How to Make Handmade Fettuccine

While making pasta from scratch seems to be a daunting task, all that it requires is a small amount of time and some basic ingredients. With some basic cooking experience and a willingness to try something new, any home cook can make their own pasta from scratch. Making handmade pasta starts with a few simple ingredients, flour and eggs; then you make the dough, let it set, cut the pasta, and cook it, resulting in freshly made pasta in your own kitchen. From start to finish, it will take approximately one hour to make and cook this handmade pasta. This recipe does not require a pasta machine and teaches you how to make fettuccine, one of the easiest pastas to start out making. Before beginning, make sure that you have a large, clean work surface and all of the materials listed below. The ingredients you will need are: 2 cups of all-purpose flour 3 large eggs The equipment you will need includes: flat surface or wooden cutting board dry measuring cup large pot rolling pin water (for cooking) salt to taste (for cooking) sharp kitchen knife plastic wrap slotted spoon fork

To most efficiently make the pasta, gather all of the materials together prior to beginning. Be careful when using the sharp kitchen knife to cut the pasta, making sure to keep your fingers tucked in and away from the blade. Also, take special care when boiling the water for the pasta and draining the pasta from the water; the water is hot and can burn skin. With these materials and warnings in mind, the following steps will explain how to make your own handmade pasta from start to finish. Instructions: 1. Clear a large clean workspace, such as a clean counter, pastry mat, or wooden cutting board, as seen in Figure 1.

Figure 1: A wooden work surface.1 2. Measure out 2 cups of flour by using a dry measuring cup and leveling the flour using a knife. Place the flour on the work surface after measuring.

3. Using your hands, make a mound of the flour and then push the middle out to the sides, creating a well. Figure 2 illustrates an excellent well. Be sure to have a layer of flour on the bottom of the well.

Figure 2: A flour well with a wide pocket for the eggs and high sides.2 4. Crack the 3 eggs into the flour well. Gently break the egg yolks and combine the eggs using a fork, as seen in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Flour well with eggs ready for mixing.3 5. Begin stirring the broken eggs with your hands or a fork and slowly add in small amounts of flour from the edges of the well. Continue adding flour until the edges of the well are half as high as what they started as, as seen in Figure 4.

Figure 4: Mixing the eggs and flour.3

6. Using your hands, gently incorporate the additional flour into the egg mixture until the dough is slightly sticky, holds together, and resembles the dough seen in Figure 5.

Figure 5: Pasta dough with enough flour incorporated.3 7. Knead the dough by using the heel of your hand to roll the dough forward, as seen in Figure 6. Fold the dough over itself and repeat. After approximately 5 minutes of kneading, the dough will be smooth and no longer sticky.

Figure 6: Kneading the pasta dough.3 8. Wrap the dough tightly in plastic wrap and place the dough in the fridge to rest for 30 minutes. The dough should resemble that in Figure 7. This rest period allows the gluten, a protein in the flour, to rest and bind the dough together.

Figure 7: Pasta dough that has been kneaded and ready to rest.3 9. Add additional flour to the work surface, remove the dough from the fridge, and unwrap it. Allow it to warm up for approximately 2 minutes.
3

10. Using a sharp kitchen knife, cut the dough into 4 equally sized sections. Take one section and working from the middle of the dough, begin rolling out the dough using the rolling pin, similar to Figure 8.

Figure 8: Rolling out pasta dough.4 11. When the dough is about 1/16th of an inch thick and it is possible to faintly see through the thin dough, as seen in Figure 9, use a sharp knife to make ribbons of dough approximately 1/8th of an inch wide (about half the size of a fingernail). Make ribbons of pasta from all of the rolled out dough.

Figure 9: Thin pasta sheets.5 12. Gather the strands, fold them in half, as seen in Figure 10, and set the finished pasta aside in small piles.

Figure 10: Folded strands of fettucinne.6 13. Fill a large pot of the way full with water, season with salt to taste, and place on the stove on high. 14. Repeat steps 10-12 with the remaining 3 sections of dough.
4

15. After all the dough has been cut into fettuccine and the water is boiling, drop small portions of pasta into the boiling water. 16. Cook the pasta until it floats on top of the water, approximately 2-3 minutes. Remove from the water using a slotted spoon, similar to Figure 11, and place in a bowl for serving. Caution: Boiling water is hot and can burn skin. Take care when removing the pasta.

Figure 11: Using a slotted spoon to remove cooked pasta.7 17. Repeat steps 15 and 16 until all of the pasta has been cooked. 18. Toss with sauce, use the pasta in a dish, or eat plain. Figure 12 shows the finished pasta, ready to eat. Enjoy!

Figure 12: Finished pasta.8

References: 1. http://www.todayshomeowner.com/how-to-clean-and-oil-butcher-block-for-use-in-the-kitchen/ 2. http://rebeccaarielle.wordpress.com/2011/05/13/fresh-egg-pasta/ 3. http://www.cookingforkeeps.com/2012/05/31/how-to-make-fresh-pasta/ 4. http://honest-food.net/2010/07/29/how-to-make-pici-pasta/ 5. http://duespaghetti.com/2012/03/04/la-pasta-fatta-in-casa/ 6. http://omnivorescookbook.com/recipes/healthy-mushroom-fettuccine-alfredo 7. http://zoomyummy.com/2012/04/04/light-fettuccine-alfredo/ 8. http://www.babble.com/best-recipes/cfettuccine-alfredo-from-scratch-in-10-minutes/