Covert Recipes: Pasta dough

As a follow-up to my lasagna drying fail, here is the recipe for the pasta dough that tasted good even though it was in a million pieces. I use these basic proportions for most of my homemade pasta and it passes the hubby and kid test for undetectability of whole-wheatness.


Whole Wheat Pasta Dough      For 4-6 servings of pasta

4 eggs
1/2 cup durum semolina
1-1/2 cup white flour*
1 cup whole wheat flour

Mix the dry ingredients together on a clean countertop and form into a shallow mound. Make a wide well in the middle (don't worry if countertop is showing through) and crack your eggs into the middle. Using a fork, break up the eggs yolks and beat the eggs. Once the eggs are more or less beaten, start incorporating small amounts of flour into the egg by scraping the sides of your well with the fork. Do this slowly and try to keep the egg inside your well since it minimizes your mess. When enough flour is incorporated into the egg and it no longer runs all over the countertop, you can switch to a bench scraper or your hands to knead in the rest of the flour mixture. Knead the dough until it is smooth (keeping in mind that the more you knead, the chewier your pasta will get :) Wrap it up and let it rest at room temperature for 30 minutes to an hour before shaping it.**  You could also skip the resting period and store it in the fridge for a few days or freeze the whole ball and defrost it in the fridge overnight when needed.

*You may want to reserve some of the flour and add it at the end when it's easier tell if your pasta dough is too dry or too wet. I find different brands of flour (especially whole wheat flour) really have different moisture and gluten contents. Not to mention your ambient or storage conditions :)
**You can use it immediately but it tends to be very elastic when first kneaded, waiting a bit makes it a lot easier to roll and shape.

Enjoy!

Another look at the lasagna noodles before the fall/fail.