Homemade Pasta and Pesto

Last year I was asked by the lovely people at Wayfair if I’d like to put a recipe post together for their readers and as we love eating in our house I just couldn’t say no! 

They offered me some money to grab some bits that we might need to make the dish, and after a long chat with the chef in the house, Jim, he chose a new pasta machine and I picked some bits to go with it – some stunning pasta dishes and a huge pepper mill like you get in Italian restaurants! 
We go through phases of eating a lot of homemade pasta in our house – some of the recipes are crazily complicated and I worry we may never get to eat, but most of them are quick and simple and super tasty like the pasta and pesto recipe that we chose to make for Wayfair.  
Everyone looks at me like I’m crazy when I say that Jim makes 90% of our pasta from scratch, I think they assume that it’s hard or really time consuming to do, but whilst it might not be something you can use if you’re planning to whip up your whole meal in 15 minutes, it’s certainly not as difficult as people think and graces our table on a regular basis
pesto

Pesto Ingredients:

30g pine nuts1 clove garlic, grated1 bunch basil leaves20g parmesan cheeseExtra virgin olive oil

Method:

Toast the pine nuts in a dry pan.Allow the pine nuts to cool and put in food processor with the basil and garlic.Add a small amount of oil and blend until well mixed.Add the parmesan and process for 2 seconds.Add oil until desired consistency and season well.

Ingredients For The Pasta:

100g ’00’ flour1 large eggTablespoon olive oil

Method:

1. Mound the flour on flat surface, or in a bowl to contain the mess, and make a well in the centre, deep enough to hold the egg.
2. Crack the egg into well and add olive oil and season.
3. Slowly mix the egg with a fork, the flour will slowly start to be incorporated.

making fresh pasta

making pasta

4. Once all egg has been mixed in, use your hands and knead with the heel of your hand (in a similar way to bread).

5. After about 5 minutes the dough should be warm and elastic but should not stick toyour hands.

6. Wrap the dough in cling film and refrigerate for half an hour.

7. Once refrigerated, divide into three pieces and flatten into a disc shape.

8. Set up your pasta machine according to the instructions.

9. Starting at the widest setting on the pasta machine, and dusting with flour regularly, roll the pasta out, passing through the machine twice per level.

Take care to allow the pasta to form a sheet that fits in the machine. Move to the second or third thinnest setting, but be careful to not roll it too thin – If you go too far, the pasta may clog the tagliatelle machine later.

10. Hang on pasta dryer to dry slightly, ours is a homemade contraption of skewer pushed though a cork!

11. After about fifteen minutes pass through tagliatelle machine, or slice into about 8mm slices and put back on pasta dryer.

drying fresh pasta

pasta dish

To Cook

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil and cook pasta for 3 minutes.

2. Drain well and put back in the pot.

3. Toss in about half of the pesto and serve in a warm pasta dish. Pasta has a tendency to get cold quickly in a cold dish so we always warm it first.

4. Top with a dollop of pesto, more parmesan and grind some fresh pepper over the dish, preferably with a large pepper mill so you can pretend you’re in a real Italian restaurant.

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