Fresh Egg Pasta
Date Completed: 4/3/2022
Today we’re back working from the America’s Test Kitchen Cooking School Cookbook. This time we’re tackling the Pasta chapter.
I’ve said it here before. I’m certain I’ll say it again. I adore the step-by-step photos this cookbook offers. It helps so much to be able to compare the colors, textures, shapes, etc. happening in our kitchen against the photos to make sure we’re on the right track.
Making fresh pasta was a passion project for Garrett so this was mostly his handiwork! Around the same time, we had been catching up on the CNN special Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy. I had become a bit enamored by the idea of Cacio e Pepe so that’s what we made with our fresh pasta!
The only ingredients in the pasta were 2 cups of all-purpose flour and 3 eggs. Garrett processed them together in our blender/food processor until they formed a rough ball. The dough was a bit too pebbly at first so he added about a teaspoon of water to help it along.
Garrett’s patience was then on full display as he kneaded the pasta dough by hand for about 2 minutes until it was smooth and elastic.
Next, relaxation time for the dough! We covered it in plastic wrap and set aside for about 2 hours. That gave me a chance to work on the evening’s dessert (to be featured in the next blog post!).
Here’s where we had to break from the recipe. The photos all showed the rolling-out part done with the assistance of a pasta machine. Since we don’t have that, we rolled it out with our rolling pin. This took some elbow grease and more of Garrett’s patience, but he made it happen!
Garrett rolled each piece as thin as possible. The finished pieces waited under a damp kitchen towel so that they wouldn’t dry out.
Here’s Garrett cutting out some perfectly even fettuccine! He’s a natural! He even wore his chef’s hat during the process.
The finished pasta again waited under the damp dish cloth. It thought it looked so cute and uniform!
I was nervous that the pasta might stick together in the boiling water, but we didn’t have any issues. It only took a few minutes to get the pasta perfectly cooked!
Then we turned our attention to the Cacio e Pepe recipe. All the name means is cheese and pepper, and those are basically all the ingredients used to make it. So simple!
I ground the Pecorino Romano cheese in the food processor. A trick I learned from Ina! I also ground the pepper by hand which was less fun for my wrists.
Garrett put the pasta back in the pot with a little reserved cooking water. We poured in the cheese and pepper and let this cook over medium-low heat until a sauce formed.
The trick we learned about Cacio e Pepe was giving the cheese time to actually melt. For the first 10 to 15 minutes it seemed more interested in forming a glob on the spoon than making a sauce. Eventually we got to the texture we had envisioned!
Taste Report:
Oh my! The silky and creamy sauce matched perfectly with the fresh pasta. The brightness of the pepper made a fantastic contrast. This dish was both elegant and homey. Eating it felt like we had transported ourselves to Rome on a Sunday evening. Wonderful!
We made the fresh pasta a second time a few weeks later so I could try my hand with the kneading and the rolling. Maybe we’ll invest in a pasta machine, but we both did pretty well with the rolling pin!
Mess Report:
Make sure that you soak the pasta pot with the sauce in it. That can get really sticky and hard very quickly. Take it from us!
Otherwise the mess was fairly manageable. Because you don’t use much flour on the counter in the rolling out process, that wasn’t difficult to clean up.
Mangiamo!