Its easy to make homemade pasta, and then it taste a trillion ways better than the dried pasta one can buy in well assorted supermarkets in Chongqing.
Ingredients:
- 200 kilogram flour
- 3 tsp olive oil (others can probably do too)
- 2 eggs
- A knife edge of salt
You put the flour in a circle on the kitchen table and make a hole in the middle, where you put in the other ingredients. Then you slowly start to mix it, better with less flour at first, more can be added later. When you have molded your dough plenty you put it in the refregiator for at least one hour. The dough should be sticky, but so it go off the table without problems.
After its been resting you start rolling it flat on the table, roll it as thin as you like. When you got a big flat “plate” of pasta you fold it from both ends, and then start roll it flat again. You need to continue this procedure for at least 4-5 times. After that, your pasta dough is ready.
Click an image to see big version. 1-3 how to fold, 4 photo the result after folding and rolling 4-6 times.
You can use it for ordinary pasta, by slicing it into thin slices, or for example as ravioli. With ravioli you cut the pasta into soothing square sizes, put some water on the edges of the square, and your filling of choice in one end of the square, and then you fold the square and make the ravioli package where the edges are wet. Both the pasta and f.x. ravioli can keep good for days or longer, if you dont wrap it in paper it will start to dry like the pasta one can buy.
Tip: After cutting into squares you can roll the small square a bit more thin before u fill it
The pasta should be boiled for 3-4 minutes if its fresh, perhabs longer if its dried a lot. You can let the ravioli dry on the table or in the refrigiator, they will slowly become more stiff, and can hold for days.
If your having guest for dinner one day they will love you for this.
Some simple ravioli fillings:
- … cheese, parmasan is a good choice
- Smoked ham, the cheap ones you can buy in carrefour will do
You cut the ham in small slices and then chop it to small pieces in a blender. Ofcourse if you dont have a blender you can just cut it small in hand. The cheese and ham is mixed, and in ravioli gives a fantastic genuine Italian flavor.
- Dried dark round chinese mushrooms (xianggu)
- Garlic
- A bit Chicken flavor/essence
- Bit oil
The dried mushrooms is soaked in water for least half an hour, they should become soft. Personally I cut the stilk, since its hard and not easy to chew. The garlic is chopped in small pieces. You fry the mush and garlic in a pan and after 1-2 minutes you put in some water, just enough so the bottom of the mushrooms is in water. Since the mushrooms is dry just frying them wont give water in the pan. You keep fry them and put it small amounts of water if the pan is drying up, for 10-15 minutes. Put in some chicken essense to enhance the mushrooms flavor. Then you turn off the heat, wait until the mushrooms is a bit cooler, and then blend the mixture. This filling can go alone in ravioli, but also be mixed with cheese or ham like in recipe above.
One can also experiment with lot of other fillings, just keep in mind the ravioli will only be boiled for 3-4 minutes, so the filling should be forehand ready for this fast boiling, meaning putting raw vegetables in the filling wont make them soft before the ravioli pasta is boiled.
Ravioli might look like chinese dumplings, but when you eat them you know they are not.
Bon apetit!