hand-made pasta

 

go straight to the recipe

There is nothing more appreciated than a simple pasta dish with house-made pasta. Yes it involves some effort but the actual ingredients are cheap and once you get the hang of it, it is very easy.

The best piece of advice I can give you is when you buy a pasta machine the first thing to do is chuck out the clamp that comes with it. Take yourself to your nearest hardware shop and buy a proper clamp…frequently pictured.

Whilst it was not funny at the time, the over enthusiastic work experience who washed the pasta machine taught us a lesson…don’t wash your pasta machine. The second piece of advice is to always make sure that there are no small bits of pasta dough caught in the machine. Stuck in the bush and making ravioli for about eighty ours just crapped out, the tiny bits of dried pasta stuck n the machine tearing the pasta  with disastrous and stressful results.

This is a tried and true recipe of 40+ years. Best made the day before you want to use it COLD eggs are compulsory.

AO 6 JUNE 2023
PICTURED ABOVE RAVIOLI FILLED WITH WILD MUSHROOM CONFIT, MUSHROOM BROTH.

simply
delicious

enough for 8

egg size is important

600g flour
10g fine sea salt
17g EVO
5 COLD whole eggs [1]
4 COLD egg yolks

Weigh the flour, salt and EVO into your food processor [2].

Whisk the whole eggs and egg yolks together. Combine the flour. salt and EVO and with the motor running add the eggs down the feed tube.

Work just long enough to bring the dough together. Turn it out nto your work surface and knead it until you have a smooth ball. Flatten the dough with the palm of your hand, wrap tightly in plastic food wrap and refrigerate…best option 24 hours but at the minimum 2 hours.

Using as little additional flour as possible, roll to the last notch and use are required.

[1] This is the egg size and we are particular about how fresh the eggs are. Now that I am not buying dozens and dozens of eggs every week, my go to brand is the South Australian ‘BAROSSA Free Range Eggs’ 700g size. They are usually very fresh and do not have that peculiar fishy smell that some free range eggs have.

[2] I do not like using a Thermomix for this batch size. Works perfectly without overworking the dough for a half batch.

CHUCK THE CLAMP THAT COMES WITH A PASTA MACHINE…LIFE CHANGING NOT TO STRUGGLE WITH A CRAP CLAMP.

buy a
broom stick

If I’m making tagliatelle I use broom handle/s and I cover the broom handle with baking paper so that the pasta doesn’t stick to it. I also put a clean tea towel on the floor to catch anything that drops on the floor. Do not put more than two layers on the broom handle.

There are loads of different pasta shapes that you can easily make without any special equipment. Pappilion, butterfly/bow pasta is one of the easiest. Simply cut the pasta into about 10-12cm wide strips, and then into 3-4 cm pieces and pinch them together. We put them onto sheets of baking paper, never more thn two laters so that they dry out perfectly.

easy peasy
so delicious!

I think the best pastas have at the most five ingredients. My favourite pasta remains, garlic, chilli, parsley, EVO salt and pepper.

Look to the classics and stay away from modern pastas with umpteen ingredients that are bound to disappoint. We even love just butter, salt, pepper and finely grated Reggiano.

The most important thing about pasta is not to over think it. You never see the classic old Italian Carbona on restaurant menus these days, but it remains one of the best.

fancy
ravioli

Ravioli take a bit of practice but are great because they can be made in advance by a few hours.

We roll to the last notch, use egg yolk to seal and a small soft bristled paint brush to apple the egg yolk. We usually have the filling in a piping bag. Additionally we layer them between strips of baking paper. This is especially important when you have wet fillings, like for instance oysters natural. The ravioli may stick to the paper but if you drop them paper and all into the boiling salted water the baking paper will drop off when they are cooked. Our oyster ravioli with Pernod and lemon beurre blanc [pictured above] was a big favourite.

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a blast from the past

ramona miller
MARCO PIERRE WHITE

A Mistress Augustine’s signature dish..oysters natural, shallot in balsamic vinegar, hand-made Sichuan noodles.