May 19, 2021
I first learned how to make pasta from scratch at a pasta making course Kevin and I took during our honeymoon in Italy. Pasta was something I ate growing up as a treat on weekends. The local pizzeria on the corner of the block where my family lived served not only the best large cheesy pizza, but also some very good baked pasta. My favorite usual order was the baked ziti. Nothing beats the loads of tomato sauce, meats, veggies, and cheeses blended together and baked to perfection in the wood fired oven. I thought I knew pasta well having grown up in Brooklyn and eating variations of pastas from the pizzerias, Italian restaurants, and fast casual restaurants throughout New York City. It wasn’t until I traveled to Italy where I saw pasta in a new light. Many of the pasta dishes served in Italy were lighter on the ingredients. Yet, the flavors of the pasta still seemed to shine through beautifully in the dishes we ate. On one of the days of our honeymoon week, Kevin and I took a pasta making class and learned how to make pasta from scratch. The enthusiastic instructor taught us how to knead the flour and egg together with a light sprinkle of salt until we formed a pliable dough. We took the pasta making class with one other couple and spent the morning making our own lunch from scratch. Each of us ended up mixing, forming, and rolling out each of our own serving of pasta. We cut the rolled-out dough into strips, twirled the strips into nests, and handed the nests of fresh pasta to the kitchen with our preferred sauce and toppings. Kevin chose the classic carbonara. I chose the other classic, Amatriciana. The experience of learning and making our own pasta from scratch was one of my favorite moments from our trip to Italy. Fast forward a couple years and I am still applying the skills I learned in the class to pasta from scratch at home. Kevin would occasionally hover over me when I’m making pasta to remind me of what the instructor would say – keep your dough rolled as thin as possible without breaking the dough. Use the window pane trick to test whether or not your pasta dough has achieved the optimal thinness. Making pasta from scratch became one of my favorite ways to destress on a weekend. Whenever I had a stressful week, I would resort to making some pasta from scratch as a therapeutic outlet. Lately, I’ve been testing out variations of homemade pasta filled with fresh herbs from my AeroGarden. The parsley has been growing especially wildly lately, and so I ended up folding in tons of freshly chopped parsley into my homemade pasta dough. I especially love the bright flavors of herbs folded into the fresh pasta. The trials of pasta making using fresh herbs folded directly into the dough taught me to chop the herbs as finely as I possibly could and to distribute the herbs as evenly across the pasta dough as I could to prevent the dough from breaking. Instead of using the double zero flour recommended by the instructor, I experimented with another type of flour – durum flour. Durum flour, semolina flour, or sometimes a combination of both flours were often the flours used to make the dried pasta I often bought at the local supermarket. Compared to the double zero flour or all-purpose flour, durum flour tends to be more pliable and malleable, which makes it much easier for me to roll the pasta dough out as thin as possible. This week was definitely one of those weeks where my cravings led me to make some parsley pasta tossed with crunchy asparagus, crispy bacon, salty parm, and bright green peas. The combination of these ingredients and flavors packed the perfect savory, salty, and slightly sweet punch into the fresh herb pasta.
For the pasta dough:
· 1 cup durum flour, plus additional for rolling out the dough
· ½ teaspoon kosher salt
· 1 large egg, room temperature
· 3 sprigs fresh parsley, finely chopped
· water, as needed
For the rest of the pasta:
· 10 cups water
· ½ tablespoon kosher salt
· 1-2 ounces Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, grated, plus additional for serving, if desired
· ½ teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
· 2 slices thick cut bacon, cooked and chopped
· 6 sprigs asparagus, sliced diagonally into large pieces
· 3 stalks of broccolini, chopped into large pieces
· zest of a small lemon
· fresh parsley, for serving
· olive oil, for serving
Directions:
1) On a clean working surface, sprinkle the durum flour into a large pile. Use your fingers to create a well in the center of the pile of flour. Sprinkle in ½ teaspoon of kosher salt. Use your fingers to gently blend the salt into the four while maintaining the well in the center of the pile of flour. Crack the large room temperature egg into the center of the well. Begin kneading together the flour, salt, and egg. Sprinkle in the chopped fresh parsley. Continue kneading together the ingredients to form a dough. Add in the water, half a tablespoon at a time as needed, to help form a soft dough. Keep kneading the dough for an additional 3-5 minutes. Wrap the dough up in plastic wrap and set the wrapped dough aside for at least 30 minutes.
2) After the dough has rested for at least 30 minutes, transfer the dough to a clean working surface and remove the plastic wrap. Dust the dough with durum flour. Use a rolling pin to roll the dough out as thin as possible while retaining a rectangular shape. Continue dusting the dough with additional durum flour as needed when rolling out the dough. Check for thinness by lifting the dough and seeing if the dough is transparent. Sprinkle more durum flour onto the dough. Loosely roll the dough up. Starting on one side of the loosely rolled up dough, use a sharp knife to slice the dough into about ¼ inch strips. Unroll half of the sliced strips of pasta dough and twirl to form a nest. Repeat with the other half of the strips of pasta dough.
3) Fill a large pot with about 10 cups of water. Heat the pot on high heat. When the water begins to boil, sprinkle in ½ tablespoon of kosher salt. Transfer the two nests of fresh pasta into the large pot. Let the pasta cook for 1-2 minutes. The strips of pasta are ready when they begin to float. Reserve about 2 tablespoons of pasta water. Drain the rest of the pasta water. Sprinkle in the grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, freshly cracked black pepper, and cooked chopped bacon. Pour in the reserved pasta water. Toss in the sliced asparagus, chopped broccolini, and lemon zest. Transfer the tossed pasta into two large bowls. Top with parsley and drizzle with olive oil right before serving.
Takeaways: I found using durum flour (in place of the double zero flour I was taught to use) for the pasta dish resulted in a bouncier texture for the pasta. Resting the dough for at least half an hour helped the dough relax, allowed the dough to become easier to roll out, and added to the overall pleasant texture of the pasta once cooked. I’ve made pasta from scratch using freshly chopped parsley, freshly chopped dill, and a combination of both whenever the herbs in my AeroGarden grow a bit too tall. Homemade pasta is a great way to use up spare herbs. Infusing the herbs into the pasta also adds an additional layer of freshness to the final dish.