Homemade Pasta Recipe: Fettuccine Alfredo

A little while ago I mentioned that my wife makes homemade pasta once in a while and I said that I would to do a post on the process the next time that she did. Well, she made pasta two nights ago so as promised, I'm going to share the recipe and directions with you here.

Homemade pasta is more work than store bought (obviously) but it's also much better. You can't even compare the two really. I don't think there is anything better than homemade pasta. It's kind of like fresh bread that way.

The recipe my wife wrote down says that it serves six people but if its being served as the main course and not a side dish than I would say that it actually serves two. We always eat the lot of it and never have any leftovers. In fact, we are both often looking for more and wondering where it all went. I don't know how they figure it could serve 6.

So with that being said, I'll just get to the recipe. I hope you enjoy.

Ingredients

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Pasta

• 2 cups (300g) of 00 Flour
• 5 egg yolks
• 3 egg white
• 7 tsp of EVOO
• Pinch of Salt

Alfredo Sauce

• 1 Cup Heavy Cream
• 1/2 Whole Milk
(or use more heavy cream if you want the sauce to be richer)

• 1/2 Cup Parmigiano Cheese (or more)
I just keep adding cheese until the sauce seems thick enough.

• 2 Cloves Minced Garlic (Optional)
• Salt to Taste

Directions for Pasta

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Measure out the flour.

Whisk the eggs and oil together.

Put the flour and salt in a pile on a counter and make a well in the center.

Pour the eggs into the center of the well.

Begin whisking the flour into the eggs to incorporate the flour.

Do this relatively slowly to avoid unnecessary clumping. The process takes some time, about 5-10 minutes or so.

Once it is all fully incorporated, bring everything together with your hands and begin kneeding the dough.

Kneed for around 7-10 minutes.

It starts out sticky but eventually becomes smooth and somewhat elastic. It should spring back when you poke it with a finger.

Wrap the dough in cling wrap and let it sit for approximately 30 minutes on the counter.

After its rested, cut the dough into sections that will roughly fit through your pasta roller and sprinkle it with flour.

Take a section of the dough, leaving the rest covered while you work, and roll it out into a long strip. Fold the bottom 1/3 up to the center and top 1/3 over that (like folding a letter to fit in an envelope). Rotate 90° and flatten it out again in the opposite direction and repeat the process.

I missed taking a photo of the folding process but here is the appliance that she uses for the next step.

Run the pasta through the roller a few times.

She rolls it down to level 5 out of 8 on her roller.

Refold the pasta again and run it through the roller for a second time. Do this multiple times actually, like 8 - 11 or so.

Basically, by flattening the pasta multiple times you are making it much more dense than if you only flattened it once. We've found that when you only flatten it once, or even just a few times, it tends to stick and clump together when you cook it and sort of ends up a mess when you go to eat it. So, the more you flatten it, the better.

After you are satisfied you can cut the pasta into strips or the pasta shape that you prefer.

We prefer the fettuccine setting but you can cut the pasta however you wish really.

Doing it by hand takes forever though. We did that once and then never again.

Sprinkle the cut past with some flour and set it on a drying rack for at least 30 minutes.

Repeat this procedure for all of the sections of dough. In total it generally takes my wife about 2 hours to make the pasta not including wait times.

Admittedly its quite a lot of work to make pasta at home but we personally think that it's worth it. But it also helps if you enjoy the process, I'm sure.

Cook the pasta in salted water. I do the cooking and have found it best to cook it on a very low boil.

Homemade pasta cooks very quickly, maybe 2 minutes or so. Its basically done soon after it floats to the surface. I cook it in small batches using a strainer that I leave in the water. It helps to remove the pasta quickly without damaging it. I usually put the pasta in a colander and pour a bit of olive oil over it as well, both for flavor and to reduce the chance of it sticking together.

Directions for Alfredo Sauce

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You want to make this before you actually cook the pasta, maybe while it is drying, so that you can serve it shortly after the pasta is cooked.

There aren't many directions for this simple Alfredo sauce and it doesn't take much time either. It's basically just putting the cream in a pot and heating it up to melt the cheese. Try not to boil it though because that can sometimes separate the cream. You can tweak it a bit by adding more cream to thin it out a little or more cheese to thicken it. You can also add more of each if the portion seems too low for two people.

I grate the cheese directly into the sauce until it is as thick as I want it to be. I generally have no idea how much I've added but I would guess anywhere from half a cup to one full cup, maybe even more?

Mince the garlic well so that it's not chunky in the sauce and add that early on to allow the flavor to steep into the liquid.

Add salt to your taste preferences and that's it. You can add Italian herbs as well if you want.

Serve and enjoy!

Well, thats it for now. Until next time, thanks for stopping by.