Sourdough Pasta
This recipe is for homemade fermented pasta with a 50:50 mix of wholegrain durum wheat and all purpose flour. I give baker's percentages and grams so you can scale up and down, but varying from my quantities is fine. You may like a saltier pasta or prefer fewer eggs and more water. The key is to have a low hydration dough that is still pliable.
Ingredients
- 215 grams all purpose flour 50%
- 215 grams whole grain durum wheat flour 50%
- 4 eggs (approx 200 grams) 47%
- 65 grams sourdough starter 15%
- 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil (14 grams) 3.3%
- 1/2 tsp salt (3 grams) 0.7%
- 0-2 Tbsp water (as needed, I used 1 Tbsp)
Instructions
Making the Dough
- Plan to mix your dough the morning of your pasta dinner or the night before.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer or food processor, combine all of the ingredients except the water. (The sourdough starter does not have to be at peak.) Use the paddle attachment for your stand mixer / the metal blade for your food processor.
- Mix until all the ingredients are combined, about a minute, adding water 1 tablespoon at a time, until there are no powdery-dry areas.
- Mash the dough together with your hands and transfer it to a clean countertop. Knead 2-3 minutes. The dough should be stiff. Add flour if it is sticky and water if it breaks apart with dryness.
- Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl or pyrex container. Press it into the container, cover, and note the level of the dough to watch the fermentation growth.
- Leave the dough at room temperature for the day if you made it in the morning. If you prepped it in the evening, leave it out at room temperature as long as you can to get fermentation going, then refrigerate it while you sleep. Pull the dough out of the refrigerator in the morning. Aim for 40-90% growth, and if the dough starts to edge toward the high end of that range, refrigerate it until 30 minutes before you plan to use it.
Making Your Sauce
- I make the Classic Marinara recipe from the New York Times just before starting to roll out the pasta and boil the water. It involves chopping garlic and sauteing it with olive oil, oregano, salt, and red pepper flakes. Then I add a 28-ounce can of whole San Marzano tomatoes that I have immersion-blended (in the can). I let this all simmer while I roll and cut the pasta dough.
Preparing the Pasta
- Fill a large pot 3/4 full with water and add a bit of salt. Cover and set it to boil.
- Prepare your pasta rolling machine. Flour a large baking sheet or set up a pasta drying rack.
- Remove the dough from the container and de-gas it. Cut it into pieces the size of a deck of cards and cover them. Begin rolling one piece through your pasta rolling machine. I usually only make one pass through each number and I stop at "5." The pasta in this recipe photo was only rolled to "4." Cut the sheet in half if it becomes too long and unwieldy.
- Cutting by hand: Flour a pasta sheet on both sides, roll it into a tube, and cut it into smaller strips (fettuccini width or your preference). Place your coils on the floured cookie sheet.Cutting with the machine: Attach the fettuccini/spaghetti cutter part and run the sheet through it, then place the cut pasta on a floured baking sheet or a pasta drying rack.
- Repeat this until all of the pasta dough is rolled and cut. This amount of dough usually takes me 30-40 minutes.
- I boil this amount of pasta (about 6 servings) in 2-3 rounds to avoid overcrowding, but I use the same water. You might be able to fit more with a bigger pan, but the boiling time is quite short with fresh pasta, so I don't mind breaking it into several batches.
- Depending on how thin you rolled your pasta sheets and how al dente you prefer your pasta, boil the pasta for 1-4 minutes. Scoop it out into a bowl with a claw spoon or tongs, and drain the excess water. Plate immediately or toss with a little olive oil.
- Bring the water back up to a boil 1-2 minutes, and repeat until all the pasta is cooked. If you don't want to cook it all, pop the entire baking sheet in the freezer overnight and then bag the pasta in the morning.