The basic recipe for pasta is flour plus 1-2 eggs per cup of flour. I prefer 1 egg + 1 yolk per cup of flour. What flour to use? That’s a huge jar of worms that we need to bust open.

You can use all-purpose flour, semolina/hard durum wheat flour, “00 flour” (50-50 mix of semolina and a low-gluten flour), whole wheat flour, or any combination of the above. Should you measure by volume instead of weight? Heck no! Is that how I’m going to do it on the stream? Heck yes! How much does 1 cup of flour weigh? Who knows? I normally go with 120 grams per cup, because the density is 0.51 and “cup” is either 240 or 250 ml (don’t get me started about Japanese cups), and I’d rather make a slightly more wet dough since my apartment is usually dry.

If you’re making a small batch for a meal, it’s mostly irrelevant. You will almost always have to adjust for temperature, humidity, and different brand/sources of the flour and eggs. The only adjustments you’ll need to make on the fly are adding a bit of flour, or a few drops of water.

Why do we make the well of flour? I believe it has to do with tradition, and possibly a touch of science in the way the flour autolyzes with the water in the eggs.

Pasta

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Course Main Course

Ingredients

2 cups flour (see #1 below) 240 grams
2 eggs I like to add 2 yolks
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp salt

Instructions

Make a pile of flour on your clean work surface, or in an especially large bowl.
Form a well in the middle of the flour.
Beat the rest of the ingredients together.
Pour all the ingredients into the well.
With a scoopyclaw hand, slowly pull the flour from the inside of the well into the middle of the wet stuff, until it's all incorporated. This should have the consistency of a "shaggy dough"
Knead the dough until it's very smooth, 10-20 minutes, depending on your technique and speed.
Toss the ball around a few drops of olive oil, wrap in clingwrap, and let rest at room temperature for a minimum of 30 minutes, preferably 1.5 hours.
Remove half the dough, and leave the rest wrapped up.
Either roll the dough through your hand-cranked pasta machine 3 times per setting, and adjust the width until you get to the cutting stage. To do this by hand, roll the dough out to desired thickness with a rolling pin on a floured surface, and then cut into desired shape.
On the first pass through the machine or the first rolling of the dough, fold the sheet into thirds, and roll it again. Do that 2 more times.
If rolling it out by hand, and the dough pulls back, cover with a towel, and let it rest another 10 minutes. Do not press down hard or the dough will tear.
Run through a pasta machine to desired thickness, add the blade attachment, and cut into whatever shape you want... OR .. roll it out on a well-floured surface, flour the top and use a well-floured rolling pin. Lots of flour. Roll it out to desired thickness and length, make sure the sheet is floured enough so nothing sticks, gently fold it up, and make even cuts with a knife or bench scraper.
Boil the pasta in a large pot of salted water for approx 2 minute (anywhere from 90 seconds to 3 minutes). It's an excellent idea to cook a very small batch to get the perfect timing. You need to use a lot of water so the pasta doesn't stick together, 4 quarts/4.5 liters with 3 tbsp of salt is about right. Stir as you're adding the pasta, and stir a few times while boiling.

Notes

Semolina flour is traditional, but this works with all-purpose.
Some recipes call for 50-50 semolina - 00 flour.

If you're 100% convinced the dough is too wet, sprinkle 1 tbsp of flour. If it's too dry, add a few drops of water, or if it seems *very* dry, add another egg yolk. Knead it for 2 minutes before adjusting again.

If you're saving any noodles for later, you can roll them around your hand to form a little nest, put on a sheet, put that in the freezer, then bag it once it's solid. Boil it from freezing.

You can also dry out the pasta by letting it hang, or laying it out to dry on a lightly floured sheet. You can store this for up to 1 week

Things to add to the flour:

colouring: 2 tbsp freshly juiced veggies like beets or carrots, or a few drops of your favourite food colouring
spinach or other veggies like red pepper: 1/2 cup cooked, drained as much as humanly possible, and pulped in a food processor
herbs: 3 tbsp of finely chopped herbs

If making ravioli, make 2 sheets of the same size, use a beaten egg as the glue between the sheets. Make sure there's no air pockets in each cute little pouch. Let it sit on a floured tea towel for an hour before cooking.

Alfredo Sauce

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Course Main Course

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tsp minced garlic
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 tsp Italian seasoning ( my look up my recipe )
2 cup grated parmesan cheese

Instructions

You need to be stirring the entire time, but the sauce only takes a few minutes.
Melt the butter and heavy whipping cream on medium-low heat. Cook for 1 minute after the butter is completely melted.
Add the garlic, salt, and pepper.
Cook for another 2 minutes
Add your optional ingredients, keep stirring, and cook for another 1-2 minutes.
Add the parmesan cheese, and keep stirring until it's melted.
If you need to thicken up the sauce, sprinkle 1 tsp of flour and keep stirring.

Notes

Optional things:

your pick of herbs like 1/4 cup of freshly chopped parsley
some chunks of seafood
2 tbsp cream cheese

The parmesan cheese is ideally freshly grated, but this works fine with the store-grated variety.

I used a 5oz can of baby clams in a half batch, and it was a perfect amount.