Is homemade pasta the next sourdough bread?
We can only hope — here’s how to make it
Welp, it’s nigh on a full year since the world as we knew it threw in the towel, leaving us masked and quarantined on Planet Freakazoid. Now, I don’t know about you, but I’ve been spending my time wisely. I shampooed the cat. I can now wink with either eye. And, I’ve learned to speak Esperanto. Like a native (ka-pow!). God, I’ve been productive.
More than anything, though, I’ve been making my own pasta. Spaghetti. Angel hair. Demon’s goiters. Goose noodles. Let’s take a gander.
Why you need to learn this
Admittedly, as a life skill, making your own pasta falls on Barnaby’s Scale of Necessitude somewhere between learning to play the French horn and building yourself an emotional support raccoon out of spare parts dug up from the potter’s field out back of the zoo.
Still, last I checked, the ol’ ’Rona weren’t going nowhere fast, and it looks like we’ll be hunkered like a bomb shelter spokesmodel into the foreseeable future. Why not make some noodles, then? I daresay it’s a sight better use of your time than rage-tweeting Rachel Maddow.
Besides, there’s something uniquely lovely about freshly made noodles. With fat and flavor from oil and eggs, its taste and texture is night and day from wheat and water boxed pasta.
The steps you take
Making your own pasta is not that hard, really. Like brain surgery. I mean, not like brain surgery. (Phew!) All you need is some wheat flour and chicken eggs, a pinch of salt and a splorsh of oil.
For the flour, I’d go with all-purpose. You’ve probably already got some in your cupboard, between the flea powder and the flypaper.
Still, some “people” like to use semolina, which is made from durum, which is just another variety of wheat. Semolina’s got a yellowish cast, like cornmeal or monster eyes, and its grind is rather coarse, like cornmeal or the collected works of David Mamet. Most dried, boxed pastas are made from it, and the fresh pasta made from it is denser than that made with just AP flour.
For the liquid, eggs. Figure one large egg for every two-thirds-ish cup of flour will make enough pasta for one or two servings, depending on your degree of peckishness.
Beyond that, a tablespoon of olive oil to soften the dough and a little salt to bring out the flavor, and you’re set to jet, like we used to say. Decades ago.
As for the method, there are two basic ways: the Old School Way and the Easy Way. The Old School way takes some time, not just to pull it off, but to explain, too.
Briefly, you pile the flour into a mound, hollow out the center, like a dormant volcano, then add the eggs, oil and salt. Stir it with a fork, scraping the flour from the volcano walls and mixing it into the egg until it forms your dough. Then (eye-roll) you have to knead it. It does take some time, but, if you’re committed to mastering the process — by God, you go, you crazy monkey — feel free to send me a message (Twitter @jimdewan) and I’ll send you some step-bystep instructions, because that’s how I roll.
If, however, you want your pasta and you want it now, I’d say go the Easy Way (see the recipe): Dump everything into your food processor, hit the “Start” button, and before you can build a catamaran — way, way before — it’s done.
Regardless of how you make the dough, you still have to roll it out. Now, you could use a rolling pin, like you’re Lucrezia Borgia. I, however, recommend getting one of those pasta rolling machines that looks like something Tomás de Torquemada might have kept in his Torture Closet next to the Pear of Anguish.
You can find plenty of models for under a hundred clams, and some for under 50. A bargain, right? Just follow the instructions that come with the machine and in no time, you’ll have glorious, silken pasta that will make people think you’ve forgiven Mario Batali.
Now, it’s conceivable your desire for fresh pasta is outweighed by your aversion to all that
consarned noodle-making. Well, tons of grocers carry fresh pasta.
Or, if you don’t mind a tiny bit of effort, make some ravioli using wonton wrappers. They’re the perfect size and thickness. All you need is to make a filling, which, admittedly, is harder than making toast, but easier than making up a plausible
explanation for that corpse in the pantry:
Mix ricotta cheese with minced fresh herbs or some cooked, finely chopped spinach or cooked ground sausage or a couple tablespoons of grated Parmesan or anything else that sounds good. Put a little in the center of a wonton wrapper, wet the edges, then place another wrapper on top and press down to seal. Done.
One last thing: Fresh pasta, like dried, boxed pasta, should be cooked in a large amount of boiling, salted water. Unlike the boxed pasta, though, which can take up to 10-ish minutes to cook, fresh pasta cooks in jiffies, sometimes under a minute.
Dear Amy Drew:
I am of Eastern European descent and have numerous recipes passed down to me from relatives. I’ve been searching for pastry filling such as poppy seed, apricot or nut to make kiffles. They’re delicious! In my home state of Pennsylvania, brands such as Solo or Baker’s were readily available in local supermarkets but I can’t find it here. If you have any suggestions where I may purchase this locally, I would love to know.
Marsha
Amy Drew’s Answer
Hi, Marsha! This was a fun question. I love going on scavenger hunts for unique products.
For the readers, kiffles — also known as kifli — are traditional Hungarian cream cheese-based pastries, often served during the holidays with fillings such as prune, poppy, apricot, raspberry and walnut. They’re actually quite similar to hamantaschen, a cookie with similar fillings served during the Jewish holiday of Purim. I made my first batch ever over the summer (because what else were we all doing but baking cookies!?).
We’ve got a multitude of international grocery stores around town. One of my favorites is the International Food Club (4300 LB McLeod Road in Orlando; 321-281-4300; internationalfoodclub.com/contact/ index.php), which carries foods from more than 20 nations in a store that’s fun to browse even if you don’t have anything specific in mind.
In Longwood, however, there’s a small but wellstocked
grocery shop that specializes in products from Eastern Europe.
“We have all these different kinds of pickles,” Fatima Delic tells me, rattling off nations as she points to the jars. “That’s Romanian, that’s Bosnian, that’s Croatian, that’s Macedonian, that’s Polish.”
Delic is the owner of the Euro-Balkan Grocery (851 E. State Rd 434 in Longwood; 407-960-5858; timashouse.com).
“Everyone asks for their own country.”
Hungary is one of them. Delic’s shop carries everything from Hungarian brands of noodles (there are many varieties) to Hungarian paprika to
— yes — fillings for kifli! Poppy, apricot and more. She also carries ingredients — like poppy seeds and sour cherries — if you’re feeling ambitious enough to make your own.
Delic, who opened the shop in 2012, is herself from Bosnia, but stocks items
from Serbia, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Montenegro, Slovakia, Hungary and more.
“We get a lot of people from our region who come looking to find the food they remember from home,” she explains. They enjoy seeing familiar brands and labels. “That’s what you want when you are homesick.”
Hungarian paprika (“Very different from American!” says Delic) is among the most popular of the products from Hungary. The sausages, too.
Perhaps if you pop in for the kiffle fillings, Marsha, you’ll find additional products of interest — whether for reminiscing or reconnaissance.
Happy baking!