Homemade Tagliatelle

The biggest magic in the kitchen happens when few good ingredients meet and walk hand in hand.
A little flour and a couple eggs. You can't go simpler than that. And yet when you mix them in correct proportion, you get something as delicious as pasta. To shape as you like, to season as you like. Simple or rich, light or heavy, because on their own, they already are rich and tasteful.
They are just as perfect when seasoned simply with butter and lemon zest, with asparagus or porcini mushrooms, or Bolognese ragu if you live in this part of the world where I do.
I bought a pasta machine a couple years ago, although I'm not using it often. Except when I want to make sure the pasta is extremely thin. This time however I decided to try making pasta all by hand. Using just my rolling pin and muscles :))) And I must admit it was much less difficult than I thought.
A note, I often see recipes for homemade pasta around the web that include oil, or water, but I think that is completely unnecessary when making egg pasta, and it actually changes the consistency of pasta. So, If so far you tried making pasta differently, at least once make it as it is traditionally made in Emilia Romagna, with just eggs and flour, and let me know if you noticed any difference. I do and did soon.

Homemade Tagliatelle

(2-3 servings)
200 g flour  Italian "00" type or a mixture of semolina flour and "00" flour)
2 eggs

                 


Sift the flour on a kneading board and make a well in the middle.
Add the eggs to the well and start whisking them with a fork, gradually adding the surrounding flour. Continue kneading with your hands. Knead the dough well and firmly. The dough shouldn't be too soft or sticky.
Wrap it and let rest 1/2 hour.
Roll the dough out with a long rolling pin or divide into smaller pieces and roll it out thin using a pasta machine. If using a rolling pin, make sure you often dust the dough up and underneath, and turn it around frequently so it doesn't stick to the surface.
Place the rolling pin in the middle and pressing the dough roll it away, without going back down. Turn the dough by 45° and repeat. Continue until thin.
Dust with flour and roll the dough up. Using a sharp knife cut the dough to get long stripes.
Place them on a floured paper tray or pasta drying rack and let dry a few minutes if cooking them immediately or completely if saving them for later.
To cook the fresh tagliatelle, bring a large pot of water to a boil, add salt and pasta, it will take a few minutes only to cook the fresh pasta al dente. Drain it and season as you prefer.
In one of the next posts I'll share the recipe for traditional Bolognese ragu sauce.

Tagliatelle fatte a mano

(per 2-3 persone)
* 200 g di farina (uso la farina per la sfoglia Tre grazie)
* 2 uova

Setacciate la farina formando la classica fontana. Rompete le uova al centro e sbattendole leggermente con una forchetta cominciate a incorporare la farina.
Impastate poi con le mani fino a ottenere un impasto sodo e liscio.
Avvolgetelo con la pellicola e lasciatelo riposare 1/2 ora.
Con un mattarello (o la macchina per la pasta) stendete la pasta in una sfoglia sottile.
Se lavorate la pasta a mano, assicuratevi che sia la pasta che la spianatoia sotto siano infarinate per prevenire che l'impasto si attacchi.
Cominciate stendendo la pallina di pasta formando prima un disco e poi man mano la sfoglia sempre più larga e sottile. Girate spesso la pasta per evitare che si attacchi.
Quando la sfoglia è abbastanza sottile, cospargetela con un po' di farina e arrotolatela. Con un coltello ben affilato tagliate il rotolo e mettete le tagliatele ad asciugare per qualche minuto se intendete cucinarla subito, o finché completamente secca se intendete conservarla più a lungo.
Cuocetele per pochi minuti in abbondante acqua salata e conditele a piacere.

Domaće tagliatelle

(za 2-3 osobe)
* 200 g brašna
* 2 jaja

Prosijte brašno na dasku/radnu površinu i napravite rupicu u sredini.
Stavite u nju jaja.
Vilicom lagano razmutite jaja i dodajite okolno brašno.
Dalje umijesite tijesto rukama.
Izmijesite ga dobro. Tijesto će biti potvrdo, ali tako treba, ne smije biti ljepljivo.
Omotajte ga prozirnom folijom i ostavite da odmori 1/2 sata.
Ručnim valjkom ili na stroj za tjesteninu razvaljajte tanko tijesto.
Ako radite ručno, pazite da je tijesto uvijek dobro pobrašnjeno ispod i iznad.
Valjak postavite na sredinu i gurajte ga od sebe. Okrenite tijesto za 45° i ponavljajte tako stalno u krug. Okrećite stalno tijesto da se ne zalijepi, i ne vraćajte se valjkom natrag već samo od polovice kruga prema gore.
Kad ste tijesto dovoljno tanko razvaljali, pobrašnite ga i smotajte u rolnicu pa narežite šire ili uže rezance po želji.
Rastresite tagliatelle i ostavite da se samo malo prosuše ako ćete ih odmah kuhati.
U suprotnom spremite u hladnjak (do par dana ako su vakuumski pakirane) ili ih ostavite da se potpuno osuše na zraku.
Skuhajte tagliatelle u dosta slane ključale vode.
Za svježe tagliatelle bit će dovoljno svega par minuta.
Ocijedite ih i odmah dodajte u umak po želji, izmiješajte i zagrijte sve skupa pa poslužite.