fresh pasta

300 g (10oz) flour or pasta flour (type 00) 3 eggs, size 4, lightly beaten 1 teaspoon salt

These amounts may be different in different recipes. Read very well the instructions before beginning. If you have any problem, email us! We'll answer to you quickly.

1) Egg pasta by hands
Put flour and salt in a bowl or on a work surface. Stir to blend. Make a well in the center and add the eggs. With a fork or your fingertips, gradually, incorporate the flour into the eggs until a soft dough. Sometimes you'll have to add some tablespoons of water; or you'll have to add some flour if the dough is very sticky. Knead the dough on a floured work surface for 8-10 minutes until it is smooth and elastic. Cover with a napkin and allow to rest for at least 20-30 minutes.
You can also put the dough in a bowl and refrigerate overnight.
When the dough is ready, cut into thirds or quarters. Work with 1 piece at a time but remember to keep the remaining pieces covered.
Roll out on lightly floured surface the pasta dough, beginning from the center, to a thickness of 0,3 cm (1/8in); you have to use a long pasta rolling pin for this.
If you want to cut noodles by hand, allow to dry for 15-20 minutes.

How to cut noodles by hand
Roll up dough (be careful! you have to sprinkle flour on the surface of the dough before rolling up) and cut crossways.
fettuccine: 0,3 cm (1/8in)
tagliatelle: 0,5 cm (1/4in)
pappardelle: 1 cm (1/2in)
Unroll the noodles, spread on a clean towel and sprinkle with a little flour or semolina. It is important to avoid sticking while the pasta is drying. You can use a large surface or chair backs. Let dry for 2-3 hours before cooking.

2) Egg pasta by machine
Pasta machine is a good help in kitchen especially if you want to make pasta very often. Generally there are the instructions in the package but here we'd give you some suggestions derived from our experience.
Pasta machine help you not only in rolling and cutting but in kneading too. In fact for kneading you have to set the machine rollers to the widest setting. Sprinkle with flour both rollers and the dough to avoid sticking. Flatten the dough slightly and fold it in thirds or in quarters. Continue rolling and folding several times (8-10 times); be careful to flour rollers and the dough if necessary.
To flatten and roll the dough, narrow the rollers by one notch. Feed the dough strip through. Now you mustn't fold the strip. Narrow the rollers by one notch and feed the strip through again. Keep on with rolling and narrowing the rollers by one notch until the dough strip is thin enough to be cut. Be careful to avoid sticking.
Spread the strip on a lightly floured work surface and sprinkle with flour. Let dry for 15-20 minutes in order to avoid sticking in next steps.

How to cut noodles by machine.
It's very easy. In this case every strip has to be 1 meter long. Sprinkle flour over a large tray and set it under the machine. Set the cutting roller according to the type of pasta (fettuccine, tagliatelle, pappardelle). Feed the dough strip through and let the cut noodles fall on to the tray. Dust the noodles with flour or semolina and let dry for 2-3 hours before cooking.

How to cut lasagne e cannelloni
Cutting lasagne is very easy too. In this case you have to cut a long dough strip (1 m) into 25 x 30 cm (10 x 12in) rectangles.
For cannelloni the rectangles must be 7,5 x 12,5 (3 x 5in). Let dry for 2-3 hours before cooking.

How to make filled pasta
If you want to make filled pasta, cut the shapes immediately. The shapes of ravioli, agnolotti, tortelli, and tortellini, are very different (see images in the fresh pasta page).
Prepare the filling; about 450 g (1lb) stuffing will fill 25-30 shapes but this depends on specific recipe.
Roll the pasta extra thin, at least 0,2 cm (1/8in); cut into large rectangular strip. Lay a dough strip on a lightly floured surface and cut crossways in half. On to one half, drop 1/2 teaspoon of the filling in vertical rows about 4 cm (1 1/2 in) apart. Dip a pastry brush or your fingers sparingly in water and moisten the pasta dough round the filling. Lay the other half of the dough strip on top. Press the dough sheets together between the mounds of filling. Using a pasta wheel, cut vertical and then horizontal lines between the filled squared. Transfer to a floured tea towel and rest for 1 hour. You can store up to 1 day, if refrigerated. Be careful to avoid sticking.

Found one

Pasta maker...only one in stock, Gourdo's Podium... will set me back by P 2,800.00...
Should I get it? I know I can't afford it...I had just paid for another book yesterday!! Wah!

Jdee's Kitch

New blog, I thought I'd do some constructive writing for a change. It would be a challenge for someone who does not like editing run-ons, also more of a challenge for someone who does not like writing in sentences that begin with a capital letter and end with a period.

To have a resto or a cafe in this lifetime is a given, one of the things that would keep me away from my grave is the inability to establish a successful enterprise in the food industry. After that, I can die a peaceful death. But, for the here and the now, this cooking thing shall remain a hobby and an asset of sorts.

~Pasta Anyone?~

I am seriously contemplating on getting a pasta maker, thing is, I don't know how much one costs! They probably have it at Gourdo's I'd better go check.

~The Life of Pasta~

The life of pasta depends greatly on the choice of ingredients, from the spices, to the cheese, to the origin of your olive oil. I wish I could grow my own garden of herbs and spices, I'd need furrows of Basil though.\

~Italian is Rather Fattening~

Pasta is one hell of a calorie loaded dish, just imagine, all the cheese, the oil, the meat, noodles, butter, cream!~Gym and Pasta~A serving of pasta = a thousand calorie work out.

~Salad~

Well, that's a whole new chapter.

...obviously my thoughts are rather fragmented at the moment...

...this blog is under construction...

Back Home with Blogger

The history of my bloggerness...

Before blogs I wrote on notebooks, tissue (starbucks, mcdo or bathroom tissue), my hand, arm etc. Then, my yellow diskette, note pad was and will always be my best friend, cigarettes came in a little later than that. Back in fourth year high, I had a yellow diskette for all my rantings, I'd had my fair share of poetry or rhyming essays. Funny though, I never found inspiration beyond Dr. Seuss.

My first e-mail ad was with both excite.com and hotmail, it was yeasts@hotmail.com, after my once favorite poet William Butler Yeats, no, I am not a book nerd, as I had mentioned I only read Dr. Seuss and Richard Scarey, which explains my love for the odd.

My second e-mail was freud_fische@yahoo.com, out of my love for freud and his bizzare thoughts, and fische which came from the microfische section of the college library and how the last name fische always sounded so nice and slippery like fish, combined with an almost sophisticated manner of spelling, I also recall a fische character in AllyMcBeal, an associate at the law firm where McBeal works.

My password:
But ofcourse I will not say what it is, though, it is the combination of the name of a renowned author whose nationality I will not disclose, and my age and my x-gf's age back when I was in the suburbs of California.

Jdee Sy
Is simply a nice way of spelling the reverse of the initials of my first name. :) I love it. Haha...
Sy, is the unadulterated spelling of my surname, good enough, would have been difficult to run a background check at the NBI if that surname had been retained...