Martha Stewart Teaches You How to Make Pasta from Scratch _ Martha's Cooking School S2E5 'Pasta'

And shaping pasta is an art form .

Look at all these amazing shapes .

There are so many past abilities .

But first , I want you to see a master's hands forming and shaping pasta .

Making fresh pasta is a very quick and simple process .

All you need are four basic ingredients , flour , eggs , olive oil and salt .

And for the best results , these ingredients must be of the finest quality .

Now , I have Michael White here who is pasta king and uh he is going to show us how to make with a double zero flour , 00 flour and some very beautiful fresh eggs , the basic pasta .

So you've created a little volcano volcano a little .

Well , you know , this is obviously a process that's uh can be quite messy , but that's fun to get the kids together and everybody make a , make a little volcano for everyone .

A well , in other words , a little bit of salt and uh just maybe I , I won't measure but just uh less than a tablespoon , less than a table .

Yes , exactly .

And what does the oil do in the past ?

You know , it gives a little shimmer to it and it gives it a little elasticity .

Sometimes the eggs are different sizes .

These eggs happen to be , I would say a medium man .

And so for 100 g of flour , one egg .

So it's kind of between a medium and a large .

So my hens lay these just for you just for me .

Well , listen , they're fantastic and , and there's so many different varieties and you can see that they have a fantastic diet because they're nice and bright .

You know , I'm talking to a man who has how many restaurants serving pasta , 88 restaurants serving pasta and he could buy dry pasta and serve that to everyone .

But you do make almost every single , every we , we do not use any dry pasta whatsoever .

That's as they say in New York , that's my shick .

It is , and it is a delicious .

And so you can see how I'm bringing this together and , and I'm doing it kind of really gently , gently in the sense that we , we want to just see it come together and , and the crumb starts to .

So , so the gluten is starting to starting to relax and you can see it becomes a messy process .

But this all will in about 5 to 10 minutes will completely dry up .

Now , double zero flour is , is , is like a , a right .

Exactly .

Some people get confused about the fact that they'll say , oh , it's a low protein flour .

It has nothing to do with the protein content in the flour .

It has to do with how fine it is and it gives you that very supple quality , which is when you put a great sauce with it , it's quite uh so should I make a um a food processor pasta ?

I would love to see it .

OK .

So sometimes when you're really rushed , you could do a food processor version of the same thing .

And it's again , two cups of flour right into the processor and your pinch of salt and you can actually break the eggs right down the neck of the food processor .

So , uh , we're going to put three eggs the same as yours since this is your recipe and start pulsing a little bit in his time .

Yeah .

And I don't overwork it because that would be the death knell of this pasta is to overwork it .

That's the same with pizza day as well .

Yeah .

Right .

Oh , wow .

I'm learning all this .

See , it looks good and just sandy and , and your little tiny bit of oil perfect .

And that's it .

So , in the number of seconds that took , um , compare to what I'm doing here .

Yeah .

But see , now we start eating that .

It's sticking together nicely .

Yeah .

And if it needs a little bit more flour , you can just add the bench flower as you said , dump it out and it's nice , don't you think ?

I think it saves you five minutes , I think .

And our busy lives five minutes is like , it's like hours and I have to tell you it's not as messy as what I was doing that .

No , it's not .

But don't overwork it .

And I think that that's really the key .

And was that the metal blade or the , the metal metal ?

Ok .

Because I think really , uh , it's with the key with anything , whether we're working it by hand or a machine , it's really less is more , well , it's the same .

I mean , pie crust .

I timed us .

It was about 13 minutes to make a pie crust by hand by hand .

And then it was about um it was about 90 seconds for a little bit of ice water and it comes together .

So this is very , very nice already .

OK .

But see , this is gonna take less time .

She is starting to smooth out .

My grandmother made all our own noodles with a great big dowel long before the food processor .

So it's nice .

OK .

So yes , we should .

So here we have your dough , which is so beautiful .

And again , we have , you can have this hand craning roller .

I'll do some on this and you can , you can show how fast you do it on that .

Do you use regular flour or do you use selina flour when we're rolling ?

Especially with ravioli .

We don't want to put uh anything but the product that we're using with , with the uh with the dough .

So this is all double zero So we will do the same .

And I do , you fold it over once or twice , once or twice just to get a little uh , rigidity texture .

And then , uh I've been making pasta for so long .

I have pictures of me years and years ago in my kitchen using this hand ranker before that machine out .

So , to what thinness do we want for ?

Um , your ravioli , I , I would say probably about six .

Ok .

Sometimes when you're , when you're rolling pasta , uh the fact that it's , it , it has elasticity to it , it bounces back and so you might do it too on the same number and you'll have a thinner .

Sometimes people jump right to the lower number .

Oh , no , I do it a couple times .

You do it a couple times because it , it really helps it .

Uh not to um see it's coming out nicely .

It's a beautiful color .

Uh Do you dry your pasta at all ?

You know , if we're gonna cut it a long pasta , you want to let it air dry a bit to get uh a dry surface .

So it cuts sharply .

I'm not , not super dry though because if you let it dry too much , it will snap when you , when you cut it just , the outer surface has to be a bit uh a bit dry .

What you're really doing is pressing your toe pressing rather than , you know , you're rolling and pressing at the same time with a lot of pressure that you possibly do with your , with your hands .

And , and the reason why you want it thin is because there's so many closures to it .

Uh a pasta that's , that has uh one length , but when you fold something together , then you have two layers .

And so therefore , it has to be a very tender flour to , to compensate for that thickness .

And so now we're going to take our beautiful sheets of translucent pasta and create ravioli .

