Gourmet: Day To Day

I feel like it should go without saying that I love pasta. Honestly, who doesn’t? It’s hard to really compare fresh pasta to dried pasta. Dried pasta, like what you buy in the store, really needs to be cooked to al-dente (meaning, it should have a little bite to it). Fresh pasta doesn’t really cook to al-dente, it cooks quickly, typically in about 3 minutes. The result? Beautifully tender pasta that has a delicate bite to it and is made to soak up sauce. I used my friends pasta maker attachment for my Kitchen Aid mixer, first running it through the roller, then the linguine cutter. The instructions below are written for hand rolling and hand cutting. Use whatever works for you, I’ll include the instructions for both. I found using King Arthur’s White Whole Wheat Flour made all the difference in the world (I am absolutely not being paid to say that, but it really is awesome). The flour is milled finer, has a lighter texture and it is amazing in this pasta.

After making one pound of this pasta and tasting it, I went and bought a dozen and a half eggs and made 5 pounds of this pasta for my freezer the next day. This pasta is that good!

Fresh Whole Wheat Pasta
Adapted from: Chocolate Chip Trips

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
3 large eggs, beaten
1 Tb water
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp extra-virgin olive oil

1. Combine the flours and mound the mixture on a clean counter.
2. Combine the eggs, water, salt, and oil.
3. Make a large well in the center of the mound and slowly pour in the egg mixture a little bit at a time. Mix the flour with the wet ingredients until all of the wet ingredients are absorbed. Do not force the dough to use all the flour, just take as much as needed to incorporate all the wet ingredients. (This can be done in the food processor as well, add all ingredients at once and pulse until dough is the consistency of cous cous)
4. Knead the dough for at least 10 minutes. (I only had to knead for 5 minutes when I used the food processor)
5. Cover the dough in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
6. Divide the dough into four equal pieces. On a well-floured surface, roll out each piece into a thin sheet, one at a time. The dough should be about 1/8 inch thick, thin enough to detect the outline of your hand.
7. Cut the dough into strips of desired thickness.
8. Let the strips dry on a pasta dryer (or a homemade pasta dryer!) for at least 2 hours.
9. Note: Fresh pasta takes much less time to cook. Check the pasta after 3 minutes depending on the size of your pasta.

If you are using a pasta making attachment

Follow the steps through step 5.
Divide the dough into four equal sized pieces and form to fit into the pasta roller attachment. Run through until 1/8th inch thick. Set pasta on floured surface, while you roll the remaining 3 pieces. Don’t stack the pasta sheets, they may stick together.
Cut each strip in half horizontally, each half should be about the length from your finger tip to elbow.
Run each half through pasta cutting attachment with your desired shape. Pictured above is cut with the linguine attachment. Immediately once your pasta is cut, lay on pasta drying rack to dry. Or in my case, sanitize 3 broom handles and prop them between two counters.

Allow to partially dry 1-2 hours. Either use the pasta that day or lay flat onto a sheet pan (as pictured above) cover with plastic wrap. Freeze 1-2 hours, then place pasta in freezer safe bag and lay carefully in freezer. I store the pasta at the top of my freezer so I can see them. That way I don’t slam a pound of meat on my partially dried noodles.
You can boil the noodles straight from the freezer for about 3-4 minutes (depending on the size of the noodle) in salted water.