Home-made Pasta – living non plastic

So as part of the no-plastic lifestyle we are discovering the growing need/ desire to learn to make things from scratch as much as possible. Although things like pasta are available from shops in and around Sheffield that are plastic free (and we do have some of this in) it is also nice to see how do-able it would be to make it from scratch so that if we run out we don’t have to think what else we can eat (as it is not always convenient to get to these places at the drop of a hat – long gone is the convenience of running into any old shop).

Tonight I made home-made pasta for the first time. I am not going to say I did it quickly – as I didn’t. I had come in from college and wanted to keep this as chilled as possible as a relax down time activity so I listened to radio while doing it, took time out to chat to my husband and basically wandered in and out of the kitchen a bit. In total It took me just over an hour to put food out but then I wasn’t rushing. Equally, I made enough dough for 6 portions and so have frozen two blocks of two for later – so I made more than I needed. Was it fun?  Yes – it reminded me of the first time you make home-made bread by hand – sticky but fun, a great thing to do with kids (help maybe needed at the cutting stage) and such a simple thing to do so long as you have the time.

I suspect over time I will be able to make pasta from scratch for 2 people in around 45 mins (15 mins being fridge time and 15 mins of this being drying time).

I used Jamie Oliver’s recipe as a basis – found here: http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/pasta-recipes/a-basic-recipe-for-fresh-egg-pasta/#IxVTuKvFQhFumyL6.97

Recipe Alteration: Personally, I also found it easier to add in around 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil to help the dough fully mould together.

Below is a picture diagram of how it all panned out (as I am a visual person when using a recipe – and sometime find it helpful to see things being done at the halfway it-looks-weird-stage). At the stage before you start mixing in the eggs (when you are weighing out the flour) you could always add in herbs/other flavours if you fancy a slightly different tasting pasta!

 

 

 

 

I used 6 eggs, 600g of Pasta flour (Dove brand) and 3 tablespoons of olive oil. I added in the olive oil when I was mashing it about/ kneading it on the board making it into the solid block before I then wrapped it in foil and put it in the fridge for 15 mins. It is why it looks slightly more yellow.

Rolling Stages

I also found this site really useful for rolling out and cutting up advice:

https://www.cooksillustrated.com/features/8544-how-to-make-handmade-pasta-without-a-machine

I found the rolling not that taxing to be honest –The key is to make it so that you are rolling small square out (so I cut my one block down to six). It did not take that long maybe 5-10 mins max to roll out 200g worth of pasta. We don’t own/need to/ want to own a pasta roller and to be honest I don’t see why you need one unless you want perfect looking pasta! Ours looks rustic which is fine by me.

The image of them resting on (clean) t-towels is when they rest for 15 mins. Somewhere between 10-15 minutes seems fine to me as you want it to dry them out but I think not too much otherwise I suspect it gets a bit harder to role – it is a balance between them sticking together when you roll them (not left long enough) and feeling like they might crack .

At the end of the night we had empty plates. We had around 100g per person ( which was a little too much for us – we are sat here a couple of hours later overfull!). However, you aren’t left hungry and it tasted as good as any other pasta 🙂

Things I will do differently next time: Try and cut thinner slices (so width is slightly less) but thickness was fine.