SOMETIMES YOU JUST NEED REMINDING

by Lin Dickens
on February 26th, 2016

In February I attended one of Adam Byatt’s masterclasses on pasta (which I loved) along with some of our fabulous clients. Back in my kitchen days, I made quite a lot of the stuff but it’s something I’ve never made at home – clearly I needed reminding how simple it is. Needless to say, my newfound excitement of fresh, homemade pasta gave me the perfect excuse to buy another kitchen toy.

There’s something really special about pasta, which I put down to it’s simplicity. With just two ingredients of eggs and flour, you end up with something so versatile and tasty. And it’s easy-blend it up, stick it in the fridge, then roll. Even the most novice of cooks can attempt it!

Whilst Adam’s recipe is slightly different (see below), the general rule is 100g of double zero flour to a single egg. If you’re nervous about it, just start with something really simple like linguine or spaghetti. Once you’ve mastered that and your confidence is sky high, you can move onto shaped and filled pastas like ravioli and tortellini. A good tip is to make sure you use really good, free range eggs as these tend to have much richer, darker yolks, so you end up with a really lovely colour to your pasta.

You don’t need a food processor to make the pasta dough (although it’s quicker) as you can make it by hand. What you do need is a pasta roller. I got one from Nisbets for about £42 and it works a treat. When you move onto shapes, there are a couple of other bits you may want, again these can be found pretty cheaply online.

Don’t be one of those people who keep their pasta roller in a cupboard (there’s lots of you out there!). Get it out, give it a go and I look forward to seeing some pics. If you fancy giving Adam’s recipe a go (which is still very simple), ingredients and method are below.

Simon Houston – Sales Director, bartlett mitchell

Adam Byatt – Pasta Recipe

 

Ingredients (makes enough for about 7-8 people if making spaghetti):

  • 500g – of ’00’ pasta flour
  • 7 – Clarence Court egg yolks
  • 2 – whole Clarence Court eggs
  • 50ml – olive oil
  • 50ml – saffron water (optional but will give your pasta an amazing rich colour)

Method:

  1. Bring 100ml water to the boil with a pinch of saffron and reduce by half. Strain and allow to cool.
  2. Whisk the saffron water, egg yolks and whole eggs together.
  3. Place the flour into a food processor and slowly incorporate the egg mixture until you have achieved what resembles cous cous. This happens pretty quickly.
  4. Briefly knead the dough and cling film tightly in 3 batches. It’s ready to use after about an hour.
  5. Dough ready, you can now roll and use as desired.

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Lin Dickens Marketing Director

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