What is Pasta?
Pasta is a type of food typically made from an unleavened dough of wheat flour mixed with water or eggs, formed into sheets or other shapes, then cooked by boiling or baking.
How To Make Pasta In South Africa
Pasta dough
Preparation Time: 20 Minutes
Cook Time: 3 – 5 minutes
Serves: Makes about 500 g
Use small batches of dough when rolling out for easier handling. Pasta dough can also be made in a food processor.
Ingredients
500ml (280 g) Snowflake cake flour
2ml salt
25ml olive oil
10ml water
3 extra-large eggs
Method
Sift flour and salt together. Make a well in the center. Place eggs, oil, and water in the well. Working as rapidly as possible gradually incorporate flour into liquid ingredients until it comes together.
Spinach pasta: Add 225 g fresh, cooked spinach or 150 g thawed, frozen spinach (all well-drained) to flour before adding eggs and oil.
Knead dough well until smooth and elastic. Cover airtight with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
Herb pasta: Add 45 ml of finely chopped fresh herbs to flour before adding eggs and oil.
Tomato pasta: Add 30 ml (1 sachet) tomato paste to flour and use only 2 eggs.
Divide dough into four pieces. Take one piece, keeping the remaining pieces covered, and flatten slightly with the palm of your hand.
Set the rollers of the pasta machine on the widest setting and begin to roll the dough through the machine to form a long, wide sheet.
Fold the sheet into thirds, like a letter, and run it through rollers twice more, folding it each time. Set rollers to the thinnest setting and roll through once. The dough should be smooth.
Cut pasta sheet as desired, using machine attachments or tagliatelle or spaghetti, or cut by hand into 9 x 14 cm lasagne sheets. Repeat with the remaining pieces of dough.
Lightly dust with flour to keep the pasta from sticking. Bring a large, heavy-based saucepan with salted water to the boil. Add pasta and cook for 3 – 5 minutes. Drain and use as required.
What 3 basic ingredients are used in the production of pasta?
Pasta products contain milled wheat, water, and occasionally eggs and/or optional ingredients. Pasta manufacturers typically use milled durum wheat (semolina, durum granulars, and durum flour) in pasta production, although farina and flour from common wheat are occasionally used.
How many eggs per cup of flour for pasta?
2 eggs
Use one large-size egg for each full serving you want to make, to that add 1 ½ the egg’s weight in flour. (You can do this with a simple kitchen scale.) If you don’t have a scale, use 2 eggs per 1 cup of flour to make 1 serving. You can make one pound of fresh pasta with 2 cups of flour and 3 eggs.