Base Pasta
How to make pasta on its own.
Ingredients
- 1.5 cups of water
- 2 cups of flour
- 1 egg
- A little bit of oil or butter
Olive oil can be used as a substitute for the egg to get a similar
texture; you can make the pasta with only water and flour, but it
will have a different texture.
Typically, 1 egg makes 2-4 servings of pasta. If I'm making pasta
for a group of 12-20 I use 3 or 4 eggs and scale up the amount of flour
and water in-proportion.
Preparing the Dough
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Combine the flour, egg, and water in a mixing bowl using a fork
or spoon.
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When the combination becomes hard to mix, dump the dough onto a
floured surface, cover your hands in flour and begin kneading it.
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Knead for 5-15 minutes. If the dough is dry or flaky, add extra
water. If the dough is too runny or soggy, add extra flour. The
dough should become solid but damp.
-
You know you are done kneading once you are able to form the
dough into a ball, and it retains its shape. If you press your
finger into it, the indentation should spring back into shape
after you remove your finger.
-
Use oil or butter to grease a bowl, and place the dough in it.
Cover the bowl and let the dough rest for at least 30 minutes at
room temperature, or it can rest overnight in the fridge.
Cooking the Dough
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Bring a pot of salt water to boil. Use a lot of salt.
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While the pot is heating up: Flatten or roll-out the dough and
cut it into whatever shapes you want. You can flour the cut
edges to prevent them from sticking together.
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Once the pot is boiling, add the dough and cook for around 30
seconds. It can cook longer, but doesn't need to be boiled for
long.
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Remove the pasta from the boiling water and combine it with
meat and/or vegetables.
-
The leftover pasta water can be used to create a pasta sauce.
Beef and Mushroom Pasta
An application of the base pasta.
Ingredients
- Ground Beef
- White Mushrooms
- A White or Yellow Onion (or onion powder)
- Broccoli (or any other vegetables)
- Chili Powder
- Garlic Powder
- Cumin
- Black Pepper
- Lime Juice or Lemon Juice
Steps
You should begin after the dough has finished resting and you are
ready to cut and cook it.
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Fry the meat and mushrooms together in a pan. Begin
preparing the boiling salt water while this is cooking.
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Cut the onion into small cubes or strips. Add it and the seasonings
to the meat.
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You should cook the pasta at this point. Then add the cooked pasta
to the pan with the seasoned meat.
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Pour the leftover salt water into the pan, turn up the heat so
that it boils off. Add any remaining vegetables and stir
periodically so that the bottom of the pan doesn't char. The
pasta water will thicken into a sauce as
the liquid boils-off.
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Once the sauce has thickened, taste test it (it will probably
be intolerably salty from the pasta water). Add some lime or
lemon juice as needed to counteract some of the salt.