Authentic homemade pasta contains only two ingredients, eggs and flour. When rolled out thinly and boiled quickly, these delicate noodles are second to none.
I learned to make homemade pasta from my 93-year-old, straight off the boat, Italian Grandma. Grandma spoils us (my mom, aunts, uncles and cousins) every Sunday, making a large pot of sauce and meatballs with macaroni. If we are lucky, she will also make us homemade fettuccine noodles, from scratch. Grandma is from Sicily, Italy and came over to America when she was 25 years-old. In addition to teaching me a variety of Italian words, Grandma also taught me to cook from the heart. She is the strongest and most generous woman I have ever known. My love for my Grandma goes beyond words. This recipe signifies my Italian heritage.
Ingredients
2 cups of flour
4 eggs
Make a well with the flour and crack the eggs in the center.
Using a fork in a stirring motion, slowly incorporate a small amount of flour into the center of eggs. Be careful not to break the circle of flour, the eggs will run all over the place! It happened to me…it was not enjoyable.
Eventually the eggs and flour will be completely mixed and will form a sticky ball.
Knead the flour with your palms for a few minutes. Sprinkle some extra flour on top to reduce stickiness.
Let the dough rest for at least 20-30 minutes.
Cut the dough into 3-4 sections
If you have a pasta machine, feed one segment of dough into the machine on the widest setting. You can also use a rolling pin to flatten the dough.
Thanks to my brother Derek, I got this machine for Christmas last year!
Continue feeding the dough through the machine in incrementally smaller settings, until you reach the thinnest setting. As you can tell, my mom was helping me with this task while sporting a “Mom” sweatshirt.
You may have to dust some flour onto the flattened dough each time you feed it through. Ours was still a little sticky. Be careful not to add too much though!
The dough should be thin enough to see your hands through.
When it is thin enough, feed the dough through the fettuccine setting. If you do not have a pasta maker, you can use a knife to cut your desired width of pasta.
Place the fresh pasta on a towel to dry. Grandma hangs her pasta on a broom stick set horizontally between two chairs.
Once slightly dry, you can separate the pasta with ease.
Generously salt a pot of water and bring it to a boil. Add the fresh pasta. It will only take a few minutes to cook, so do not walk away and keep taste testing.
Toss the pasta with your favorite sauce and serve with Parmesan cheese. Mangia!
Garlic-Oil Tomato Sauce
28 ounces of tomato puree
olive oil
6-8 cloves garlic (chopped)
honey
sugar
salt
Parmesan cheese
Directions
1. Place chopped garlic in a small sauce pan. Fill with 1/2 inch of olive oil.
2. Cook garlic on medium-low heat until slightly brown. Remove from heat.
3. Pour the sauce into another pan. Add 1 tbsp of honey and 1 tsp of sugar. Salt to taste.
4. Let cook for 10 minutes.
5 . Pour garlic and oil into the sauce and add some freshly grated cheese.
6. Adjust sweetness and saltiness to your taste.
a common connoisseur 