I’ve been reading Ratio these days, which was originally a birthday gift Ryan received from his mother. Reading this book makes you want to just break out the mixer, flour, and eggs. Seriously. He makes it seem so easy. If my oven was working, bread would have been my first stop. However, I decided to make some pasta. This type of cooking works for me, because I always like to walk to unbeaten path. I always wander away from the recipe, like with that Potato and Artichoke Ragout.
- 1.5 cups of all purpose flour
- 3 medium eggs + an additional yolk (My Guesstimate for the egg ratio – plus, a yolk will result in a creamier pasta), the book recommends 3 large eggs for 1.5 cups of flour
- A sprig of rosemary
- 2-3 sprigs of thyme
- 2 cloves of finely mined garlic
Mix the flour, garlic, and herbs in. As the author recommends, open a crater in the middle of the flour mixture. Break the eggs into the crater and mixture the eggs with your fingers. Slowly incorporate the surrounding flour as you stir with your fingers. It will stick, but continue to incorporate the rest of the flour. (I had to fold it into the mixture towards the end so it had all the flour) I floured the surface of a wooden cutting board and kneaded the dough on that. Push the dough with the heel of your palm or knuckles and fold. Fold and knead. Fold and knead. The mixture will be a little tough, but the color will change and everything will come together in a beautiful golden color (beause of the yolk). I did this for close to 10 minutes.
I refridgerated the dough in plastic wrap for a couple of hours. Later that night, I cut the dough into 4 pieces and rolled out and cut the segments seperately. I rolled out the dough as thin as possible. It was pretty tough. Then I cut thin fettucine-like slices. (the picture below on the cutting board makes it look like french fries, haha) My mother had a pasta roller, but she didn’t know where it went. Hrm. I froze the four segments in two seperate baggies for tonight.
