Food historians have debated about the origin of pasta for a long time. It has been suggested that Marco Polo, the great Venetian merchant, brought this back to Italy from his fabled visits to China during the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368). Noodles became the pasta that Italy is famed for today. However, a widely accepted belief is that pasta was introduced to Italy during the Arab conquests of Sicily in the 9th century AD. In any case, pasta is one of the most popular dishes in the world. The popularity of pasta outside of Italy took off at the turn of the 20th century with large-scale Italian immigration to the New World. It is not difficult to explain why pasta is so popular. It is cheap, versatile and convenient. You only need a sauce to go with it which can be made from simple ingredients. It tastes good and is deeply satisfying. Dried pasta is relatively easy to mass produce and transported around the world, with a long-shelf life.
Home cooks are often contented with dried pasta as they are convenient and require little preparation. Although we are all fully aware of fresh pasta, we seldom make them at home and it is quickly becoming a forgotten skill. In Italy, grandmothers – nonne – continue the tradition of making pasta for their family meal. All Italians know they are the best cooks, and every nonna has her own recipes for everything. However, I am not saying dried pasta (pasta secca) is inferior to freshly made pasta (pasta fresca). They are simply different – different in the way they are made, in their texture and consistency, in the shapes to which they lend themselves to the sauces. They are seldom interchangeable. There are recipes that benefit from having fresh pasta, while there are others that will be far better with dried pasta. I hope this webpage will stimulate our desire in making fresh pasta at home so that we do not miss out a major part of the pasta repertoire.
Table of Contents
The Ingredients
Pasta is made differently in different parts of Italy. In the north, it is made with a flour known as 00, doppio zero. The grading system 2, 1, 0 or 00 is used to indicate the degree of fineness of milling and how much of the bran and germ have been removed. 00 flour is the most refined with a silky soft texture similar to baby talcum powder. Its protein content can vary depending on the variety of the wheat and where it is made. 00 pasta flour made in Italy typically has about 12% protein, which is a medium gluten flour. Plain flour with similar protein content may be used as a substitute if you are really struggling to find 00 flour, but remember some plain flour have low protein flour. Typically, the flour is mixed with eggs to make golden-yellow, silky pasta, and no other ingredients (water, salt and oil) are added into the dough.
In the south, pasta is made from semola di grano duro, which is milled from hard durum wheat. It has a high gluten content (typical 14%) with a good balance between glutenins and gliadins, the two protein components of gluten. The high amount of gluten accounts for the strength and elasticity of the dough made from durum wheat flour. The flour package sometimes says “semola rimacinata di grano duro”. “Rimacinata” means “twice milled” for a finer texture. The pasta dough is made by mixing the right amount of water and flour. Egg is generally not added to the dough. I suggest you do not use semolina flour made in the UK to substitute for the Italian semola. It is not designed for pasta and has a low gluten content with a grainy consistency.
Dried pasta cannot be made as successfully at home as they are in commercial plants with industrial equipment. It is a better choice for some recipes which require its special attributes. Semolina flour and water are traditionally used to make dried pasta. Egg may be added for colour and richness in some types of pasta, and vegetable juice (such as spinach, beet, tomato, carrot), herbs or spices may also be included for colour and flavour. After mixing semolina flour with warm water, the dough is kneaded mechanically, and either cut or extruded through dies to form different shapes. The pasta is then set in a drying tank under specific conditions of heat, moisture, and time depending on the type of pasta.
The noodle webpage provides a review of the chemistry of flour, the interaction of gluten proteins with egg and water, and an explanation of how kneading and resting may affect the development of gluten. A lot of the basic principles described are also applicable to pasta making.
Egg pasta
The nonna does not bother with weighing ingredients and uses her feel to decide on the proportions of the ingredients. She estimates the amount of flour required considering the number of eggs she is going to use. This will be approximately 100g of flour per egg. However, to be most precise, 55g of egg (55%) is required for every 100g of flour. This is the serving size for one person as a main course. Having a precise measurement will allow the inexperienced to make pasta consistently. This also allows us to experiment with different types of eggs. Chicken egg is traditionally used, but duck egg is a great alternative as it has a higher protein content and a richer taste. Fresh egg pasta is well known in the Piedmont and Emilia Romagna regions in northern Italy. In these areas, the dough is sometimes made out of egg yolks rather than whole eggs (or a combination of yolks and whole eggs), resulting in a refined flavour and texture. Such pasta is often served simply with butter sauce and thinly
Make a well in the centre of the flour and pour beaten eggs (or cracked whole eggs like what the nonna does) into the well
Egg pasta dough
Egg Pasta
Serves: 4
Ingredients:
- 400g 00, doppio zero flour
- 220g beaten chicken (or duck) eggs (without the shell) (This is roughly equivalent to 4 chicken eggs.)
