Pasta Dough
100 g flour to one egg is more formula than recipe, and thirty minutes of resting are mandatory.
- Preparation
- 25 min
- Cook/bake time
- 3 min
- Total
- 58 min
- Difficulty
- Medium
- Calories
100 g flour to one egg is more formula than recipe, and thirty minutes of resting are mandatory. Fresh pasta requires three ingredients and half an hour of patience, after which it cooks in two minutes. The difference from dried goods is not nostalgia but a completely different texture.
Why this works
The thirty minutes of resting time are not a ritual but the reason the dough can be rolled out at all. Kneading stretches the gluten strands like rubber bands. If you roll the dough out immediately, it snaps back every time. During the resting time, these strands relax, and at the same time, the moisture distributes evenly throughout the dough so no dry pockets remain. The second point is the choice of flour. Type 405 is milled finer than 550 and absorbs less water, which is exactly right for an egg dough. Adding durum wheat semolina provides bite and ensures the noodles hold their shape while cooking instead of swelling up.
Step-by-step instructions
- 1
Create a flour well
Pile the flour and semolina on the work surface and press a deep well into it. Crack the eggs into it, add oil and salt, and whisk them with a fork while gradually incorporating more flour from the inside out. The wall must hold. If it breaks, the egg will run over the table.
- 2
Knead for ten minutes
Knead with the heel of your hand, fold, turn, knead again for ten minutes. The dough is ready when it is smooth and silky and an indentation slowly springs back. This takes longer than you think and is the difference between al dente and crumbly.
- 3
Let rest for thirty minutes
Wrap the dough tightly in plastic wrap and let it rest at room temperature for thirty minutes. This time cannot be shortened. Without it, the dough snaps back every time you roll it out, and you will be fighting a rubber band.
- 4
Roll out and cut
Divide the dough into four portions and pass each through the pasta machine, starting with the widest setting, then thinner setting by setting. For ribbon noodles, the second to last setting is right. You should be able to see your hand shining through. Toss the cut noodles in semolina and arrange them loosely into nests.
- 5
Cook for two to three minutes
Fresh pasta needs two to three minutes in boiling salted water, no more. It is done when it floats to the surface and the core is no longer white. Anyone who treats it like dried goods will pull mush out of the pot.
