Fresh Basil Pasta Recipe

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Ingredients

• 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
  
• 2 egg yolks, at room temperature
  
• 2 whole eggs, at room temperature
  
• 4 tablespoons minced fresh basil leaves
  

How to make Fresh Basil Pasta

This is my very first attempt at fresh pasta and I gotta say, it was pretty great.  The basic recipe came from Alice Waters' The Art of Simple Food; the basil was all my idea.Yields four servings.

1. Measure out the flour and place in a large bowl.  Make a well in the center of the flour mound.
   
2. Mix eggs and yolks in a separate bowl.  Break up yolks and whites with a fork, as if you're fixin' to scramble them.  Add basil.
   
3. Pour the egg mixture into the flour well.  
   
4. Mix with a fork, then with your hand when the flour is too stiff. Add a little bit of water if the dough is too crumbly. Turn out onto  lightly floured surface and knead until a smoothish dough forms.
   
5. Divide and form two discs.
   
6. Wrap discs in plastic and let sit at room temperature for at least an hour.  This gives the gluten some time to relax and makes it much easier to roll and stretch out later.
7. You can roll out pasta by hand, or use a machine.  I used a machine.  
8. Pass the disc through the machine at its widest settling.  Fold in thirds and pass through the machine again.  Repeat twice, or until the surface of the dough is smooth and shiny.
9. Continue to pass dough through the machine, gradually decreasing the space between rollers until desired thinness is achieved. 
10. Cut to desired shape and length.
11. Fresh pasta absorbs a lot of water when it cooks, so use a generous amount of lightly salted, vigorously boiling water.
12. If you're not going to cook the pasta right away after cutting it, toss in a little bit of flour, lay out on a sheet pan, cover with parchment or a towel, and refrigerate.
13. Fresh pasta also cooks very quickly, about three to six minutes.

Download the .pdf. 
More recipes and lots of other neato stuff @ food. according to me. 
To make spinach pasta, Alice recommends gently sautéing 1/4 pound of fresh spinach in a little bit of butter.  Cook until tender, cool and squeeze dry, and blend until smooth with one egg and one egg yolk.  Use this pureé in place of the eggs.

• 
  yongfook says

  great photo! I'd love to make my own pasta one day but it seems like it's going to create a lot of mess....

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  MissJ9 says

  You know, I thought it would be horribly, regrettably messy too, but it was actually a tidier enterprise than a loaf of bread. And pretty quick, too...

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  Tia says

  cute photo! you made it look so easy. :) i shall attempt it sometime. thanks!

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  telliecoin says

  I love making my own pasta!!! and drying them and putting them into my own little boxes :) they just taste so much better! Time consuming though lol

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  tr1n1ty says

  Wow good idea. I love basil~ I just got a pasta machine so I'm looking forward to trying it out :D

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  japzkyootipie says

  mmmmm looks so yummy

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  anjelikuh says

  woww, triple thumbs up if i had 3 hands!

• 
  MissJ9 says

  three thumbs?! Thank you!!

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