Instructions:
- Tip the flour onto a wooden flour board (or a smooth suface) in a heap, and use your fingers to make a well in the centre. Pour the beaten egg into the well. Alternatively, if you are like the nonna, crack the whole eggs into the well, and use a fork to beat the eggs to mix the yolks and whites thoroughly.
- Use the fork to gradually incorporate a little flour from the inside of the wall into the eggs so that it is no longer runny. Do not break the wall or let the eggs overflow beyond the wall.
- Using both hands, quickly bring the remaining flour over the egg mixture so that it is completely covered. Mix all the flour with the eggs to form a dough. The nonna will make any adjustment at this stage. Add a little water or flour if necessary. The dough should feel soft and pillowy, but not sticky.
- Start kneading and sprinkle a little flour on the board if necessary to prevent sticking. Use the heels of your hands to push the dough away from you, and pull it back. Repeat these actions. Kneading develops the gluten and elasticity of the dough. Knead the dough for about 15 minutes until it is smooth and elastic.
- Wrap the dough in cling film and let it rest at room temperature for 30 minutes. This relaxes the gluten and makes it easier to roll out.
- Flatten the dough with your hands into a disc. Using a lightly floured rolling pin, begin rolling from two-thirds of the disc to the top edge. Turn the disc 90o and repeat. Continue until the disc is a few mm thick.
- Roll the top edge of the dough onto the pin, hold the dough at the bottom with your hand and gently stretch and roll it on to the pin. Turn the pin 90o, unroll and repeat the above process. Remember to stretch rather compress the dough. Continue stretching until you end up with a sheet that you can see through, letting the sheet drape over the edge of the board. Cut the sheet if it gets too big.
- The pasta sheet should feel like heavy linen. Make sure it is evenly rolled. You can check this by holding the pasta sheet against the light, and dark patches mean thicker dough and you have not rolled it evenly. You will want to go through these areas again. Leave your pasta sheet to dry on the board for 5 minutes.
- Loosely roll up the pasta sheet like a carpet, and cut the width you want with a knife. According to Accademia Italiana della Cucina, the width of uncooked tagliatelle should be 7mm, and this will expand to 8mm when cooked. The width should be about 5mm for fettuccine and 1.5mm for tagliolini. In Tuscany, the dough is cut into pappardelle of 20-30mm wide. “Pappare” means “to gobble up”. The wide ribbons are very absorbent and sturdy, making it ideal for thick sauces.
- Alternatively, you can use a stand mixer to make the dough and a pasta machine to roll and cut the dough.
- Egg pasta is cooked in a large pot of boiling salted water. The cooking time will depend on the size and shape of pasta. Drain the pasta when it is done.
Tagliatelle
Durum Wheat Pasta
Durum wheat dough does not normally include eggs as durum wheat already has enough proteins. The resulting dough will not be as stretchy as the egg-based dough made from 00 flour, but it has a firmer bite. A very small amount of salt is often added. This is not to enhance the flavour, but it helps prevent the gluten from being weakened into a sticky mass by inhibiting the activity of protein-digesting enzymes in the flour. This type of dough is used for all pasta shapes in southern Italy. In areas such as Puglia, the dough is commonly shaped into orechiette (“little ears”) or cavatelli (“little hollows”).
Durum Wheat Pasta
Serves: 4
Ingredients:
- 400g semola rimacinata di grano duro
- 200g tepid water
- A pinch of sea salt
Instructions:
- Mix semola flour and salt in a large mixing bowl. Slowly add the tepid water and mix together to form a dough. Mop up all the excess flour and adjust if it is too dry or wet. Knead the dough as described for the egg pasta method for about 10 minutes. You want a dough that is silky and not sticky to touch. It will not have the soft pillowy feel of egg pasta, but it will feel nice and firm.
- Transfer the dough to a bowl. Cover with cling film or a tea towel. Leave the dough to rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.
- Roll out the dough into pasta sheet and cut into the required shapes and sizes if necessary, as described in the egg pasta method. However, in southern Italy, lots of pasta shapes do not require the dough to be rolled out. Keep the dough covered to stop drying while you are making the pasta shapes.
- For orechiette: Roll the dough into a long log, about 1cm in diameter, and cut it into 1cm nuggets. Roll the nugget into a small ball. Use a blunt knife to drag the ball towards you so that it curls over the knife to form a disc. Then push your thumb in the middle of the disc to invert it. Repeat the process until all the dough has been used up.
- For cavatelli: Follow the same steps for orechiette, but this time roll the balls into small sausages. Bend two or three fingers together and use the fingertips to drag and curl the cavatelli sideways towards you. You may also use a specific wooden board with grooves (e.g. a gnocchi board) to shape the cavatelli.
- Cook orechiette or cavatelli in a large pot of boiling salted water for about a few minutes. They are done when they float to the top. Taste to make sure they are al dente and drain the pasta.