Cooking pasta recipes using pre-made pasta is good, but when you taste the difference between the pre-made pasta and homemade pasta, you’ll never want to go back again. We will share with you how to make homemade pasta so that you can try making it in your home. Let’s start by talking about the different types of flour we can use for our homemade pasta.
Types of Flour for Homemade Pasta
By discussing how to make homemade pasta, we have to talk about the different types of flour we can use. There are different types of flour you can use in making your homemade pasta. Each has its own benefits that you might want to consider, especially if you are making your pasta by hand.
All-Purpose Flour
All-purpose flour is the most available among these types of flour. It is available in any marketplace, so you will not have a hard time buying this type of flour. Making homemade pasta with all-purpose flour creates a nice and smooth dough so you will not have a hard time mixing and kneading it. This is a good choice for your homemade pasta.
Semolina Flour
Semolina flour is the best choice for making pasta since it is the flour used for the pre-made pasta that you can buy in groceries. Semolina flour gives you more al dente texture of noodles, but you will have a harder time mixing it. If you think you can hand mix a tougher dough, you can try using it since it will give you the best pasta texture.
00 Flour
The 00 flour is the best choice for doing handmade pasta because it is finely grounded. The texture can make it easier to hand mix and can give you something closer to the pre-made pasta texture.
Kamut Flour
The Kamut flour is also made from Durum wheat, like the semolina flour. It also creates a tougher texture for the dough, so making handmade pasta will be harder to mix and knead. It can also create an al dente texture for your pasta.
Making Homemade Pasta
Here are the steps on how to make homemade pasta. These steps would be easy to follow, so you can try them on your own. We will teach you how to do this by hand and how to do this if you have a pasta machine. Both would still need you to knead your dough by hand. You can still claim your homemade pasta is handmade!
Ingredients Needed
The first thing you need to do when learning how to make homemade pasta is to gather all the necessary ingredients. If all are ready, you can now start by measuring two cups of flour, a pinch of salt, olive oil, and 8 eggs. We will not use everything from the eggs, two whole eggs, and 6 yolks.
You can use the spare egg whites for desserts like meringue. One tip you can use in separating the egg yolks from the egg whites is cracking it all in one bowl, then scooping up the egg yolks using your hand. The olive oil is optional if you still feel the dough needs to be softer.
Handmade Pasta
The first thing you need to do is to place all of your flour on a flat surface. Make a well in the middle of all the flour. Think of a volcano crater when creating that space in the middle. When you think the space is enough to hold the eggs, we can proceed. Beat the eggs in a bowl: two whole eggs and six yolks only. You don’t have to beat it fully, just enough to incorporate the yolks to the whites.
Place the eggs on the well you created in the middle of the flour. Start mixing inward using a fork to combine the flour little by little to the eggs. Add the salt before you finish mixing everything. Continue mixing until you feel that everything is mixed. If you want to use olive oil, add it now to make the mixture softer.
Use your hand to continue mixing now. Continue mixing for about 5-10 minutes until the dough is formed. If your dough bounces back when you press on it, it is ready. Make sure that the dough is not too sticky that it sticks to your hands but not too loose or wet. Let the dough rest for 30 minutes. You can wrap it in plastic to avoid drying. You can also put it on the refrigerator plastic wrapped.
After the cooling period, divide the dough into equal small parts. Start flattening each of the small parts until it is almost sheet-like. After you flatten each part into the thinnest possible, we can now start cutting. The easiest pasta you can do is linguine. Fold the sheet you made into 4 folds or when it becomes easier to cut. Then cut into one-third-inch thick slices. Unfold to avoid clumping of the fresh pasta. You can also shape your pasta to any shape you like.
Using Pasta Machine
If you use a pasta machine, you can continue all the steps above except for the flattening. The pasta machine will flatten your dough for you. Run it through the machine at least three times on the widest setting, two times on the mid setting, one time on the thinnest, or second-to-last thinnest. Pasta machines also have other pasta cutters like spaghetti cutters for thin spaghetti noodles.
Conclusion
One final tip we can give you about fresh homemade pasta is that it cooks faster than pre-made pasta. With all these steps on how to make homemade pasta, you can now proceed to try and do it yourself. Try making weird-shaped pasta to add some creativity to your next pasta recipe. Learn more about pasta here!