Pasta has long been a leader among other dishes. It gained its popularity due to its ease of preparation. Most often, pasta can be found in Italian and Asian cuisine. In Russia, pasta is more often called pasta - you can buy it at any store, but if you want to experiment in the kitchen, pasta can be easily made from simple ingredients.
Flour for pasta
For classic Italian pasta, you need to choose durum flour, and cook the dough in water. When using soft wheat, add 1 egg per 100 grams of flour. To make the dough elastic and homogeneous, the flour must be sieved, this not only guarantees the absence of impurities, but also saturates it with oxygen.
Pasta dough
To get the perfect paste, knead the dough for at least 15 minutes. The finished dough must necessarily "rest" in a cool place for 30 minutes.
How to roll the dough
Roll out the dough on a floured surface. If the dough needs to be divided into several parts, cover the unused parts with a damp towel so that they do not dry out. You need to roll out the dough from yourself, turning the constantly resulting layer. The ideal thickness for pasta dough is a maximum of 2 millimeters.
How to cut pasta
Ideally, the dough should be cut with a special machine - a noodle cutter. If this unit is not available in the kitchen, you can use a sharp knife with a thin blade or a wheel to cut pasta. The finished strips should dry out, so you do not need to close them.
How to store the paste
Homemade pasta can only be stored after it is completely dry. For this, special dryers or a conventional clothes dryer are used. In the second case, you need to cover the paste with a paper towel, otherwise dust will settle on it. You need to lay out the paste so that it does not stick together. You can store homemade pasta for up to a month. You can store the pasta in the freezer by spreading it out on a large baking sheet and covering it with foil, in which case the shelf life is increased to 6 months. It is best to cook a small amount of pasta so that it does not lose its flavor during storage.
