Pasta Dough

Fresh pasta tastes better, and is far simpler than it seems. ANNA EOCLIDI, of Pasta Emilia, gives us the low-down.

- Anna Eoclidi

There are two types of dough for making pasta: the first, made from durum-wheat semolina, a coarse flour high in protein, is used for pasta such as orecchiette, pici, fusilli, spaghetti, penne and rigatoni. The second style of dough, as seen in the recipe below, is one made of soft flour containing slightly less gluten and more starch. Combined with eggs, it makes a soft dough that is great for filled pasta like tortellini, agnolotti, tortelli and ravioli, as well as silky ribbons of pasta such as fettuccine, pappardelle and lasagne. The main secret of good pasta dough lies in the quality of the ingredients: organic flour and eggs are best.

Step by step

1 Pile 400gm plain or “00” flour onto a dry (preferably wooden) surface. Form a well in the centre and add 4 eggs and 1 tsp olive oil. Beat the eggs and oil with a fork and slowly incorporate flour by scraping against the flour wall.