How to be a pasta pro
Learn how to make great pasta at home from the staff at Bottega Americano in San Diego’s East Village.
This past Mother’s Day, I took my mom to a restaurant I’d been telling her about for a while — Bottega Americano in San Diego’s East Village. It’s not a part of town she goes to, the food is great, the space big and airy, and I thought it would be a kick to get her out of her neighborhood. We placed our order, but then chef Jeremy Oursland saw me and sent over a couple of dishes, including his Fava Bean Fettuccini — ribbons of lovely yellow pasta encased in a light lemon crema, dotted with fava beans, pea tendrils and green garlic with a touch of pecorino. We swooned at this homage to spring.
Now, I’ve become a little obsessed with pasta recently, especially now that it’s summer and I can make simple dishes based on what’s in season — tomatoes, zucchini, sugar snap peas — and not have to deal with heat beyond a pot of boiling water.
I don’t eat a lot of pasta, so when I do indulge, it has to be sublime. Most of the time I’m perfectly happy with a good dry whole-wheat pasta — one of my favorites being DeLallo’s biodynamic line. But when there’s the opportunity to enjoy fresh, handmade pasta at a restaurant with a chef who knows what he or she is doing, I just wouldn’t pass that up.
Of course, there’s one other option — to make it myself. And I have. It’s one of those things that seem intimidating until you try it. Then it makes sense. After all, we’re talking three or four ingredients at the most and using our hands like an artisan to create potential magic.
Today, there’s no excuse not to make your own pasta, especially since we have access to high-quality ingredients. Instead of your basic all-purpose flour, you can use 00 flour, also called doppio zero flour, which is a soft wheat flour with low protein content. The 00 refers to the grind of the flour, so you can imagine how fine this is. Not only is it perfect for making pasta, but also pizza, flatbreads and crackers. You can find it around town or online.
The second key ingredient in pasta making is semolina flour. If you’re familiar with semolina, you know how coarse it can be. Why add semolina, then? While 00 flour will create a smooth texture, you want your sauce to cling to your pasta. Semolina’s rough texture achieves that.
Finally, we get to eggs. Now eggs, especially the yolks, are the reason you wind up with a gorgeous golden dough. The eggs add to flavor and to silkiness.
Like I said, I’m no stranger to pasta making, but I decided I needed to up my game. Oursland invited me to his kitchen so he and his pasta chef, Karen Martinez, could show me how the pros do it.
We started by making the dough. Martinez combined the flours on a long, wooden board, then made a well into which she started breaking eggs. You pull in the flour to gradually incorporate the eggs, adding a little water if it gets dry. Once the ingredients are mixed, it’s time to knead. Do it like you knead bread and form a smooth ball that’s firm but with some give. That’s it. Wrap it in plastic to prevent drying and let it rest at least a few hours or overnight in the fridge.
Now it gets interesting. It’s easier to make pasta if you have a Kitchen Aid stand mixer with a pasta attachment but there are also stand-alone pasta machines that are perfectly fine. Martinez cut the ball into slices about an inch thick to make it easier to put through the machine, which she ran at a speed of 4. She sprinkled each slice with semolina to keep them from sticking and ran it through the No. 1 setting on the attachment. You keep adding slices, the pasta sheets get longer. You run them through progressively higher numeric settings to get thinner sheets, ultimately finishing with No. 6. Then you’ll cut the sheets into 12-inch segments, Oursland explained, at which point you can run them through the attachment’s fettuccini cutter, you can fold them and cut them by hand, or you can make ravioli.
Once you get the hang of it, you can then have fun with flavors. Martinez explained that you can take out an ounce of egg yolk and substitute it with an ounce of cooked spinach, roasted bell peppers, squid ink or herbs.
We kept it simple, with the pasta dish from the menu since fava beans were still available. Over the summer, substitute the beans with sweated corn, summer beans or diced squash.
Now, if you’re going to serve pasta, you need something just as fresh to accompany it, like a seasonal salad. For summertime, nothing beats stone fruit, so Oursland showed me how to make his stone fruit salad with ripe nectarines and a variety of greens. This salad has everything — sweetness from the fruit, herbaceousness from the greens, creaminess from the goat cheese, and crunchy saltiness from roasted hazelnuts.
All these dishes have what Oursland described as interactive things to do with friends and kids. “Making pasta is fun,” he said. “It gets conversations going. It’s a way you can impress each other. Yes, it’s something of a challenge. But it’s a challenge you can tackle with practice.”
Golden is a San Diego freelance food writer and blogger.
