Read Fabulicious!: Teresa's Italian Family Cookbook Online
Authors: Teresa Giudice
Fabulicious!: Teresa's Italian Family Cookbook (10 page)
To cut the pasta by hand:
Use a knife or pizza wheel to cut long strips for fettuccine or tagliatelle. Cut the dough into large strips for lasagna and for ravioli.
The uncooked pasta can be made up to 6 hours ahead, covered loosely with plastic wrap and refrigerated.
6.
To cook your pasta, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add fresh pasta. Cook for just 1 to 2 minutes, depending on its thickness. As soon as the pasta floats, it’s done!
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Teresa’s Tip
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F
or most pasta shapes, like fettuccine, the dough should be as thick as a nickel. For ravioli, because it overlaps at the edges, the pasta should be only as thick as a dime.
Official Guide to Pasta Shapes
Long Noodles
They can be as long as you want them—usually 8 to 12 inches—but the width is what determines the kind of noodle you actually have:
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Pappardelle – ¾-inch wide
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Tagliatelle – ¼-inch wide
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Fettuccine –-inch wide
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Linguini – ⅛-inch wide
Pasta Sheets and Shapes
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Lasagna sheets: 3 × 13 inches
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Farfalle: 1 × 2-inch rectangles, pinched in the middle and twisted
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Fusilli:× 3-inch strips, each wrapped around a pencil and allowed to dry
When in Rome . . .
Tagliatelle = tahl-yah-TELL-ay
Drying Time
After you’ve cut your dough into the shapes you want, let the pasta sit and dry for 15 minutes, before you throw it in a pot of water. This will keep the pasta from getting too soggy when it cooks. You can lay the noodles to dry all squiggly on a floured work surface (that’s how I like to do it), or you can hang them all neat and individual anywhere you find room in your kitchen: on the back of your kitchen chairs (you might want to put a floured cloth down first), a horizontal broom handle, a clothesline . . . Or you can get one of those wooden pasta drying trees pretty cheap.
Different Tools for Cutting Pasta
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Pasta machine attachment
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Kitchen knife
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Pizza cutter
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Pastry roller
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Cookie cutters
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Rim of a glass
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Pasta/Ravioli press
Makes 1 pound
As promised, here is an eggless pasta dough. You might need to add a little olive oil to the noodles before you cook them to keep them from sticking, but paired with a delicious sauce, no one will know you only used flour, water . . . and a little bit of magic.
1 cup semolina (also called pasta flour)
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more as needed
⅔ cup warm water
1.
To mix the pasta dough by hand:
Sift the semolina and flour into a mound on your work surface. Scoop out the center—now it’s a volcano!—and add the displaced flour to the sides of the mound. Pour the warm water into the hole. Using your finger or a fork, gradually stir flour from the sides into the water. When most of the flour has been added, use your hands to knead the dough into a cohesive mass. If the dough is too dry, add more water, a tablespoon at a time. If it is too wet, add flour.
Knead on the work surface, adding more flour if necessary, until the dough is smooth and pliable, about 10 minutes. Do not add too much flour—the dough shouldn’t be too stiff—remember that it has to be rolled out into thin sheets. Move to Step 3.
2.
To mix the dough in a heavy-duty standing mixer:
pour the warm water into the mixer bowl. Attach to the mixer and fit with the paddle attachment. Mix the semolina and flour together. With the machine on low speed, gradually add enough of the flour mixture to make a soft dough that doesn’t stick to the bowl. Change to the dough hook. On medium speed, knead the dough until smooth and supple, adding more a little more flour or water by the tablespoon if necessary, about 8 minutes. Remember, the dough shouldn’t be too stiff.
3.
Shape the dough into a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap. Let stand at room temperature for 1 hour, no longer than 2 hours. Now continue from Step 4 in the instructions for Perfect Pasta Dough on
page 55
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Makes about 1½ pounds, 6 to 8 servings
As Joe already told you, homemade cavatelli is a little different than regular pasta dough in that we make it with cheese instead of eggs. This is my kids’ absolute favorite kind of pasta. Because it’s so flavorful already, you don’t need a really heavy sauce.
1 (15-ounce) container ricotta cheese
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, as needed
1.
Put the ricotta in a large bowl. Gradually stir in just enough of the flour to make a soft dough that holds together. (I skip the spoon and use my hands.) Turn dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Knead in enough of the remaining flour to make a smooth, pliable dough—the consistency should remind you of Play-Doh. This dough doesn’t require as much kneading as other pasta.