Vol. XXVI · Doughs of the World Plate 6 of 10fresh pasta, egg pasta, pasta fresca, tagliatelle, ravioli, lasagne, tipo 00, semolina, durum, rolling, pasta machine, hydration, cooking time, dried pastaTM

Fresh Pasta.

One egg to every hundred grams of flour: the oldest ratio in Italian cooking, and the egg is the only liquid.

The classic egg pasta of Emilia-Romagna is soft wheat flour (tipo 00) and whole eggs, about one 55 g egg per 100 g of flour. An egg is three-quarters water, so the dough's hydration is only about 40 %, far drier than bread (XXIV.3): it starts as shaggy crumbs and needs ten minutes of firm kneading to become smooth and silky. The egg's fat and lecithin tenderise; its proteins coagulate in the boiling water and make cooked fresh pasta firm without much gluten. Southern Italian pasta uses durum semolina and water instead — no egg — for orecchiette, cavatelli and the dried pasta industry.

Rest the dough, wrapped, 30 minutes so the gluten relaxes and the water evens out (XXIV.4); then roll it by hand with a long pin or through a pasta machine, narrowing the rollers step by step, to about 1 mm for tagliatelle and 0.6–0.8 mm for filled shapes, which double up at the edges. Thickness sets cooking time: fresh pasta is already hydrated and needs only to heat through and set, so it cooks in one to three minutes, while dried pasta must also absorb water and takes eight to twelve. The workshop rolls a sheet.

Below: the minutes to cook a fresh egg-pasta sheet of the thickness you choose in boiling water (teaching square law, 2.5 minutes for 1 mm), and the dough's hydration and feel for the egg you add per 100 g of flour (egg 75 % water).

What you will learn
Workshop
Cooking time (teaching): 2.5 minutes × (thickness in mm)², the square law of II.2 calibrated to common practice for 1 mm fresh tagliatelle. Hydration: egg mass × 0.75 ÷ flour, egg composition 75 % water (USDA). Feel by hydration (teaching): under 35 % crumbly, 37–45 % firm and workable, above 48 % sticky.

One egg, one hundred grams, roll thin

One 55 g egg per 100 g of flour gives a hydration of about 41 %, the firm, silky dough Italian cooks knead by hand. By the teaching square law a 0.6 mm sheet cooks in about 0.9 minutes, a 1 mm sheet in 2.5 and a 2 mm one in 10 — so taste early, and drain fresh pasta while it is still a little firm, because it keeps cooking in the sauce.

Method for 4: make a well in 400 g tipo 00 flour, crack in 4 eggs, beat them with a fork, drawing in flour gradually; knead 10 minutes until smooth and springy; wrap and rest 30 minutes. Roll a quarter at a time through a pasta machine from the widest setting, folding it in thirds and passing it twice at the start, then narrowing one setting at a time to about 1 mm. Dust with semolina, cut into ribbons, toss and nest. Boil in plenty of salted water (about 1 % salt) for 1–3 minutes, keep a cup of the starchy water (XXI.6), and finish in the sauce. Fresh pasta keeps a day in the fridge or can be frozen in nests and cooked from frozen.

At the stove

Roll a strip of pasta at 0.6 mm and another at 2 mm, cook them together and take a piece of each out every 30 seconds. Which is done first, and by how much?

Egg pasta is the pasta of the north, durum-and-water pasta of the south; Bologna claims tagliatelle and in 1972 the city's chamber of commerce deposited a golden ribbon defining its width when cooked: 8 mm, said to be 1/12 270 of the Asinelli tower's height.

Terms

Tipo 00
Finely milled Italian soft-wheat flour.
Durum semolina
Coarse hard-wheat meal for eggless and dried pasta.
Sfoglia
A sheet of rolled egg pasta.
Al dente
Cooked through but still firm to the bite.
Egg pasta: one egg per 100 g flour (about 40 % hydration), kneaded smooth, rested, rolled to about 1 mm. Fresh pasta cooks in 1–3 minutes, time growing with thickness squared; dried takes 8–12.

Sources

  1. A teaching value chosen for the course: the right order of magnitude and shape, not a measurement of a particular food.
  2. USDA FoodData Central, SR Legacy (April 2018), public domain.