I know a lot of people think that fresh pasta is hard to make but it’s not true! You do need to have patience because the whole process takes a while but it’s worth it in the end!!! Follow the steps and you’ll see that making fresh pasta is not that hard 🙂

For this recipe you will need: (makes pasta for 6)

-Pasta roller (or pasta maker)

-Rolling pin

– 6 cups of all-purpose flour

– 9 eggs

– 2 tablespoons of olive oil

– a pinch of black pepper

-optional: 2 tablespoons of fresh herbs like cilantro,oregano…

Step 1:

Mix flour and pepper together. On a clean surface (countertop), make a tight pile with your flour. Make a well in the middle and pour your eggs in it as well as the oil and the fresh herbs.

Step 2:

Gently, with a fork, whisk your eggs together. Slowly, start mixing the eggs with the flour. Continue mixing the egg/flour mixtures together with your hands. Continue mixing until the dough comes together.

Step 3:

Knead the dough for about 10 minutes (I know it’s a pain to knead but you have to do it :)) You can always start the kneading process in your stand mixer but I highly suggest to finish it by hand to make sure everything is well mixed. After 10 minutes of kneading, the dough will be elastic.

Step 4:

Cover the dough with plastic wrap and put it in your fridge for at least an hour (time for the dough to relax from all this kneading).

Step 5:

Take the dough out of the fridge 15 minutes before you start making your pasta to allow it to go back to room temperature. Put your pasta roller to the thickest mode (1). Cut your dough in 6 equal pieces and make a flat rectangle with each of them with a rolling pin. Make sure you put flour on both sides of your rectangles for them not to stick to the pasta maker.

Step 6:

Insert the tip of your first rectangle of dough into the crease of the past maker and start rolling the dough through the rollers. Repeat this step but every time you pass your dough through the rollers, go up a notch (2,3,4,5).As the number gets higher, the rollers get closer to one another making the dough thinner. You should go up to level 5 for pasta like fettuccine.

Step 7:

At that point your dough is ready to be cut into pasta. If you are making raviolis, use a ravioli cutter to cut the dough. If you are making spaghetti, fettuccine, etc, put your dough through the pasta cutter.

Step 8:

Hang your pasta on a hanger (like shown on the picture below). I always put a piece of parchemin paper between the hanger and the fresh pasta to make sure the pasta does not dry on the hanger. Let them hang for a few hours before cooking them.

Step 9:

To cook fresh pasta you only need to leave them in boiling salted water for about 4 to 5 minutes.

Enjoy!

Inspired by:http://www.foodnetwork.ca/recipes/Main/Pasta/recipe.html?dishid=10447