Best recipe for fresh pasta without machine?

[ScreamingBeans]

Got some 00 flour.

So want to try pasta.

Best recipe? Looked at Jamie Oliver's and I don't trust it.

What's your actual real life you make it and you're not a professional chef recipe?

I actually had a machine - used once then donated.

I worked with an Italian woman, who told me that no-one in her very large extended family made their own pasta - even all the Nonnas that JO raves about.
She said just use premium brands of dried pasta !

285g 00 flour
2 eggs & 1 egg yolk
10g olive oil
Combine eggs, flour, oil. Bring to a dough and knead until smooth (approx 15 mins). Wrap and leave in fridge to rest for 30 mins. Roll & cut.
(recipe from thewaterhouseproject)
Pasta Grannies is great for inspiration too. Their book has simple pasta sauce recipes. I'd make the sauce in advance so you can focus on making the fresh pasta.

I make pasta every few days. I've had three pasta machines, including two electric ones from Italy, and ditched them all in favour of doing it by hand. It's much faster and easier imo.

Pasta grannies is indeed essential viewing! I would also highly recommend the longest version of this rolling pin - it's less than a tenner https://www.pasta.kitchen/products/beechwood-rolling-pins?variant=21992657220 and the length means you can use your shoulders, rather than just your forearms.

I use roughly one egg to 100g of pasta flour, a little water if you need it, no salt or oil and fine semolina to dust. Fresh pasta cooks in seconds, rather than minutes. Start with long ribbons - fettuccine or pappardelle and toss in EVOO when cooked. Agree with having the sauce ready - you need to eat the pasta straight away really.

Good luck!

The first recipe I learnt (and found success with) used a formula to account for varying egg size. Crack eggs into a bowl and weigh them, multiply that
by 1.64 to find the amount of flour to use. But I do find the 100g flour per egg as per PP works well - you can substitute some flour for semolina, the more semolina the more bite, I tend to go for 15-30g per 1 eggs. I much favour whole egg recipes to those using extra yolks.

Tip flour onto the surface make a wide well, add eggs to the centre and using a folk beat the eggs gradually bringing in flour from the walls until you have a smooth sludgy mix with flour walls. Then just bring it together by tipping the walls over the eggy mix and bringing them together - I really recommend a bench scraper for this, they are cheap and small to store and work so well. Bring it together so it holds as a ball, but can be a bt clumpy and doesn't;t need to be smooth. Wrap in cling film and set aside for 30 minutes, this allows time for the flour to fully hydrate and stops you adding extra liquid thinking it needs it. Come back to it and kneed for around 5 minutes until smooth and bouncing back, add more water/flour if it needs it. But remember - pasta will fully hydrate and take on water when you cook it, when making the dough what you need is a dough that is hydrated enough to work with and a dough that is too wet is far harder to work than one that is slightly dry.

Pappardelle is a great shape if you are starting out, but cavatelli too is fun and required no equipment.

I make fresh pasta regularly. Rule of thumb is 100g 00 flour to 1 egg. You may need to add a little water to account for varying egg sizes. Pasta grannies on YouTube is full of ideas. It will be a total faff the first time you make it but, like with anything, the more you do it the quicker it gets.

The pasta grannies YouTube channel would beg to disagree!

Thanks for all of these I'm going to try on Friday!

One other thing, can I not freeze this, rather than having to eat it all at once?

I also use 100g of flour per 1 egg with a splash of olive oil and/or water as needed to make a dough. Semolina flour is great for rolling out and dusting the shaped pasta with semolina flour will prevent it sticking together during cooking.

With regards to freezing I believe you can freeze raw dough after kneading or you can dry shaped pasta and freeze it so that it is ready to be cooked when needed. I haven't tried freezing it myself though.