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The Story
These days I make all kinds of pasta with all kinds of dough, but when I was a kid there were only four types. Don’t get me wrong, we enjoyed plenty of packet pasta – secretly but unanimously excited as my nonna apologised for the rigatoni she was opening – but when we did it ourselves, our repertoire was deliberately and appropriately limited. We made spinach and ricotta ravioli, always with spinach dough, and we made spinach fettuccine with the leftovers. On occasion we’d roll out some plain dough lasagna, sometimes gnocchi, but for the most part we were a green pasta family. To this day, the only dough that truly tastes ‘right’ to me is freshly made spinach.
I’d mostly graduated from old nonna’s scuola di cucina (or at least been finally expelled) by the time my brother and cousins arrived to bolster the workforce, but in the years before school and on the weekends until they could plausibly turn a pasta handle, I would stand for hours beside my nonna churning out ludicrous amounts of pasta for the extended family, usually to last months at a time. And months at a time, in a Italian family, equates to a significant amount of pasta. I don’t mean to claim any sort of mystical pasta knowledge gleaned from days at a time spent staring into pasta sheets, but it did teach me how to cook by taste and feel. Nonna’s ‘recipes’ were along the lines of “you put flour in a bowl and mix in eggs”.
Now, ‘making fettuccine with the leftovers’ is a loose statement, as sometimes the time or ingredients available to us and nonna’s energy levels would dictate a strategic skipping straight through to leftovers. It was quicker than ravioli, so even though ravioli remained the main family dish, I think we probably ended up with more fettuccine in the freezer than anything else. In fact, the only thing more familiar to me than this pasta is the sugo and polpette that it would always be served with; so if you’re looking for the perfect sauce to pair with this fettuccine, check out our sugo and meatballs recipe!
The Pasta
If I had to choose two things that mattered most in kneading pasta dough, I’d say time and moisture. Time being enough time spent kneading and resting the dough, and moisture referring to the perfect balance of wet and dry so that the dough can be handled without sticking, and with a minimal addition of flour. My rule of thumb for time is 10 minutes of vigorous kneading followed by 30 minutes of resting. I’ll also sometimes slow the rolling process (ie. leave sheets to rest in the open air a bit before proceeding) if the dough has sweated or feels too moist. If you get the water levels right before leaving it to rest, then you should be able to work with the weather (notwithstanding extremes) to perfect the dough’s moisture as you form it into pasta. Remember, eggs, oil, spinach, and any other non-dry ingredients, whilst all having their own separate properties, will add moisture. If you’re using extra-large eggs, or wetter spinach, you’ll probably need to increase your amount of flour.
Everyone’s going to tell you to make a well with flour and put the eggs in the middle. You can do that if you want, because it’s cute, but if you don’t have the surface available (I will point out that our ‘surface’ used to be an old laminate table out the back) then honestly just do it in a bowl. You can still make a pretty well. Alternatively, if you’re really pressed for time and space, stick it in a food processor for a minute – but add the second half of the flour slowly until you see the dough come together and no longer stick to the sides. Even then, give it as long as you can afford with an old-fashioned hand knead afterwards, both to ensure the gluten’s done its thing, and to make sure that you haven’t under floured it. And I mean hard kneading that hurts your abs and makes you sweat. Don’t just touch it up. If my nonna could do it then you can.
I normally stick it in a freezer bag to rest for 30 minutes, as I find it gives me a little more atmospheric control than in a bowl under a tea towel, but it can make your dough sweat. If that happens, just use a little flour as you start to cut it up and roll it out, but not so much that you mess up your water ratio. Cut it into smaller pieces to work one at a time, and leave the rest sealed away until needed. We try to minimise waste and plastics in our kitchen, and have dedicated reusables for resting dough and storing the odd half onion. Give it a shot – it makes everything taste about 15% better.
You can roll pasta like this with just about anything: rolling pin, machine, wine bottle. Little Al often takes the initiative and sits on it over and over once I’m out of arm’s reach. We normally use a trusty hand cranked roller so that the little guy can get more involved, and sometimes even go old school with a rolling pin, but if we’re pressed for time there’s nothing wrong with electric. If you are using a machine option, always start on 0 and work up. In this case we’ve gone to 5, as I like my pasta thick. If you get holes or tears, fold it over, add a little flour, and put it back through. If you have to fold it more than once, consider dropping back down one setting before working up again. One important trick here is to pass the dough through the larger settings a few times (folding over itself in between) before you start thinning it. This essentially extends the kneading step and will make a big difference to ease of handling.
