Chef Mik's Homemade Pasta

Homemade pasta is super simple to make especially if you have a pasta machine which I do! Fresh pasta has been around for centuries in the Mediterranean dating back to before the Romans, while dried pasta dates back to sometime in the 12^th century according to documentation found in Sicily, which predate accounts attributing Marco Polo bringing fresh pasta back with him from his exploits in China

The recipe I am using is a standard one tried and true, to this base you can add spinach puree, roasted pepper puree, beet juice or puree, squid or cuddle fish ink, or what ever suits your fancy, and simply complete the dough as follows. Another thing you can do if time is an issue is prep your pasta ahead of time leaving them in sheets is easiest, stack them up with a little corn meal between layers to prevent sticking and toss them into the freezer until you need them...

Shopping List

Unbleached all purpose flour

Semolina flour

Eggs

Extra virgin olive oil

Salt

My Mad Method

Sift together 2.5 dl unbleached all purpose (ap) flour, 2.5 dl semolina flour, and ½ tsp sea salt

Create a well and add 4 eggs, 1 TBS extra virgin olive oil, lightly beat eggs together

Slowly start folding in flour,

Slowly a dough will start to form, when you have achieved a nice semi soft, smooth dough, let rest for a few minutes

Divide the dough, slowly start passing the dough through the pasta machine set to it thickest setting “7”  5 or 6 times then twice more one setting, twice more on setting 5, and if desired twice more on setting 4

A homemade pasta machine will roll narrower pasta sheets then will an industrial, if baking lasagna consider 2 sheets per layer

Dry pasta sheets on a wrack dust them will with flour to prevent sticking

When all the pasta is rolled out, either use them as sheets, store them or using the pasta cutter attachment pass the sheets through to create tagliatelle, fettucini, or linguini pasta , dry on wrack