The Key to

Mastering Pasta

In the Beginning

I believed that I would be able to make delicate, delicious pasta just by reading a bunch of pasta blogs. What I didn't realize at the time is that research can teach you everything you need to know about a subject, but it doesn't provide you with real-world experience. With pasta making, real-world experience was exactly what I needed.

I had a lot of difficulties sensing what my dough needed based on its look, texture, and elasticity of it. All of the websites I read said "add more flour if needed" or "add more water if needed" but I didn't know when it needed what. It was a complete gamble until I cooked the dough and could taste it. Then I would be able to look back and think, "oh yeah this probably needed more flour". How would I be able to gain that chef's sense? I trusted that it would come with time.

Then, in January (3 months into my project), I went to visit my family in Maine; including my uncle who is a chef. I slid him the idea that the two of us should make pasta and he quickly put together a menu. An array of pasta and sauces that were more difficult than anything I had done at that point. I mean, I was just starting to get my dough down.

My cousin and I preparing the pasta.

Getting that 'Real World Experience'

We were cooking for my family, my uncle's family, my grandma, and my grandma's friends. A lot of people require a lot of pasta so we made 3x the amount of a regular batch of dough. The recipe he said he used was 2 cups of flour, 3 eggs, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil. I was excited because I knew this pasta was going to turn out better than anything I had made before. I was able to work with a real chef and interview him along the way.

When Joey, my uncle, had said we could make everyone dinner I assumed we'd be making a simple dish with the focus on the pasta. Instead, my uncle being the way he is, decided we needed to go all out. The menu consisted of two types of stuffed mushrooms for the appetizer and 3 types of pasta for the main course. We made classic fettuccini, sausage and thyme ravioli, and butternut squash ravioli. To pair with the pasta, we made pesto, pancetta mushroom basil butter, and Sunday gravy. Considering I had never eaten half of these items, I didn't know how my uncle expected me to make them. But Joey was there to walk me through it so I felt confident.

The first step in our day of cooking was to make the pasta dough. Joey showed me how he measures out the flour. Since the recipe calls for a volume of flour rather than weight, we gently spooned the flour into our measuring cups. This is to prevent the packing of flour that results from scooping and will cause there to be too much of it. I never would have thought of this so I'm glad Joey taught me. Next, we cracked the eggs into the stand mixer. I cracked the first egg and then the second, but just as I was pulling away, the whole egg shell fell into the bowl. The mixer was already going so the hook came by and buried the shell into a million pieces in the dough before I could even react. On the verge of tears, I was worried I had ruined our dinner plans. Joey, however, came over and told me this happens all the time. He said the shells that we couldn't pick out right away would reappear when we roll out the dough. Sure enough, they did. This taught me the valuable lesson to not overreact in the kitchen. Mistakes will be made and recipes will be failed. There's always a way you can overcome them though.

Me transferring the dough to the counter.

The most important thing I learned, however, was how to react to the pasta dough based on its needs. The dough didn't have nearly enough liquid so my uncle told me to add some oil 1 tablespoon at a time. After about 3 tablespoons of oil, he said to start using water to make sure they're balanced. If he had not told me this, I would've kept adding oil. I went to add some water by the tablespoon but Joey said "Oh you're gonna need more than that, Clara,". I went to add a few drops more but my uncle decided to show me how much he really meant. He took the cup and poured about 4 tablespoons of water in; a lot more than I was expecting. It proved to work because our dough came out perfect.

Joey's and my dough.

Joey took the dough out of the bowl and handed it to me so I could knead it. I started to knead it but he said I needed more force. He demonstrated what he meant and gave the dough back to me. I mimicked what he had shown me and he said it looked much better. When I had finished, we let the dough rest in the breezeway and we started to set up the pasta machine. I was fascinated because I didn't know that they were electric; I figured they'd be manual. Joey gave me the run down saying we'd start at the largest (thickest) setting and work down to the smallest. We would run the dough through twice for each setting before moving down.

We rolled the dough with a rolling pin just to get it flat so it could be pulled through the machine. Joey passed the dough through the widest setting to show me how to handle it. After flouring and folding it horizontally, he gave it to me to run through the second time. It was successful so I decided to fold it and run it through again. When I pulled it out, the dough unfolded which it was not supposed to do. My uncle said I had put too much flour so the dough couldn't mold together. I tried again and ended up being successful.

When it was time to cut the fettucini, Joey switched the machine to the cutting attachment. With the help of my cousin, he showed me how important it is to keep the dough straight when running it through. He put the first piece of pasta in and I ripped the bunch away when the strands were long enough.

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Video of me pulling the fettuccini when it reached the right length.

The fettuccini that resulted.

After we made the fettuccini, we spent the next few hours on the ravioli and sauces. There was a lot we had to do but it paid off because dinner was delicious. Looking back, I wish I had taken more pictures and videos of the pasta-making process. I was so excited to show our results that I forgot to take pictures of the work put into those results. But, dinner was absolutely delicious and everyone loved it.

The fresh ravioli.

Images of the final dinner.

The next time I made pasta, I experienced a dramatic change in my abilities. I now knew how my dough would react if I added more water, oil, flour, or even another egg. This is a crucial part of pasta making because pasta isn't a recipe that will turn out the same every time. The eggs may be a bit bigger or the flour could be too packed. You never know so you need to be able to adjust accordingly. Also, I had felt what proper dough consistency feels like. You can read all the articles in the world about how your pasta should look and feel but you'll never really know until you actually get to experience it in person.

My pasta after that was incomparable. I perfected knowing how much of what to add to satisfy the dough. This really proves that the key to mastering pasta making is getting experience with someone who knows what they are doing. Only then will you really understand how to create a perfectly balanced pasta dough.

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