Tucking into a bowl of sumptuous noodles, twirled upon themselves, harboring all kinds of hidden treasures seems like a treat best reserved for a night on the town. However, those noodles, a blank canvas for seasonal ingredients, are easy enough to pull together for a weeknight meal. Chef Brian Hauke of Spill the Wine was kind enough to invite us into his kitchen and show us how he makes his golden colored pasta quickly and easily. All you need is a food processor and a rolling pin. He walked us through out to make fettucini with a pasta maker or you can just roll out your own by hand.
Hauke uses equal amounts of egg yolks, durum wheat flour, and all purpose flour. Hauke uses three equally sized, clear containers to measure.
Combine flours in the food processor with a healthy pinch of salt. Blend.
Before adding the egg yolks to the mix, he does what he calls an “olive oil float” atop them. Just a judicious drizzle and then adds that to the processor. Blend until just combined.
Dust your work surface with more durum flour and press dough mixture together. There will be some crumbly excess. Don’t try to work that into the dough, simply brush aside. As Hauke says, “If you work that in, you’ll end up with dry spots in your noodles.” Removing the dry excess makes for uniform texture.
Knead the dough for about two minutes. It’s ready when it becomes difficult to turn and fold upon itself. Hauke poked the dough. When it bounces back from the finger mark, the gluten has developed enough.
Cover and allow the dough to rest for at least 15 minutes, even better if you have time to let it be for half an hour.
Portion out the dough. Flour the surface and using a rolling pin, roll out into an oblong sheet. If you’re using your pasta machine, start on the largest setting and roll it through.
Fold the dough in on itself first in half the long way and then run it through the machine or roll it out again.
This time, fold the dough on itself lengthwise and roll it through again. Continue to run it through the pasta machine, lessening the thickness as it easily passes through. At the desired thickness, add the fettucini attachment and run the noodles through.
Dust with more durum flour and portion out into small birds nest sizes.
If not using the pasta maker, use a rolling pin, again folding the dough as described above. Then roll it out long and when the dough is a little less than a quarter inch thick, slice into whatever noodle shape you’d like—triangles, thin strips, fat strips—have fun with it!
Cook fresh pasta for for 2-3 minutes in boiling, salted water until al dente. Top any way you like. Although it’s great with just butter, cheese and cracked black pepper, the version Hauke serves with braised oxtail, fresh, spring peas, and crispy, charred mushrooms might just be the best.
This post is presented by Wüsthof 
