Pasta Dough

My grandma showed us how to make noodles from scratch once. I thought the process was neat, even if they didn't taste very good.

This recipe jazzes up the concept a little, while still producing a fairly neutral dough that will adapt to any recipe. You can easily omit the dill, or substitute any herb which works with the final product.

If you are using an extruder, use less flour to make a softer dough. For a roller, you can make it as sturdy as you want. I have always rolled it out by hand with a rolling pin, and it works just fine. Having those 1/16" rolling-pin bands does come in handy, but no special accessories are required for your basic rolled-out pasta. You can make linguine or ravioli with just a (cleaned) ruler to mark off the widths.

1-1/4 C flour

2 eggs

1 Tb lemon juice

3 Tb water

2 tsp olive oil

pinch of salt

pinch of sugar

1/2 tsp dill weed

1. In a bowl, combine 1 C flour, eggs, lemon juice, water, olive oil, salt, sugar, and dill. Stir into a batter, about 2 minutes.

2. Stir in 1/4 C flour. On a floured board, knead dough until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. Wrap tightly in plastic until ready to use.

Makes 9 oz dough

Difficulty rating  π