Basic Pasta Recipe
Yields 2 pounds of dough, or 6 to 8 portions
2 cups “00” pasta flour
1 cup semolina
2 whole eggs
13 egg yolks
½ teaspoon salt
2 ounces of water and some extra “00” on the side, in case it’s needed to reach desired consistency
Start with mixing the flour and semolina in a bowl. Dump it on a smooth counter or cutting board (avoid surfaces that are porous or have grout). Make a neat pile about 6 inches wide with dry ingredients.
Make a hole in the middle similar to a volcano and place the two (beaten?) eggs in it. Slowly fold in the flour from the outside in with your hands and begin to incorporate the eggs. Once mostly incorporated, add half of the yolks and continue the process.
Repeat with remaining egg yolks. At this point, you will begin to form a dough, and you can use a kneading technique similar to kneading bread. Be careful to not overwork the dough. Add a bit of water and flour if necessary to form a ball. Make sure to add a little flour to the work surface to avoid the dough sticking. The dough should be slightly soft to the touch and not too dense. It’s OK if you can still feel the texture of the semolina on the outside of the pasta dough ball.
Wrap dough tightly and thoroughly with plastic wrap, making sure it is sealed tight to prevent dryness. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight.
Rolling the sheets and cutting:
Remove dough from refrigerator 20 minutes before beginning the next process. Have a cup or so of “00” flour on hand to aide rolling process. Clear enough space on the counter to place long sheets of pasta.
Cut dough into 4 equal pieces for easier sheeting. Attach the pasta sheet roller to the Kitchen Aid stand mixer. When running dough through roller use speed No. 4 on the mixer. After trial and error, if you desire to work faster or slower you can. Remember to sprinkle a little of the “00” flour to your pasta dough/sheets as you work to prevent the dough from sticking to the roller and work surface.
Roll one piece of dough through the roller on setting No. 1. Fold the dough on top of itself close to the width of the roller. You will now put it through again with the seam facing the roller. This process will help the dough achieve a better elasticity and avoid crumbling.
Repeat this step one more time, again switching directions of dough, for a total of 3 runs through setting No. 1. Turn the mixer off and switch the roller to setting No. 2. (Make sure to turn mixer off when changing settings.) Run the dough through twice on setting No. 2. Switch to setting No. 3 and run the dough through one time. Then switch the setting to No. 4 and run the dough one time as well.
You are now ready to switch to setting No. 6, which will be the desired thickness for your pasta sheets. Run the dough through one time and you will have a long pasta sheet. It will take a little time for you to get the feel and technique of handling the pasta sheets as they go in and come out of the machine. (The chefs suggest watching some videos of pasta making to get an idea of how it is done.)
Now cut the sheets into 12-inch segments. Place in a stack on top of one another with a layer of flour in between. Now we are ready to cut the pasta.
Remove the pasta sheet roller attachment and replace it with the fettuccini cutter. Run each sheet through the cutter individually to make your fettuccini noodles. Make sure to catch them lightly with your hand as they come out. Be sure to dust your fettuccini with semolina to avoid sticking. In this recipe, two 12-inch sheets will be one portion of pasta.
Note: The more time you spend experimenting and working with the dough, rolling and cutting with the mixer, you will find what works best for you and learn technique and feel along the way.
Fettuccini With Summer Vegetables, San Danielle Prosciutto and Parmesan Panna
Making the sauce for this dish and the cook time of pasta are exactly the same, approximately 3 minutes.
Makes 1 serving
4 ounces of fresh yellow corn
1 portion fettuccini
6 ounces Parmesan panna (recipe follows)
4 ounces sugar snap peas, cleaned, cut in half at an angle
1 ounce grated Parmesan, ½ to add to dish during cooking, ½ as garnish
1 cup arugula
1 ounce San Danielle Prosciutto, sliced thin in ½-inch strips
Fill a large pot with water and bring to the boil.
While the water is coming to the boil, sweat the corn to bring out its sweetness by sautéing it in a little canola oil over medium heat for about 4 minutes. Season lightly with kosher salt and set aside.
When the water is boiling, add salt, then drop fettuccini in a pasta cooking basket and place in the boiling water.
Put Parmesan panna in sauté pan and turn heat to med-high.
After 1 minute of the sauce reducing, add corn, sugar snap peas and half of Parmesan cheese.
Reduce heat to medium and allow sauce to reduce until pasta is done and begins to float. Add the pasta to sauce and make sure noodles are evenly coated. Add arugula and prosciutto.
Season to taste with salt. Plate and finish with remaining Parmesan.
Note: This sauce is cream based but should be reduced enough so all of the cream is absorbed into the pasta and veggies. It is meant to be light and summery with rich flavor, so if you have cream standing on plate underneath your noodles, you have not reduced enough.
