Homemade Tagliatelle Pasta

What do you do on a rainy day? You make pasta!

According to the legend tagliatelle were invented in 1487 in Bologna by master Zefirano for the wedding of Lucrezia Borgia with Annibale Bentivoglio.

Apparently master Zefirano was inspired by the blonde hair of the bride.

I like the legend but my tagliatelle were not so blonde after all. I used stone ground flour so they were slightly darker than normal and I noticed that after resting for two hours they turned even darker.

I cannot describe the satisfaction of eating homemade pasta. I dressed it with tomato sauce, fresh basil leaves and olive oil.

A light and nutritious meal. Simply beautiful.

• Prep Time : 45 minutes
• Cook Time : 5 minutes

Ingredients

• flour – 400 g – 4 cups
• fresh eggs – 4
• salt – a pinch

Instructions

Let’s make the dough.

Make a well with the flour and crack the eggs inside with a pinch of salt.

Beat the eggs lightly with a fork until smooth incorporating slowly the flour.

Working with your hands make a big, smooth lump of dough. This will develop the gluten which helps make a good springy and al dente pasta. Look at the colour of this dough, it is darker than usual due to the stone ground flour I have used.

Work the dough with the heel of your hand, pull it, bash it, squash it into the table, stretch it and so on;

Basically be rough with it until you get a smooth and silky texture.  Sprinkle your worktop with flour from time to time to prevent the dough from sticking to it.

Let it rest in a cool place for 30 minutes wrapped in cling film.

Now roll your pasta with your rolling pin.

Then cut it into pieces with a pastry cutter or with a knife.

Flour your surface again and sprinkle some flour on top of the sheets of pasta too; now you can keep using your rolling pin until you get very thin pasta sheets just 3 or 4 millimeter (0.16 inches) thick. Then roll the sheets tightly and with a knife cut them 1/2 cm (0.2 inches) wide in order to get your tagliatelle.

If using a pasta machine pass the sheets through the machine several times until you get very thin sheets.

Do this until you get a thin and smooth sheet of dough. Making pasta is really fun!

But let’s go ahead: set your machine to “tagliatelle mode” and pass your sheets of pasta through it. And here they come our tagliatelle!

Feeling so proud right now! It is so satisfying making your own pasta!

Let your tagliatelle dry over a cloth or even better on a rack if you have one for 2 or 3 hours before eating them. Cook them in salty boiling water for 4 to 5 minutes.

If you want to store them to be enjoyed later you can do like my grandma used to: let them dry well for 2 days then store them in an airtight container. They will keep well for months. You could also freeze them if you prefer.

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