Filomena's Pasta Fresca

The women in my family would gather in my grandmothers kitchen to make tons of pasta. From my great-grandmother Filomena to my grandmother Esther, mother Florence, aunts Lillian, Rita and Nancy, cousins, and myself, Linda, we made pasta for all of us and this is the recipe my great-grandmother used only I have scaled it down from 50 pounds of flour to a few cups and instead of elbow grease I use my Cuisinart and my Kitchenaid. It is so simple to make that I make it every week and freeze the pasta. I tried to break down the directions into easy steps. This really is an easy recipe but I think it can be daunting if you have never made pasta before. I have been making it for 50 years, since I was a little girl. Back in those days we rolled the pasta out with my great-grandmothers huge rolling pin and cut the pasta with either a knife or a little machine. The new fangled way is faster and better.

• Ready In: 33 mins
• Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 3  cups unbleached white flour
• 4  large eggs

Directions

1. Put the flour into the food processor and pulse five or six times.
2. Add the eggs and pulse five or six times.
3. Scrape the processor bowl and whiz the dough until it comes together. The dough should look crumbly and a little dry. Dry dough will work up faster and taste better with a wonderful texture. If dough won't hold it's shape after you squeeze it in your hand you can add a few drops of water until the consistency is good. On the other hand, you can add a few teaspoons of flour if the dough is too wet.
4. Dump into a large zip lock baggie and press the dough together to form into a log.
5. Refrigerate for 30 minutes to relax the gluten.
6. Cut the log into eight slices and working with one piece at a time run each through your pasta kneader (setting #1) four or five times, folding over the ends each time to try to keep it somewhat square and uniform. The kneaded dough should be very smooth and luxurious feeling with no graininess or roughness. I will post pictures in a few days. Keep everything heavily floured.
7. After you have all of your dough rolled on setting #1 proceed to roll the pieces to your desired thickness, starting on setting #2 and going up one or two settings at a time. I like them rolled to number 6 on my Kitchenaid Pasta attachement and number 7 on my Atlas Pasta maker. Keep the pasta floured to avoid sticking.
8. Choose either fettucine (my fave) or spaghetti cutters and run the strips through the cutter making sure to keep them well floured and keep your work surface floured very well. Make sure the strands are all separated. In this case there is no such thing as too much flour.
9. Let the pasta dry for a few minutes and separate into four servings.
10. To eat right away, boil a large pot of water with a tablespoon of olive oil and two or three tablespoons of kosher salt. Check the pasta after one minute and continue checking until it is done to your liking. Most pastas are al dente in under three minutes. Drain, sauce and serve.
11. TO STORE: Curl the pasta into little nests and freeze in small containers to avoid crushing and sticking together. Remember, you can't use too much flour.
12. HINTS: 3/4 cups of flour and one large egg would equal one portion. Don't add salt to your dough to keep it very tender. Don't add oil to your dough or it will be more difficult to roll. Adding salt to the boiling water is important. To avoid boil-overs add the oil and salt to the water before you put the pot on the stove. Simple sauces are best with fresh pasta. I will post variations soon.