Ingredients
Method
Make homemade pasta dough
- Add 3 cups of flour to a large bowl or work without a bowl on a clean work surface
- Use the bottom of a measuring cup or the back of a spoon to make a well in the flour.
- Add the whole eggs, sourdough starter, salt, and olive oil into the well.
- whisk the egg mixture together with a fork or your fingers and then work into the flour.
- The dough will be shaggy when you first start mixing - keep mixing until it comes together into a ball. If it's too dry, add a teaspoon of water. If too wet, add a tablespoon of flour. Pasta dough is very adaptable - just add what you need until you get the right consistency. The dough should be easy to knead and not sticky.
- Once the dough has reached the right consistency, knead for about 5 minutes until smooth.
- Shape the dough into a ball and wrap it with plastic wrap. Then let the dough rest at room temp for about 30 minutes. I've forgotten about my dough and let it rest for much longer - it was just fine as long as its wrapped and not exposed to air.
Roll out the dough with a pasta machine
- Unwrap the dough and cut it in half. Re-wrap one piece of dough until you're ready to roll it out. Pasta dough begins to dry out quickly and then is very difficult to roll out. Keeping it wrapped is important to prevent it from drying.
- Use a rolling pin or the heel of your hand to flatten the half of the dough you'll be rolling out. It needs to be thin enough to fit through the pasta machine's widest setting.
- Set the pasta machine to 0 and pass the dough through 2-3 times. The dough will begin to stretch out into a long sheet with each pass through the roller.
- After 2-3 passes through on a 0, lay the sheet of dough on the counter and fold it in on itself lengthwise, and then widthwise to make a thin strip of dough.
- Use a rolling pin to flatten the strip so it fits through the machine & then roll it through the machine on 0 one time.
- Adjust the machine to the 1 setting and pass the dough through 2 times.
- After the last pass on 1, fold the dough in half lengthwise.
- Roll the folded dough through the machine on 1, one more time.
- Adjust the machine to a 2 and then roll the sheet of dough through 2-3 times. Repeat this process until you reach your desired thickness, 6 is standard.
Cut the pasta
- Lay the sheet of pasta dough (it will be quite long) out flat on your work surface and dust with a little flour, using your hand to make sure the entire sheet is coated in flour.
- Use a knife or bench scraper to divide the pasta sheet into 3 equal sections.
- Run each floured sheet through the cutting attachment & then prepare immediately al dente, hang to dry on a drying rack, or twist the cut pasta into nests to dry.
Nutrition
Notes
Once the pasta is completely dry, store it in an airtight container like a ziploc bag in a cool, dry, dark place for up to a couple of months. Hanging pasta will dry very quickly, it only takes a day or two. Nests will take a few days. Pasta is dry when it breaks easily.
