La Lama Mountain Ovens
Old Italian family recipes and archives, baking tips, and bakery gifts
Family Secrets

Home | Library

The best of the recipes, techniques, and methods practiced by our large extended Italian-American family - with emphasis on the legacy handed down to us by the original immigrants.

This is a cookbook-in-process project. If you try any of these recipes please let us know how they turn out, whether or not you had any difficulties, and any clarifying improvements you might recommend to make them foolproof. We will of course acknowledge genuine "test-kitchen" assistance.

Family Secrets #8

Homemade Pasta Then and Now

By Ray Zara, La Lama Mountain Ovens

Many years later, while enrolled at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, I made my first trip through the cafeteria line. You have to understand that this was my first experience living away from home. Wednesday, not Sunday, was pasta day and it was one of the first lessons I learned at college. I can remember it like it was yesterday, looking down the food line and seeing a huge tray of spaghetti and meatballs. I thought to myself, life is not going to be too bad here, they have spaghetti and meatballs. After having my plate filled, I quickly sat at a table anticipating the same pleasure I enjoyed so many times at home. Needless to say, what I got was a plate of overcooked, mushy, starchy pasta coated with the most horrible sauce that I have ever eaten. The meatballs were no better, tasting like they were loaded with sawdust. I knew at once not to do this again, and further thought, if mom were here she could teach the graduate program in pasta making.

Raymond Zara (1938- )
Picture: 1947

---

Homemade Pasta

Total ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups semolina flour
• 1 1/2 cups all Purpose flour
• 5 large eggs (room temperature)
• 1/4 tsp. salt

Step One: Blend Dry Ingredients

In a large bowl place the semolina flour, the all purpose flour, and the salt. Blend well.

Step Two: Mixing and Kneading

Place contents of the bowl on work surface. Using your hands or a dough knife, form a circle with a well large enough to hold all the eggs comfortably in the middle. Add the five large eggs in the center of the well. Using a fork lightly beat the eggs and incorporate the flour mixture slowly, working around the circle. When the mixture thickens to the point the fork becomes useless, use a dough knife (dough scraper) to keep inverting the mixture until the eggs are absorbed. Use your hands to bring mixture together as a rough dough. Knead vigorously till the dough becomes somewhat smooth. Cover with a bowl and let rest for 5 minutes. Continue kneading until dough is smooth. Form into a log about 3 inches round. The dough at this point should weigh about 1 lb. 8 ounces. The color of the dough should look like a golden field of wheat ready to be harvested, and the dough should be very dense. This is totally unlike bread dough and should feel only moist enough to stay together. It should be stiff and dense.

Step Three: Rolling and Cutting

...By Hand:

For this size recipe you can cut the log in half and with the palm of your hand flatten one of the pieces as flat as you can and shape into a rectangle, while keeping the other half under a bowl to keep it moist. Use a heavy rolling pin to roll and shape the rectangle until you get the desired thickness of the pasta. Take the short side of the rectangle and fold it over about 2 inches. Repeat the folding process until the rectangle is completely folded over. Using the knuckles of one hand as a guide and a sharp dough knife or chef knife cut cross ways until the whole fold is cut. Repeat the process with the other piece of dough. This will result in extra long strands of pasta. If you want the pasta a little shorter you can fold the rectangle from the long side and the result will be a little shorter strand. Though my mom had a hand cranked roller and cutter, she used this method from time to time. The drawback of this method is that you can end up with uneven pasta. With practice you can get a uniform thickness and an even cut, and do it faster than if you use a pasta roller/cutter.

...By Machine:

A pasta roller/cutter machine will produce a pasta of even width and thickness and let you quickly cut it to whatever length you desire. To use this machine simply cut about 1/8th of the log, then use the palm of your hand to flatten it on a lightly floured board. Set the machine on the thickest setting and crank the dough through. Set this strip on the table and repeat with two additional cuts. Set the machine to the next thinner setting and crank all three strips through. Repeat the process, setting the machine to the next setting until you reach the thickness you want. Place the cutter on the frame and insert the handle, or motor if you have one, and cut the three processed strips to the width you want. This size recipe should be done in 8 strips.

As each strip of pasta is cut, lightly sprinkle some flour over it and spread some on your work surface where you will place the cut pasta; or hang the cut pasta over a clean broom stick straddled between two chairs. When drying pasta on a work surface use your fingers to swirl each handful of cut pasta into a random pattern - trying to lay them out as straight strands will generally cause them to stick together where they overlap. In an hour or two the dried weight of the pasta will be about 1 lb. 5 oz. At this point you can proceed to cooking, or for later use, loosely place the pasta in a large brown bag and store in a cool, dry (not the refrigerator) spot.

Step five: Cooking the Pasta

In a large pot, bring to a boil at least 1 gallon of salted water. Place the pasta in the boiling water and stir constantly until you achieve the al dente (to the teeth) degree that you desire. Drain cooked pasta in a large colander, sauce, and serve immediately. The cooked weight of the pasta should be 2 lb. 10 oz. Depending on serving size, you should serve four to five.

Pasta made the old way by our family only had one basic change. Semolina flour was not readily available years ago and the pasta was made entirely of regular all purpose flour. This made it necessary to rinse the pasta after draining it in the colander because of the higher starch content of the flour. Keep this in mind if for any reason you choose to make paste without semolina.

Notice the absence of water in both the old and new pasta recipes. The enemy of a great pasta is water. If you are using an automatic pasta machine that extrudes the pasta by the addition of water, you are wasting your time and effort. You might as well go to the grocery store and buy boxed pasta because that is how they make it. My advice to you if you have one of these machines is to get rid of it, because cut pasta is far superior to extruded. The pasta roller/cutter machines are only a fraction of the cost of an automatic extruder type pasta machine. They are available at any good kitchen supply house and through a variety of mail order catalogs.

My sister and I have several pasta roller/cutter machines equipped with catalog-bought, add-on motors. When we make a large batch of pasta we set one machine up to roll, the other to cut. In our particular circumstance the savings in time and effort warrant the investment.

Making a big batch of homemade pasta can be a very rewarding family-day weekend project. I guarantee it will give you a whole new outlook on how good pasta can really be. As your proficiency increases you can begin to make a few stuffed shapes as well, such as tortellini and cappelletti.

Altitude Adjustment: The cooking time for pasta requires some adjustment. At 8,000 ft. water boils at 196 degrees, requiring a slightly longer cooking time. The boiling point of water at sea level is 212 degrees resulting in the shortest cooking time. Contrary to popular myth, a pressure cooker should never be used to cook pasta at any altitude.