<font color="615F18">Recipe By Cooking Vacations:</font><br> Pasta Fresca ~ Tuscan Style
Credit for this recipe goes to our friends at Cooking Vacations.
Serves 4
Ingredients:
2 cups unbleached plain flour
1/8 tsp. salt
4 large eggs
1 tbsp. vegetable oil
Instructions:
- Combine the flour and salt directly on a large pastry board or work surface. Make a well in the center of the flour.
- In a small bowl, lightly beat the eggs with the oil and pour the mixture into the well.
- Gradually draw in the flour from the inside wall of the well with a fork, beating in the same direction. Use your free hand to protect the outside wall of flour until the wet mixture is well-integrated with the flour.
- When the mixture becomes too stiff to work with a fork, use your hands to form it into a soft ball.
- With a pastry scraper, sweep up the flour left on the board and add it to the dough, discarding any dried-out pieces. Add enough of the flour to form a firm but very pliable dough.
- Using the heels of your hands, flatten the dough ball and knead it from the middle outwards, folding it in half after working it each time. Knead both sides, keeping a round shape; do not let it rest.
- Cover the dough with an inverted bowl or slightly damp tea towel. Leave it to rest for 15 minutes to 3 hours. When not handling the dough, keep it covered at all times.
- The pasta can then be flattened by rolling it through a pasta machine or rolled with a rolling pin into sheets before forming into the desired shape.
- For “Tagliatelle,” roll the sheet of pasta into a cylinder and cut slices as thick as you wish.
- For “Maltagliati,” (badly cut), cut the pasta into triangular or diamond shapes.
- For “Cavatelli,” roll into a worm shape, cut 1-inch pieces, press and roll with middle and forefinger toward you, causing the pasta to curve onto itself.
