As you can tell, although I am a staunch British food fanatic and local food enthusiast, I also love Italian food… A lot of my recipes are influenced by Italy and some great Italian chefs, so as I am going to be making pasta in its various guises I thought it best if I have a page that I can reference.. So here it is, a standard pasta recipe (as standard as a recipe that involves 11 eggs!!) and a Wild Flavoured Pasta... The Wild Garlic Pasta is simply the best.
Wild Flavoured Pasta Recipes
Ingredients:
250g of Strong Flour
250g of Semolina Flour (if you haven’t got it just use more strong flour)
3 large eggs
8 egg yolks
(please, please, please use the best free range eggs that you can find!)
You’ll also need a pasta machine or rolling pin.
Visit our shop for the very best selection of Wild Food Cookbooks.
I love making pasta, it is amazing what a few simple (but high quality) ingredients can produce.
First of all make sure that your work top is clean and then pile the flour in front of you creating a hole in the middle of the flour with your fingers. Pour the eggs into the hole and using your fingers start to stir the eggs into the flour gradually bringing a little flour in each time. Continue to stir and work the pasta until the eggs and flour are combined and you can work the mixture with your hands. Knead the dough with your hands until the dough becomes elastic and smooth to the eye (about 5 mins). Then wrap it in cling film and place it in the fridge for an hour. That’s it!! Pasta made, it really is that simple!
Although it’s made now we have to do something with it. Once the pasta has rested (in the fridge), cut it into manageable pieces, probably quarter the dough. Now fasten your pasta machine to the worktop and dust the rollers with flour. Take a quarter of the dough and place it in the pasta machine at the widest setting. Turn the handle and work the pasta through the machine. The pasta is ejected from the rear of the rollers and it comes out as a thick, long piece of dough. Fold the pasta on itself and put through the machine again. Continue to put the pasta through the machine at ever decreasing thicknesses, stop when your pasta is 1 - 2mm thick. Once you have got the pasta to this thickness store in between a damp clean tea towel until ready to use.
To make a wild flavoured version of pasta similar to Lasagne Verde or the other Spinach infused pasta’s. Take a handful of wild green leaves; Wild Garlic, Alexanders, Stinging Nettle or Jack by the Hedge would be great. Cook the green accordingly then drain of all the water (the greens must be squeezed so that all of the liquid is removed). Chop the greens finely until a paste is created and add to the pasta at the stage when the eggs are being added.
One tip – With pasta, practice makes perfect!
Basic and Wild Pasta Recipe sorted, now we can make all kinds of great meals!
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