Having homemade pasta is quite a treat. The kids love to help with the process and if I am not in a hurry, I like the help. Pasta is a lot easier to make than I ever thought. I started making pasta after a Cooking School class I put together for Carr Valley Cheese. I used to work as a manager and organized a couple years of their cooking school classes. Two separate chefs we hosted in the school made pasta one year and inspired me to do the same at home. I have used different recipes on occasion, but this one is our favorite.

Here is a picture of our pasta dough resting.

Homemade Pasta

2 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup water
2 eggs
2 tbsp olive oil

Level flour with a knife and put into a food processor. Combine the water, eggs and olive oil and slowly add to processor while pulsing. Once dough comes together, turn out onto a floured surface. Knead 5 times, wrap dough in syran wrap and let sit for 30 minutes.

Start to boil salted water in a deep stock pot. While the water is heating up, you can start cutting your pasta. Decide on what you want your pasta to look like or different shapes you want to create. We like Orecchiette the best, or “little ears”. They are really easy to make and you don’t need a pasta machine to roll them out. Cut a fourth out of the dough and wrap the rest while you work so it doesn’t dry out. Roll out into a long snake of dough about 3/4 inch thick. Use a dough cutter, and cut little bits off. (Each bit should be small, a little large then dime. Each little piece you need to roll on your thumb or finger in to create the “ear” look. See below.

You will need quite a bit of flour to make sure your orecchiette doesn’t stick to each other. Once you have finished cutting all of the pasta, you are ready to cook.

Boil half of the pasta in the water and let cook until they float. About 4 minutes. Remove from boiling water with a slotted spoon and drain. Add remaining pasta to boiling water and cook.

This can be served with a variety of sauces. What is your favorite way to serve pasta?

 

Serves 4 people for 9 points per serving.