Once you’ve tried freshly made pasta you’ll never want to go back to the shop-bought variety. It’s also really easy and cheap to make. For two/three people put 200g of 00 pasta flour and two eggs into a food processor with the dough blade. Process for about 30 seconds or so until it starts clumping together. Remove the dough, knead for 2 minutes, wrap in clingfilm and leave in the fridge for an hour. Run the dough through a pasta machine (I have an Imperia machine I was lucky enough to pick up at a charity shop on the Scottish mainland for £10) – it makes really quick work of getting it thin (follow the machine instructions) or just roll it out as thin as you can possibly get it with a rolling pin. After rolling it out and cutting the desired pasta style I hang it up on knitting needles wedged under cookbooks while I get on with the rest of the meal. Boiling water, splash of olive oil, cook for 2 minutes. Yum! 🙂
Beetroot and spinach can be used to make coloured pasta, just replace 1-2 eggs with the same quantity of puree and continue as usual.
Farfalle: cut your strip of fresh pasta with a knife into 5 piece, lengthwise. Use a fluted pastry cutter and cut vertically every three inches. Squeeze the centre of the rectangle to make a bow shape. Leave to sit on some cornmeal until ready to cook. Stores well in the fridge for a few days.
Ann B says
Once bought Mr B a pasta machine for his birthday – now use it to roll out clay and buy the ‘frsh’ pasta from the supermarket. I know it’s not the same but my need is greater…
TangolikeRaindrop says
^ haha! That made me laugh! 🙂