Biba's Northern Italian Cooking - Biba Caggiano [14]
Faithful to the Northern Italian tradition, most of the pasta in this chapter is homemade. You will find the “Classic Method for Making Pasta Dough” rolled out with a rolling pin, on page 42, as well as the “Basic Egg Pasta Dough” rolled out with a hand-cranked pasta machine, on page 40.
Ingredients
Use unbleached all-purpose flour.This flour has a moderate amount of gluten, which will make the dough soft and pliable. Semolina flour (durum wheat flour) is almost never used in Northern Italy to make homemade pasta. Semolina flour is used for factory-made pasta.
Use large eggs brought to room temperature. If you can find eggs with a really orange yolk, your pasta will have the golden color that egg pasta should have. In Tuscany a drop of oil and a pinch of salt are added to the dough. In all the other Northern Italian regions, only flour and eggs are used.
Equipment Needed to Make Pasta Dough by Hand
The best surface for kneading pasta is wood.The warmth and grain of wood will give your pasta a special texture. Formica or marble can also be used. A dough or pastry scraper will clean the sticky pieces of dough attached to the board.
Use a fork to mix the flour with the eggs.
Equipment Needed to Roll Pasta Dough
If you are planning to roll out pasta dough by hand, a long Italian rolling pin, 32 inches long and 1½ inches in diameter, would be ideal. If your local gourmet cooking store does not carry it, use a regular rolling pin.
If you are planning to roll out the pasta dough by machine, look for a little hand-cranked pasta machine, which can be found in most department stores at a very reasonable price. The main part of the pasta machine is for kneading and rolling the dough through its two steel rollers.This machine comes with two attachments to cut the sheet of dough into wide and thin noodles.
Cutting, Storing and Cooking Noodles
After you have made your pasta and rolled it out by hand, page 42, or by machine, page 41, you need to dry the pasta sheets 8 to 12 minutes, depending on the heat of your room.When the pasta is no longer sticky, put it through the cutting blades of the pasta machine, according to the width you wish to make. Arrange noodles in soft bundles on a wooden board or a tablecloth. They can be cooked immediately or they can be allowed to dry and cooked later on. If you plan to store the noodles, let them dry at least 24 hours. At this point the noodles are brittle. Place them gently in plastic bags or in a plastic container. Seal tightly and store at room temperature. They will keep well for two to three weeks.
To cook fresh noodles, follow these simple, basic rules.
Use 4 to 5 quarts of water for 1 pound of pasta.
Bring the water to a boil. Add salt and pasta. Cover the pot and bring the water back to a boil, then remove the lid. Stir a few times during cooking.
The cooking of the noodles will depend on their freshness. Freshly made noodles will cook quickly.The longer they dry, the longer they need to cook.
Never overcook pasta. It should always be firm to the bite.
Never rinse pasta, unless specifically indicated in a recipe.
Never precook pasta unless you are making lasagne or cannelloni.
Cutting, Storing and Cooking Stuffed Pasta
For stuffed pasta, such as tortellini and agnolotti, each sheet of dough must be cut and stuffed immediately so the moistness of the dough can give a tight seal. Stuffed pasta should not be made more than one day ahead of cooking