef's knife on a cutting board you can make it as wide or narrow as you like stick the dull side of the knife into the crease like this and lift it up to enroll if you are dealing with a very long sheet cut it in half since this one was only rolled to the fifth setting I'll cut it into more narrow ribbons you can play around with thickness and widths until you find the one you like I think the cutting in terrible's is my favorite part of making pasta just look at those beautiful ribbons the last but not least fresh pasta mistake is not getting the salt right but dry pasta you need way less salt in the water than for fresh fresh pasta cooks in one minute maybe two minutes tops it doesn't get the chance to absorb a kind of water the way dry pasta does so the water needs to be very salty the chefs call it like the sea but in case it's been a while since you swallowed see what there I'll give you actual measurements just realize that we all have our own sold preferences and you might need to adjust to make it perfect for you for six and a half quarts of water I use 65 grams of salt that's half a cup of diamond crystal kosher salt or what a cup of table salt if you have some other salt I can't help you with the volume again a reminder to be careful with Morton's kosher it's closer to table salt than to them and crystal kosher salt this amount of salt will produce a very flavorful pasta assuming you added salt to the dough if you are sensitive to sodium use whatever you think is appropriate and about the pot a covered pot will come to a boil a lot faster but a covered pot with salt will boil over unless you catch the right moment to remove the lid since I want my water to boil quickly and not to boil over I add the salt after the water is almost boiling and after that I wait for the boil without covering the pot dump in your pasta stir and set the timer for one minute please to make sure your pasta is done and get it out never drain fresh pasta in a calendar the flour you use to prevent sticking will settle on the bottom of the pot and will not hurt anyone if you just leave it there but if you dump all this water into the colander your pasta will be covered with semolina mush for long ribbon pasta I start with tongues and then switch to a spider spoon this slotted spoon has totally changed my life it holds a lot and drains well does your pasta with the sauce of your choice and a healthy chunk of butter and obviously the sauce should be hard before you at the pasta you don't want the pasta to cool off in case you think that all my precision has taken all the joy out of my pasta trust me I am very happy right now if you were eating this pasta you'd be very happy right now too by the way when I cook in vacation homes I am perfectly capable of making pasta completely by feel no scale no measurement cups no food processor and no rolling machine but do you know all those years of accuracy didn't destroy my intuition if anything they created the intuition if you want to learn to make ravioli or tortellini here's some videos for you to check out next week we'll make bolognese sauce to go with our fabulous fresh egg pasta so don't forget to subscribe hit that little Bell button for notifications and if you ever in the boston area maybe I'll see you in one of my classes

Channel: Helen Rennie

Views: 2,202,159

Keywords: egg pasta dough, pasta dough, ribbon pasta, rolling out pasta, rolling pasta without a machine, pasta rolling pin, samin nosrat pasta, tagliatelle recipe, tagliatelle dough, tagliatelle pasta, pasta tutorial, how to make pasta, how to knead pasta dough, pasta from scratch, pasta by hand, pasta without a machine, how to cut pasta by hand

Id: m_fu5RaXMVk

Length: 21min 45sec (1305 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 25 2019