Parmesan Panna
Makes 4 portions
1 quart heavy cream
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon lemon zest
Salt to taste
Place cream in a sauce pan over medium heat and reduce by about 40 percent, until it has a nice, thick consistency.
Whisk in Parmesan cheese while cream is hot, then stir in lemon zest.
Let cool at room temp. Strain before using.
Three-Cheese and Herb Ravioli
Chef Jeremy Oursland says he likes this recipe because it is easy to execute and versatile. You can make it at home without a food processor, although he prefers to use one. And, he says, you can easily add to it without too much work. For instance, sautéed spinach, fresh peas or sweated corn can simply be folded in. The filling goes well with all kinds of seasonal vegetables. You can top the ravioli with a red sauce or meat ragu — something as easy as ground beef or turkey with a simple tomato and garlic sauce.
Makes 26 to 28 ravioli
1½ cups ricotta cheese
½ cup goat cheese
1 egg, whipped
¼ cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
2 teaspoon basil, finely chopped
2 teaspoon chives, finely chopped
1 teaspoon lemon zest
2 teaspoons salt
1 batch of pasta dough
Note: Since it’s summer, Oursland suggests folding in 1 cup fresh corn, sweated, and one more egg for a seasonal filled ravioli.
Pull the ricotta and goat cheese out of the refrigerator for 30 minutes before starting. This will help the mixing process and give you a smoother end result.
Using either a large mixing bowl and wire whisk or a stand mixer, place ricotta, goat cheese and whipped egg in a bowl and mix until as smooth as possible.
Gently fold in Parmesan, herbs, lemon zest and salt with a plastic spatula. Place in the refrigerator while you roll out the pasta.
Make the pasta dough, following the instructions for rolling out the dough until you reach the directions for cutting it into fettucini. Instead, cut your sheets into 15-inch segments.
Place the cheese filling in a piping bag (preferably) or use a spoon to put 6, 1-ounce portions of filling on to your bottom sheet of dough. It will be 3 on top and 3 on bottom in rows to make 6 ravioli per sheet.
Using a spray bottle filled with water, lightly spray the bottom sheet of dough to form a seal when the top sheet is laid over. Start the seal at the left side and slowly lay the top sheet over moving to the right. Be gentle while doing this and make sure that the dough lays flat with no bubbles in between layers. Make sure not to smash the filling in the process.
Use a 2-inch plastic or metal ring mold to gently press around the filling to set it in place after the top sheet has been placed on top. Then, using a hand-held ravioli cutter and ruler, cut the ravioli 2.5 inches by 2.5 inches — basically 2 inches of filled pasta with ½ inch of edge.
Sprinkle a baking sheet with a layer of semolina and place finished ravioli on the baking sheet. Cover with a kitchen towel that does not shed and place in freezer. This will help the ravioli set up and maintain integrity for a longer period of time.
Fill a large pot with water and bring to a boil. Salt the water and add the ravioli. Cook for 3 minutes or until the ravioli float to the top. Drain and serve with the sauce of your choice or simply high-quality extra virgin olive oil and grated Parmesan cheese.
Stone Fruit Salad
The great thing about stone fruit season is that there are so many varieties. When selecting, check for bruising and make sure you choose the ripest and freshest. You can never go wrong with peaches, plums, nectarines, cherries and apricots. There are so many varieties and flavor profiles that the possibilities are endless!
Makes 1 serving
1 cup arugula
1 cup mixed greens
½ cup frisée
½ cup finely shaved fennel
½ cup stone fruit (2 varieties), finely diced
Kosher salt to taste
1½ ounces Lemon Vinaigrette (recipe follows) or simply toss with fresh lemon juice and good olive oil
1 ounce Humboldt Fog goat cheese or use regular goat cheese
1 ounce salted, roasted hazelnuts
8 thin slices of stone fruit (2 varieties)
Toss all greens, fennel and diced stone fruits in a mixing bowl with lemon vinaigrette. Season lightly with kosher salt before tossing. Make sure to be gentle with this process to not bruise fruit or greens.
Place on plate and top with cheese and nuts. Gently place sliced stone fruits on top and serve.
Lemon Vinaigrette
Makes 3 cups (use leftover dressing for salads, grilled chicken or vegetables, on top of rice or quinoa, etc.)
½ cup lemon juice
½ cup rice wine vinegar
2 tablespoons honey
1 clove garlic
1 small shallot, roughly chopped
1½ cups canola salad oil
Kosher salt to taste
Put lemon juice, vinegar, honey, garlic and shallot into a blender.
Blend on high until all is incorporated smoothly.
Reduce speed to medium and slowly emulsify canola oil into mixture. Finish with kosher salt to taste.
Recipes from chef Jeremy Oursland of Bottega Americano.
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