So as we wandered Paris yesterday we discussed my Kryptonite - cheap noodles. You know the kind. 35p noodle packs that come from the newsagent. I've been addicted since I was a kid and they truly hit the spot. I've had them for breakfast, lunch and dinner - they go good with any kind of day.
But they are oh so bad for you. So bad.
As I start toward my half-marathon/ marathon training, I'm quite aware that I need to eat better. My cousin and I have made a "lose 25 pounds by 16th April" pact, I'm determined to drink the right amount of water every day and I am running 3 times a week starting this week. WITHOUT FAIL. So this means the days of the quick and unhealthy snack of empty calorie, MSG filled noodles, are over. (as are crisps but that's a given)
Instead, I'm going to make my own.
In preparation for this mission, I headed over to Recipease in Clapham to take their Pasta Making course.
All you need are eggs and '00' grade flour. Though often recipes call for a larger quantity, we made a small batch of pasta (as in, could feed 3-4 people) using 2 eggs and 200g of flour.
First you put the flour in a largish bowl, then add the eggs in the centre. Poke the yolks with a fork and stir the egg in by stirring around the outside and pulling the flour into the middle where the eggs are. Keep stirring until the mixture resembles scrambled eggs. You then tilt the bowl a bit to the side, drag your fork through the mixture and pull it into the side of the bowl. This will get the lumps out and mix the flour into the egg better.
Don't worry if all the flour doesn't make it into the dough. It all depends on the moisture in the air. The more moist it is, the more flour the dough will take, and the less moisture, the less flour it will take. Get me?
Once it's mixed enough, it's time to kneed. A great way to get some aggression out.
Place the ball of dough on the table, hold the side closest to you and stretch it out with the heel of your hand. fold it back over towards you, turn 90 degrees and do it again. Keep doing that until you can't see a divot when you poke the ball of dough. It should just bounce right back.
Wrap that sweet ball of goodness with plastic wrap (get out all the air) and put it in the fridge. This can be for 5 minutes or a few hours but don't leave it too long or it will dry out.
This is the perfect time to start making your sauce and to get your water on to boil.
Your sauce is now simmering, so it's now time to roll the dough out into pasta. First thing first. You got to silkify the dough.*
Using your pasta maker on setting 6, you roll half your ball of dough through the machine, fold in half and roll it through again. If it's sticky, add a bit of flour before you fold but ONLY if it's sticky. Remember, we don't want to dry it out. Another tip is to never feed in the dough with the fold at the top. This will trap air in your pasta dough which will burst your pasta when you cook it. Kaboom.
Once the dough feels silky smooth to the touch, you've silkified it! Tadah! Now you need to run it through the machine once at each setting from 6 down to 2 (if you are making ravioli, then go to setting one as you double the pasta).
At this point, you can run the long, flat dough through the cutter. It's 500 times easier if you cut the pasta dough in half first.
As you cut the pasta into noodles, flour it so it doesn't stick together. You can either freeze it (lasts for months), dry it (lasts for a couple weeks) or cook it (only takes a couple of minutes).
Tasty! And so begins the year of homemade pasta.
*Yes. Silkify is not a word. But I don't know what else to call it.
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