Hand-made Pasta Dough

1 cup Unbleached flour and 1 cup Semolina flour  

3 large eggs, room temperature, slightly beaten, and 4 to 8 additional egg yolks

2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

½ cup warm water, as needed

Pinch of salt & lots of Passion

Mixing dough

Combine flour and salt. Form a mound and create a well. Add oil and slightly beaten eggs into the well. Gradually mix the flour to the eggs and oil. Hand mix in water as needed. Knead dough to desired constancy. Add flour if the dough sticks to your hands.

Cover kneaded dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least ½ hour.

Preparing the dough with a hand crank pasta machine.

Divide dough into hand size pieces. Dust the dough with flour on both sides if the dough is too sticky. Start thick and gradually crank to desired thinness. After the first pass through the machine, folds the ends of pasta sheet to the center and then rotate it so that the folded edges are on the sides. Cut and place on either a flat surface or hang on a pasta drying rack. This type of fresh pasta will stay fresh in the refrigerator for about half a day or it can be air dried on your pasta rack and then stored in an air tight container and /or frozen

Cooking Hand Made Pasta

Drop into salted boiling water and simmer until tender or “al dente” for about three to four minutes. Do not over-cook the pasta to a mush. Drain well and serve.

For Tomato Basil, add 3 tablespoons of tomato paste and 2 tablespoons of finely chopped fresh or dried basil.

For Spinach flavored Pasta, add 4 to 6 tablespoons of cooked blended spinach to the dry mix. Blended/Pureed spinach will help prevent the pasta from sticking to each other in the Hand Crank Pasta machine. Reduce water due to the liquid from the spinach.

For Whole Wheat, substitute ½ to 1 cup of whole wheat flour to the mix.