Making Fresh Pasta

Some of the best meals I’ve ever had have involved pizza, but have also involved pasta of some kind. There’s a restaurant in Rome that will forever be imprinted in my mind because sometimes the pasta will come to the table on a beautiful plate and sometimes it will be served directly from the pan it was cooked in. Why dirty another dish? As Americans, we all know dried pasta. While dried pasta is great, versatile and relatively cheap, fresh pasta is in a category unto its own.

Learning to make fresh pasta is its own art form and countless cookbooks have been written in its honor. With more shapes than you can imagine, there is a science to fresh pasta as well as a honed technique that can take years to master. Learning how to roll the perfect sfoglia (sheet) and pairing it with its perfect sauce as well as learning the details of each cut and shape can seem daunting. But just like pizza, pasta is a perfect vehicle for flavor, whether it’s sticking to traditional carbonara or Bolognese or completely switching it up and doing something outside the box. Pasta is beloved by all and is a lot easier to incorporate into a concept than you think.

There are two kinds of fresh pasta to consider.

The first is the kind that is either rolled out with a rolling pin or flattened out using a sheeter.  Most associate ravioli and other filled shapes with this. The hand crank machine is the smaller one and normally what you would have at home. They make larger commercial versions that are electric and can sheet out large quantities rather fast. The second kind of fresh pasta is one that is extruded out of a machine. For both kinds, specific equipment is necessary. But like any great nonna at home, using what you have always works just fine.

For those who are opting to go the hand rolled and hand filled route, a little more technique is required. If using a rolling pin or mattarello, learning the proper thickness of each shape as well as how to keep the dough uniform in thickness can take time. Just like any skill, it takes repetition and a lot of attention to detail. But before you get to rolling, you need to begin with the dough. Like pizza dough, hydration and flour choice is key. The type of flour can vary, but most commonly it will be a “00” and a low protein or a semolina/semola flour. Pasta has just as much nuance as any other flour-based product, but for those going the super simple route “00” flour and water works just fine. For those wanting a richer and more golden color to the dough will want to add eggs, either in their entirety or just the yolks. Traditionally, pasta dough with eggs was reserved for special occasions and the upper wealthy class.

If you’d like to try just flour and water first before adding in eggs, I would start with a 50-percent hydration and practice your kneading skills. Pasta dough will need to be kneaded for a bit to develop some strength and texture. But just like pizza dough, it can be overworked. A rest period is always advised between kneading and rolling.

If you’re ready to add in eggs or even a vegetable puree of some kind I’ve seen the hydration level go up to 55 to 60 percent — but you don’t really want a super wet dough. There are a lot of cookbooks out there that can teach you the finer points of rolling out a fresh sheet of pasta, but not every operation has the time or enough staff to hand shape each order of ravioli. For those restaurants that specialize in hand formed pasta, the work is worth it as you can tell by the texture on the tooth when you bite into it that it was made by hand and not by a machine.

One of my all-time favorite noodle shapes is bucatini.

I love long noodles similar to a spaghetti. But the fact that it is hollow in the middle gives it a completely different texture. Other shapes I love are conchiglie (shells) and fusilli, and flat noodles like mafaldine. There are so many fun shapes out there that lend to a different eating experience, but shapes like these are better as extruded pastas.

An extruder is a machine that has a hopper where you add flour and water and it will mix it for you and then push the dough out through a die. The good ones are made from bronze, and as the dough is pushed out through the die, the noodle takes its shape. The important thing about bronze cut dies is it helps with the texture of the noodle. Some of this comes from the hydration and proper mix time, but you don’t want a super slick noodle regardless of the shape. What you are looking for is a little bit of texture, so the sauce has something to stick to. If you’ve ever bought dried pasta from the store and your sauce has a hard time sticking even though you haven’t added any oil, this is why. Bronze dies can be more expensive, but the quality of the product speaks for itself.

Now let’s talk equipment and cost.

Is it really worth it to invest in the equipment and knowledge needed to make great fresh pasta? Extruders can vary in size and cost depending on your needs, but on a menu most people are charging the same as a regular entrée or pizza which pays for itself in time just as your mixer.

The equipment needed to make filled shapes like ravioli and agnolotti is minimal, and even a fork and pizza wheel will do most of what you need. But the time it takes to learn technique and consistency is the hard part. One of the things I love most about fresh pasta is the cook time. Smaller shapes can cook in as few as two minutes, whereas thicker shapes can cook in about five with the texture coming out al dente and it is still cooking in less time than a dried pasta. This quick cook time means you can churn out pasta dishes in less than 10 minutes, turning tables much faster.

Ultimately, fresh pasta can be a great addition to any menu and can be as simple or as complicated as you would like it to be.

Laura Meyer is the owner of Pizzeria da Laura in Berkeley, CA.