Some of the tenderest pasta is made with Italian "00" soft wheat flour. Since this flour can be hard to find, we used a combination of cake flour and all-purpose flour with good results.
This recipe is an accompaniment for Spinach and Cheese Cannelloni.
Active time: 1 hr Start to finish: 2 hr
• Pasta trimmings can be cut into odd-shaped pieces and used in soup. In Italian they're called maltagliati, which means "badly cut."
Recipe information
Yield
Makes 8 fresh pasta rectangles
Ingredients
Special Equipment
Preparation
Make dough:
Step 1
Blend all ingredients in a food processor until mixture begins to form a ball. Knead dough on a lightly floured surface, incorporating only as much additional flour as necessary to keep dough from sticking, until smooth and elastic, 6 to 8 minutes. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and let stand 1 hour.
Roll out dough:
Step 2
Set smooth rollers of pasta machine on widest setting. Cut dough into 4 pieces. Cover 3 pieces with plastic wrap, then form remaining piece into a rectangle and feed through rollers. Fold rectangle in half and feed, folded end first, through rollers 8 more times, folding in half each time and dusting with flour if necessary to prevent sticking.
Step 3
Turn dial to next (narrower) setting and feed dough through without folding. Catch pasta sheet with your hand as it feeds through rollers instead of letting it crumple at base of machine. Continue to feed through without folding, making space between rollers narrower each time and dusting with flour if it begins to stick, until second narrowest setting is reached.
Step 4
Lay pasta sheet on a floured surface and cut into 2 (6- by 4-inch) rectangles. Roll out and cut remaining 3 pieces of dough in same manner to form a total of 8 pasta squares.
