How To Make Fresh Pasta with a Rolling pin

The rule to make a homemade pasta from scratch are for every person 1 egg and 100 gr for flour 00.

I always make more so I can freeze it and get it quickly ready on a lazy day, such as on a nice sunny day when I want spend more time outdoor.

There is a difference between using a Rolling pin and a Pasta machine and it is in the Porosity that allows the pasta to absorb more sauce as the Rolling pin gives to it. The magic comes from the friction of the pasta dough between the wood pastry board and the Rolling pin.

As you may already know, you can found plenty of Rolling pin back in Italy, the funny thing is that they have different length that allow you to roll out more pasta dough. I remember when my husband and I used to live in Bologna (beautiful city, I should write a whole new post on that...) I was browsing in the open market in Piazza VIII Agosto searching for perfect Rolling pin and I was surprised on the number of Rolling pin you could choose from. If I think about that now it makes sense because pasta making is a serous matter there in Emilia-Romagna region. Now, I am not here to tell you to do not use the Pasta machine, I am well aware that not everyone have the same free time at the moment, I just prefer to use it because I can fell the pasta changing on my hands and it feels magic.

Every type of pasta has different thickness:

• Tagliatelle 6/7 mm

• Tagliolini 2/3 mm

• Pappardelle 1,5 mm

Ingredients

for 4 people

• 400 gr of Flour 00

• 4 eggs

Method

Here you can use your kitchen mixer if you have one, place the flour and eggs in the mixer and let it work for about 10 minutes or until the pasta dough has became smooth and then wrap the pasta with the cling film and let it rest for at least 30 minutes.

However, if you do not own a kitchen mixer follow me...

Place on a wood pastry board the flour and make a volcano shape, the centre hole must be big enough to contain the eggs. Place the eggs inside the hole and with the help of a fork start to beat them gently making sure they don't fall out from the hole, once the eggs are scrambled start to incorporate the flour little by little until the flour has adsorbed all the eggs.

Work the pasta until you have a smooth dough and cover with a cling film or with a large bowl as this will help the dough to remain moist and leave it to rest for at least 30 minutes.

After the 30 minutes we can start to stretch the pasta dough with the Rolling pin, if you do not have a long Rolling pin, don't panic, you can divide the pasta in more sections and stretch each one.

Place a bit of flour under the dough and some on top of it, now with the Rolling pin placed it on the center of the pasta dough press all the way up and down for one time.

Turn the pasta dough at 90° angle and press again, keep turning the pasta dough until you have a beautiful round pasta sheet and has thickness of 3 mm (the pasta sheet is ready when you place your hand under the sheet and you could see your hand in back lit). See photo below.

If you feel that the pasta dough is a bit sticky, roll up the pasta on the Rolling pin and sprinkle more flour.

Once the pasta sheet is ready, place a bit of flour on its top, roll it up on itself and cut the desired type pasta. Make a sort of nest with each section of pasta and sprinkle some flour on top.

Bring a large pot of water to boil and when the water is boiling add some Coarse salt and then add the pasta. The pasta should be ready when comes to the surface.

Buon Appetito!!

Please let me know if you have tried, leave a comment below and I will happy to help you!

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Too much Pasta?

No worries, once you have cut all the pasta, place it on the tray and leave it in the freezer for 30 minutes, then remove the pasta and place it in the freezer bag and back to the freezer. It can stay up to 2 months. When you need to use it, just place the pasta directly in the boiling water.