Here are a few pasta dough recipes from around the house…
A New Way to Cook
To make 12 ounces, to serve 4:
- 2 large eggs
- a little more than 1 cup AP flour
- 1/2 tsp olive oil
- 1/8 tsp kosher salt
Jamie Oliver — to serve 4:
- 1 2/3 cups bread flour
- 1 2/3 cups semolina flour
- 3 large eggs
- 8 egg yolks
The New Basics—makes 1 pound, to serve 4-6
- 2 cups AP flour
- 3 eggs
Mark Bittman — for 1 lb:
- 2 cups (10oz) AP flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 3 eggs
- a few drops of water
Cook’s Illustrated
- 2 cups AP flour (10oz)
- 3 eggs
Questions:
- Does one salt the dough or salt the cooking water?
- Jamie’s version seems heavy on the eggs; is it too wet, or does semolina absorb more?
- Cook’s tried bread, cake, and AP flour, and determined that AP made the “best” pasta. But they didn’t try semolina, as in Jamie’s version. Isn’t most dry pasta made with semolina? Maybe bread flour works well with it?
- What is the thinnest setting on the pasta machine used for? How can you make dough that won’t fall apart at that setting?
- Could pasta dough possibly benefit from some kind of fermentation? I mean, what doesn’t benefit from fermentation?
Comments
Jan 2 02007 3.19p
daisyc #
my opinions:
1. salt the water, not the dough. salt tenses up the dough and makes it stronger, definitely not what you want when getting to those thin settings.
2. i’m 90% sure that semolina flour absorbs more water than regular flour.
3. i think traditionally pasta is made with semolina but that bread flour would be really good for pasta for its extensibility (ability to stretch).
4. not sure what the thinnest setting is used for (very delicate lasagna? crepelle?), but i think the addition of bread flour will help get to this level.
5. not sure about the fermentation, but i’ll experiment!