Pasta

Pasta is probably one of the most well-known noodles; available commercially in hundreds if not thousands of shapes and forms – it all starts like this! If you do need to add extra flour but try not to add too much as the pasta will be slimy if there is excess flour on the outside.

Preparation time: 20 mins. Cooking time:  4 minutes

Ingredients (per serving)

• 100g ‘00’ pasta flour or strong white bread flour
• 1 tsp. olive oil
• 1 medium egg

Method

1. Pile the flour on the worktop and make a well in the middle
2. Crack the egg into the well
3. Add the olive oil
4. Using your fingertips gently work everything together to make smooth dough
5. Alternately, tip everything into a blender and whizz to fine breadcrumbs
6. Knead lightly for a couple of minutes
7. Wrap loosely in cling film and store in the fridge for ten minutes
8. Roll out as thin as possible – add a tiny amount of flour if the mixture seems a bit sticky.
9. Alternately roll out in a pasta machine
10. Cut the sheet into whatever size or shape you like or wrap tsp. of stuffing in the middle.
11. To cook: bring a pan of water to a rolling boil, add a splash of oil a pinch of salt and drop the pasta in the water
12. Naked pasta takes roughly 4 minutes (if it takes longer it is too thick)
13. Filled pasta takes a little longer

Variants:

• Add a small amount of spinach/squid ink/tomato puree to the well for a coloured/flavoured pasta
• For a richer pasta use 1 egg and one egg yolk for 150g pasta flour
• Exchange some of the pasta flour for other kinds of flour – buckweat or acorn for example