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Homemade Pasta Recipe

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For modern cooks who like things richly flavorful yet easy to put together, homemade pasta is made with flour, eggs, olive oil and salt.
For modern cooks who like things richly flavorful yet easy to put together, homemade pasta is made with flour, eggs, olive oil and salt.
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“The DIY Pantry,” by Kresha Faber helps you make all-natural dishes at home in 30 minutes or less.
“The DIY Pantry,” by Kresha Faber helps you make all-natural dishes at home in 30 minutes or less.

With The DIY Pantry (F+W Media, 2014), by Kresha Faber, you can break free from processed foods and learn to make healthy, delicious meals without spending hours in the kitchen or breaking the bank. This book shows you how to stock your pantry with all the ingredients you need to make your favorite meals for the entire week. Best of all, each flavorful recipe requires fewer than 30 minutes of hands-on time. This excerpt shows you a Homemade Pasta Recipe for a quick and easy meal.

You can purchase this book from the Capper’s Farmer store: The DIY Pantry.

More from The DIY Pantry:

Homemade Pizza Crust Recipe
Garlic and Dill Pickle Recipe
Homemade Hummus Recipe

Homemade Pasta Recipe

For some of the world, noodles are traditionally made with merely flour and water. In other parts, traditional pasta is made with flour and eggs. But for modern cooks who like things richly flavorful yet easy to put together, pasta is made with flour, eggs, olive oil, and salt. This gives the greatest elasticity to the dough and makes the pasta light and rich as it cooks. Make sure you give yourself time to knead the dough and let it rest properly. These steps are essential for achieving a soft, elastic dough.

Hands-on: 30 minutes
Inactive: 30 minutes
Ready in: 1 hour
Yield: Serves 4; Makes 2 pounds cooked pasta
Cost Per Serving: Less than 25 cents per serving

Dairy-Free

Calories: 291
Fat: 5 g
Protein: 11 g
Sodium: 348 mg
Fiber: 2 g
Carbohydrates: 48 g
Sugar: 0 g

2 cups flour (all-purpose, spelt, or whole-wheat)
3 eggs
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon olive oil

Make Pasta With a Stand Mixer

1. Place all ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Mix until a cohesive dough is formed and the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. The dough should be just slightly sticky.

2. Add more flour by the teaspoonful if needed, but keep the dough as soft as possible. If the dough is too dry, add a little water.

3. Once the dough is cohesive, knead for another 5 minutes, either by hand or with the mixer. Cover the bowl with a damp kitchen towel and let it stand for 20 minutes.

Make Pasta by Hand

1. Mound the flour on a clean work surface. Make a well in the middle of the flour with steep sides.

2. Break the eggs into the well. Add the salt and olive oil and gently mix together with a fork. Gradually start incorporating the flour by pulling in the flour from the sides of the well, but try to maintain the integrity of the well as long as possible. Usually this finally gives way into a shaggy mess when about half of the flour has been mixed in.

3. With your hands or a bench scraper, continue working the dough until it comes together. If the dough is too dry, add a little water; if too wet or sticky, add a little flour.

4. Begin kneading the dough and keep kneading until it becomes smooth and elastic, about 8-10 minutes. Cover with a damp kitchen towel and let it rest for 20 minutes.

Shaping Pasta

1. To roll by hand, divide your dough into two pieces, keeping one covered to prevent it from drying out.

2. On a large floured work area, flatten the dough into a disk. Working from the center at all times, use a rolling pin to flatten the disk out from the center to the outer edge. With each roll, rotate the dough one-quarter turn and flip the dough over once or twice to ensure the dough is not sticking.

3. Roll out the dough to about 1/16″ thick (about half the thickness of a penny). If the dough springs back as you are rolling, cover it with a damp towel and let it sit for an additional 10 minutes.

4. Once the dough is rolled thin, dust it with flour; then fold it in half lengthwise. Dust and fold in half again in the same direction so you end up with a long rectangular sheet of pasta in four layers.

5. Using a very sharp, large knife, slice the sheet of dough into strips as wide as your desired pasta: for spaghetti, cut very thin strips; for tagliatelle, cut 1/2″ strips; and for lasagna, cut 3″ strips.

6. Set the strips on floured tea towels or drape them over a long broom handle, being careful not to let the pieces touch if at all possible.

7. If you would like to use this dough for macaroni, penne, or other tube pastas, use a pasta extruder. After mixing the dough and letting it rest, extrude the pasta into your desired shape and lay on floured tea towels.

Cooking and Storing Fresh Pasta

1. To cook the fresh pasta, bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Add the fresh pasta and cook for approximately 2 minutes. Fresh pasta reaches the al dente stage very quickly, so be ready.

2. To store the pasta, let the strips or tubes dry for several hours, turning them if necessary to dry thoroughly. You may also dry them in your food dehydrator for 2-4 hours at 135 degrees Fahrenheit. When they are dry, place them in airtight packages and store for up to 1 year. Alternatively, flour the strips to keep them from sticking, place them in freezer-safe bags, and freeze them for up to 1 month.

Excerpted from The DIY Pantry: 30 Minutes to Healthy, Homemade Foodby Kresha Faber Copyright © 2014 by F+W Media, Inc. Used by permission of the publisher. All rights reserved. Buy this book form our store:The DIY Pantry.