4 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
6 eggs
Directions
Recipe by: Northern Italian Cooking Put flour on a pastry board and
make a well in the center. Break the eggs into well; beat with a
fork. Draw some flour from inner rim of well over eggs, beating
constantly. Keep adding flour a little at a time until you have a
soft dough. Put dough aside. With a pastry scraper, remove bits and
pieces of dough attached to board. Lightly flour board and your
hands. Knead dough 10 to 12 minutes, adding flour a little at a time
until dough is smooth and pliable. Insert a finger into center of
dough. If it comes out almost dry, dough is ready for pasta machine.
If dough is sticky, knead it a little longer adding more flour. Cut
an egg-size piece from dough. Wrap remaining dough in a cloth towel
to prevent it from drying. Set rollers of pasta machine at their
widest setting. Flatten small piece of dough, dust with flour and
fold in half. Run it through pasta machine. Repeat this step 5 to 8
times until dough is smooth and not sticky. Change notch of pasta
machine to the next setting and run dough through once without
folding. Keep changing setting and working pasta sheet through
machine until pasta reaches desired thickness. A good thickness for
general use is about 1/16 inch. Sprinkle dough with flour between
rollings if it is sticky.
Servings: 8 servings
Basic Egg Pasta Dough Recipe brought to you by Recipe Ideas
Categories: Bread; Breads; Egg; Italian; Pasta
The History of Recipes
It is quite feasible to follow the history of written cooking instructions back into distant history, certainly as far back into recorded history as ancient Egypt, and possibly even further. Interesting though that is, these, ancient records were just very simple hieroglyphic or cunieform recipes for preparing food.
Interestingly, the oldest recipe discovered, according to experts is a collection of stone tablets in ancient Sumerian which show the baking of bread which is then used to make a drink, quite possibly a form of beer as it is recorded as making anyone who drank it feel `blissful`. During Roman times 25BC a man called Apicius compiled some documents detailing recipes prepared by his fellow Romans. In his scrolls, he recounts how the meals of wealthy Romans were divided into hors d`oeuvre, entrees and afters, a very modern way of dining. Aspicius recounts how the ancient chefs were skilled in the use of many herbs, including a few you will know such as basil, mint and dill. Later, in the 15th century, knights returning from the crusades brought us a variety of foods and herbs from the holy lands, such as coriander, basil and rosemary. The introduction of these new culinary ideas prompted an outbreak in manuscripts on cooking, the majority of which still exist in private collections. During the succeeding few centuries, the wealthy families of Europe competed to serve the most exotic meals, and consequentially cooks and their recipes became highly prized. However, it wasn`t until the 1800s that formal cookery and cookery books became really popular. The Famous Mrs Isabella Beeton in the UK, and the equally famous Fannie Merritt Farmer in the USA, devoted much of their lives to collating, verifying, and publishing the recipes that were being prepared for the better households. By the time we get to the twentieth century, recipe books were highly popular mostly as a result of better eduction, more spare time and disposable income. |
We hope you enjoy this Basic Egg Pasta Dough recipe.