Brush the sheets well with flour before feeding them through the fettucine cutter, or (if you’re using a pin) before rolling them up loosely and cutting across with a sharp knife. What?! Cut with a knife, but that’s tagliatelle! Spoiler, they’re the same thing made with a different cutter. Basically. Come at me North and South defenders of pasta.
I recommend tossing the pasta loosely in flour as soon as it’s cut, and then sticking it straight into the fridge, uncovered. I really find that half an hour to overnight of refrigeration can add a great bit of bite to the pasta. You can keep storing it there too for up to a week, or a day for most filled pasta. Note that pasta does get quite brittle as it dries, but will gain a new elasticity when it finally reaches the pot.
If you’re looking for a something to toss it through, we highly recommend serving it as we always have, with our signature meatballs in tomato sauce!
This is a favourite (and staple) of ours. It’s at the very centre of our pasta universe, and we hope that it finds a proud place in yours. Make it with care and love, and enjoy.
– Al & Al.
Equipment
- Pasta roller and cutter (if not using a rolling pin and knife)
- Kitchenaid pasta roller and cutter attachment (optional, instead of manual cutter or rolling pin)
- Air tight container for resting
- Food processor
Ingredients
- 250 g 00 flour plus up to 50g more depending on moisture left in spinach
- 100 g spinach blanched, thoroughly drained, and very finely chopped; substitute with frozen spinach
- 50 g semolina flour
- 2 eggs
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 tsp extra-virgin olive oil
- 1/2 tsp salt
Instructions
- Mix the flours together with the salt, and make a well out of them on a large flat surface, or in a bowl.
- To the well, add the spinach, oil, and eggs. For the single yolk, I recommend cracking the egg in half and then passing the yolk back and forth between the halves, allowing the white to fall loose.
- Starting in the centre, use a fork or your hand to gradually incorporate the dry ingredients into the wet. If you’ve already formed a ball of dough, but it remains sticky, keep adding flour at no more than a tablespoon at a time.
- Once the dough can be handled without sticking to your fingers or the work surface, begin kneading. You may have to keep adding some flour if it you notice it getting sticky during kneading – this is very much a step best judged by feel.
- To knead, I recommend putting your weight down and forwards into the dough using the heel of your hand. You are trying to roll it forwards and fold it over at the same time, so the motion is down, forwards, and then up at the end of the push. Fold the flattened dough back towards you and over itself as you repeat. You want 10 minutes of hard kneading to really develop the gluten.
- After 10 minutes, as long as you eliminated any sticking early in the knead, you should be left with a smooth, shiny ball of dough that requires no additional flouring.
- Seal it in a freezer bag, or any sealable plastic, and leave it to rest at room temperature for 30 minutes. Try to keep it out of direct sunlight or heat, as that will cause the dough to sweat.
- Cut the dough into four pieces, and return to the bag all but the single piece you'll begin working on. Using a pasta roller, or rolling pin, roll out and refold the dough 4-5 times into long strips. Think of this step as an extension of the kneading process. If on a machine, just keep putting it through the 0 setting, refolding as you go. Flour lightly if you notice it sticking, and don't worry if you get some tears – just keep refolding to cover the tears, and re-rolling with a light dusting of flour. You'll notice that the dough becomes easier to handle the more times it passes through.
- Begin stepping up the settings on the machine, or if using a rolling pin, begin rolling thinner and thinner. I roll up to a machine setting of 5, but this will make quite thick pasta, so just keep going thinner if you prefer a lighter pasta. If you're rolling and cutting these by hand, remember to aim for long rectangular strips of the length you would like your fettuccine to be. The same applies to a machine, although the machine will dictate how wide each sheet will be.
- Flour the sheets well, and pass through a fettuccine cutter. If you’re not using a machine, gently fold the sheets up into a roll, short end to short end, one at a time; cut into the desired fettuccine width using a short knife, and then unroll your individual pieces of pasta.
- Toss your cut pasta loosely in flour until well coated and not sticking together. I find that allowing it to repeatedly fall from a height between my fingers, scooping with flour in between, works well.
- Transfer to a sheet of baking paper and store uncovered in the fridge for up to a week. Even overnight will add a bit of bite to the pasta. Alternatively, freeze immediately.
- Always use plenty of water when cooking, as it will prevent you from losing the boil when you drop the pasta in. We highly recommend serving it with our signature tomato sauce and meatballs!
