So this was my first attempt at making pasta and sauce from scratch, but I think it turned out pretty okay.
- 200 gms of "00" or "550" unbleached flour
I decided on the Bringoli "Pomodoro", which is from the Tuscan region. Pomodoro in quotes because it's more of an inspiration from pomodoro than being true to form, much like how Bollywood movies steal from Hollywood, and more recently from Korean movies, but that's a tale for another day.
Ingredients - for 2 people
- 200 gms of "00" or "550" unbleached flour
- 100 gms of water
- 5 gms of extra virgin olive oil (this is about a table spoon)
- a pinch of kosher salt
- semolina flour/regular flour for dusting
- some olive oil for coating with a brush
(for cooking - 1 liter of water per 100 gms of pasta and 1 tbsp of kosher salt per liter)
- generous helping of olive oil, a couple of glugs should suffice
- 1 medium onion (diced)
- 500 gms of fresh ripe vine tomatoes (quartered)
- 10 cherry tomatoes (halved)
- 2 cloves of garlic (sliced)
- 1 or 2 red chili (diced) - you can either keep or remove the seeds depending on the heat you want
- a sprig of rosemary
- a couple of bay leaves (fresh or dry)
- a fist full of basil leaves
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp sugar
- Parmesan cheese or Gran Padano cheese
- Fresh basil
- Fresh mint
- Fresh crushed black pepper
The dough
So here is the most important thing I learnt about making pasta dough. There is A LOT to learn about pasta dough. Here are some beginner's pointers from my research:
1. Some pasta dough requires eggs, some don't - depending on the type of pasta.
2. Most people will recommend "00" flour - it's the most granular. In Germany, that would be 550. You can get away with unbleached all-purpose; or 405 in Germany. Having some semolina flour on hand for dusting would be ideal; semolina is much courser and harder to work with, so not ideal for beginners.
3. Getting measurements right is critical. Because of the nature of flour, i.e. that it can be compressed, it is not a good idea to use cup measurements, so everything is in grams here (yes, SI units, get used to it).
4. Be patient, and DON'T PANIC!
5. Kneading is everything.
Making it
I used 405 flour for this and it worked fine. About a 100 grams per person is ideal. I used a bowl to start with because I didn't want the wet ingredients to go all over the place. Weigh all your ingredients. Put the flour in a heap in a bowl and then make a deep crater - this is going to your well to hold the wet ingredients. Pour in the oil and water and salt in there and slowly start mixing in the flout from the top of the mound, don't try to get all the flour in all together. Once you've managed to get all the liquid soaked up, start using your hands to start kneading. Look up some videos on good kneading techniques - the standard rule I learnt was, use one hard, and be consistent. Only use the heel of your palm. Push down the dough with your heel, fold, rotate, repeat. That's it. Push down, fold, rotate, repeat. Just keep at it for 15 minutes. You know when you're done when you end up with a springy ball of dough - pressing it down causes the dough to bounce back up. Wrap in cling wrap and keep in the fridge for 30 minutes or in room temperature for an hour or so. Just let it rest and the gluten get more elastic.
In the mean time start working on the sauce. In a pot, pour in the oil and get the oil warmed up. Throw in the onions, garlic, and chili. You don't want to fry them, you want to make them sweat. So you don't want to oil to be too hot. Once the onions become translucent add the quartered tomatoes salt and sugar. Add the bay leaves and rosemary, bring the heat down to simmer, cover, and just let the tomatoes stew for about 30-40 minutes or so - splash in a bit of hot water if needed (depends on how ripe your tomatoes are). Check-in after 30 minutes. If the tomatoes should have mostly dissolved, if not, turn up the heat a bit and cook for another 10 minutes. Fish out the rosemary and bay leaves. If you have a hand held grinder, you can run the paste through that, if not, no worries. Put in the rest of the tomatoes, basil, and mix well. Cover and keep on simmer.
The pasta dough has probably chilled out by now. Unwrap the dough. You want to flatten it out into a disc about 3-4 cm thick on an un-floured wooden board. It's okay for the dough to stick a bit to the surface. Now, take a bit of olive oil and brush the exposed side of the dough disc to prevent it from drying out.
In a baking pan or on foil, spread some of the semolina flour - we'll need this for coating once we roll out the dough noodles.
Cut out 2-3 cm thick strips of dough from the disc using a sharp knife or a pizza cutter.
Now take the strips and roll them with your hand into noodles. The key is to slowly pull your hands apart as you roll. Don't worry about getting the thickness even, this is handmade art :) You want to keep the bringoli as long and thin as possible - about 1 cm in diameter - they're going to expand in the water. Please them in the tray with the semolina and dust it so it stays dry.
Get the water to a roiling boil with plenty of salt. Place the pasta in the pot. Remember this is fresh pasta so it's going to cook rather quickly - you only need them in for about 4 minutes. Best way to check if the pasta is done to your liking, is to get it out and take a bite. Get them out just as they get to the point of being done to your liking and transfer them out of the water to the pasta sauce. Let it sit in the sauce for a bit to finish cooking and soaking in the sauce.
Serve it up in a plate with grated Parmesan and the basil leaves and a rice glass of Chianti or a northern Italian red.
In the mean time start working on the sauce. In a pot, pour in the oil and get the oil warmed up. Throw in the onions, garlic, and chili. You don't want to fry them, you want to make them sweat. So you don't want to oil to be too hot. Once the onions become translucent add the quartered tomatoes salt and sugar. Add the bay leaves and rosemary, bring the heat down to simmer, cover, and just let the tomatoes stew for about 30-40 minutes or so - splash in a bit of hot water if needed (depends on how ripe your tomatoes are). Check-in after 30 minutes. If the tomatoes should have mostly dissolved, if not, turn up the heat a bit and cook for another 10 minutes. Fish out the rosemary and bay leaves. If you have a hand held grinder, you can run the paste through that, if not, no worries. Put in the rest of the tomatoes, basil, and mix well. Cover and keep on simmer.
The pasta dough has probably chilled out by now. Unwrap the dough. You want to flatten it out into a disc about 3-4 cm thick on an un-floured wooden board. It's okay for the dough to stick a bit to the surface. Now, take a bit of olive oil and brush the exposed side of the dough disc to prevent it from drying out.
In a baking pan or on foil, spread some of the semolina flour - we'll need this for coating once we roll out the dough noodles.
Cut out 2-3 cm thick strips of dough from the disc using a sharp knife or a pizza cutter.
Now take the strips and roll them with your hand into noodles. The key is to slowly pull your hands apart as you roll. Don't worry about getting the thickness even, this is handmade art :) You want to keep the bringoli as long and thin as possible - about 1 cm in diameter - they're going to expand in the water. Please them in the tray with the semolina and dust it so it stays dry.
Get the water to a roiling boil with plenty of salt. Place the pasta in the pot. Remember this is fresh pasta so it's going to cook rather quickly - you only need them in for about 4 minutes. Best way to check if the pasta is done to your liking, is to get it out and take a bite. Get them out just as they get to the point of being done to your liking and transfer them out of the water to the pasta sauce. Let it sit in the sauce for a bit to finish cooking and soaking in the sauce.
Serve it up in a plate with grated Parmesan and the basil leaves and a rice glass of Chianti or a northern Italian red.
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