When friends of ours got us a pasta maker for our wedding, little did they know what they were starting. I immediately fell in love with it and it became a weekly habit in our household – homemade pasta on Friday nights.
Now, supposedly, pasta is not good for you. But the Mediterranean diet (vegetables, meat, olive oil, red wine, and, um, pasta) makes you live for longer. Huh?
I live on the wild side and make my own rules (pretty crazy for a house-bound mum), and eat pasta weekly.
But I am aware that the nutritional value could be increased – thank you, my new found love (lupins). Plus, pasta is only really an okay food for the diabetics. So, given lupins are low GI, this would have been amazing a few months ago.
I’ve never considered myself to be a great pasta-maker, I just enjoy doing it. It is also something that I thought my eighteen-month-old might like doing with me – first time around, rather than being interested in the machine, she just grabbed the dough and ate it like an apple. It has become something that the whole family can enjoy together.
So, I did a bit of research, and found that you don’t have to add olive oil or salt to the dough, just eggs, flour and water. And it has worked out so far.
Please be aware, this is something I am making all the time now and will probably come up with different variations. I am experimenting with a gluten free version – will keep you posted!
Pasta
Makes 8 (large) serves
230g 00 flour
70g lupin semolina
3 eggs
water, as needed (you might only need to wet your hands)
Combine flour, lupin semolina and eggs (food processor, mix master, wooden spoon).
Knead for five minutes, or until smooth. There is no graceful way to do this (unless you’re a Nonna) and it is a great workout. You can do this in a Thermomix or a mixer with a dough hook.
Let rest in cling wrap (it will dry out otherwise) for 30 minutes.
Put through a pasta machine as per instructions – work with a quarter of the dough at a time, run through machine multiple times on the largest setting while folding in half until you get the shape and consistency you want, then continue to decrease the thickness setting (I stop at 3 for fettuccini), finally run through which setting you’d like (I usually use fettuccini).
Add to salted (1-2 tsp salt) boiling water for 6-7 fresh (8 minutes dried), or until al dente (neither hard or soft).
Tips:
- I just mix mine together on the bench, it’s going to get dirty anyway.
- A happy accident – I was rushing to do something extremely important with the kids (lets face it, everyone likes a clean nappy), so I wrapped the dough in cling wrap and came back to it about 30 minutes later. I found it was a lot easier to put through the machine.
- Fresh pasta freezes brilliantly! I used to cut it in four, freeze the portions in balls and just pull the machine out each Friday. It NEVER occurred to me that I could freeze it as ready pasta. I feel really silly admitting that!
- Use flour and water only as needed. I literally wet my hands and then start kneading again if it feels dry.