There are many different types of filled pasta , tortelli , tortellini cap , endless , endless , endless .

Can you name a few more ?

They're just , it sounds like in fog in these pastas can be filled with ricotta cheese with um meat , meat mixtures , vegetables .

Uh but Michael has a favorite .

Uh and I , I love this one made with Roo cheese and Parmesan is a cow and milk cheese that comes from Italy uh pied to be exact .

It almost has the texture of cream cheese .

Yeah , very tasty cheese and it's addictive .

Uh So six packages of Rovio um and some a half a cup of grated Parmesan and all of this parsley uh just really up to you and and this is what we would call the filling uh parsley .

Yeah .

And well , uh may I add an egg of an egg ?

And the reason for adding an egg is the fact that when it cooks it will solidify .

And therefore the rubio being a very high butterfat cheese would just liquefy inside the ravioli .

A little bit of salt and pepper .

Absolutely fine .

Sure .

A little grating of nutmeg , uh , which is ubiquitous and , and , uh , ravioli in the north of Italy .

So this looks very good , perfect color .

Very nice .

We're going to make the first , uh , set of ravioli .

We've taken this filling , we put it inside here inside a bag .

Ok .

You could , you could do dollops to the spoon or if you had a pastry .

So you're spraying the past because it got a little dry .

It got a little dry and this will help close it .

Oh , good .

Yeah .

Make it a little .

Exactly .

I , I feel sometimes people , they want to add egg wash or these , that's really not necessary .

So , you're gonna fold this over here .

I'm gonna go forward where we could do this and this is a quick way to do it at home .

But you could also cut a strip and lay it on top of that becomes a little bit more and we'll , we'll go forward and then we'll go in between these .

Ok .

Oh , so you're making smallish .

We're making small , little ravioli and this would be beautiful for a soup or any kind of summer type , um , sauce .

And then we could , um , and do you always use the , um , zigzag ?

We , what we do is that the , the front part of it should be zigzag .

It really adds kind of that edge that I know for sure that it's closed because I don't have another piece of pasta over the top of it .

I didn't go around in circles and then we can do a couple of different things .

Number one , you can make them like this .

I love that .

I have never done that .

And then you can just do straight like this .

Ok .

And so done ravioli and you have little , little ravioli .

But the other thing we could do pillows is if you're doing a little sauce , let , let's say this would be fabulous with butter and sage or a little bit of melted butter .

But what we could do is we could fold this forward like that and then this is called an anti .

And what this does , that's perfect .

We have a little pocket and the sauce goes inside here like this .

So you just keep going like that and we can go forward , I'll show you another way of doing that as well .

And this is a traditional and that's very nice .

I like this and , and this is what we call la la or the lip and this picks up sauce .

So I would like to make a ravioli for you and ravioli olo mean large .

And so what we'll do is we'll go just like this .

Mm .

That much .

OK .

And what we're gonna do is we're gonna make an area .

Can I put a yolk ?

Just the , just the yolk ?

So there's no inside uh this is very interesting .

It's a very like a little spot on the bottom , so it has something to rest on .

Ok , perfect .

And we'll take a look a little bit of salt , a little bit of salt .

Ok .

A little bit of pepper .

Perfect , please .

Ok .

Now we'll do the spray again .

Perfect .

Ok .

And then we'll go over the top and then what we do is we use this again going like this and it makes a nice round but look how beautiful .

And then this is pasta making at its best like this .

And this is a fabulous brunch item and you just go just like that .

And this takes about four minutes in the water .

And I would recommend sauteing some asparagus spears , maybe a little tomato con melted butter basil and you just strew that over the top of it .

And when you boil it and you crack it , the liquid egg yolk comes out ravioli with ravioli and egg .

How great .

So now there are three other filled pastas that Michael white is gonna show us how to form uh using this beautiful eggy pasta dough , double zero , double zero pasta dough .

The reason why we're using double zero is the fact that that we're doing many , many folds here .

As you can see , we start with the , with the triangle which we'll make now , but it has four thicknesses here .

So it has to be a very , very tender flour .

OK ?

So we'll start by making Tortelli , which are about three inches wide .

Now , do you ever use a ruler ?

This is , uh , after 23 years of , uh , so if you're a beginner , you could use a ruler as a straight edge too and you don't , uh , it , it's , it's , it will save you time .

We wanna straighten these up .

And so what we'll do is we'll put down a nice portion of this and for an entree , this is probably 10 , 10 , 12 pieces , maybe more .

And what we'll do is we'll give him a quick spray .

Pardon ?

Reach ?

And then we're just gonna go up .

So spraying is so much faster than brush , brush .

So equal right at the right to the top , right to the top and then we'll get all that air out .

So this is what we start with .

Ok .

Ok .

I'm gonna show you two different types of tortelli .

This is the more rustic way where you just do a closure such as this and then we lay them flat .

These are a little bit bigger .

So that's nice .

Just flat .

That's a very classic way .

That's kind of .

And at the restaurant we do one more little pinch .

So what we do is the same as this .

But then if I hold it like this , I'm going to pinch it like that .

Oh I like that just like that .

Perfect .

And then , and then I'm going to go right around my finger .

Oh , yes .

That's very nice .

It's like a little of a pope .

Exactly .

And this is the pope's hat .

The little means cake .

So this is like a little cake .

Very nice .

We're gonna make these .

Now we're gonna make what these are called , Elachi Capaci filled with meat with meat .

Uh Capaci can also be filled with uh Z or squash .

And we put a little bit of pepper and chino inside and uh spiciness .

But what we'll do is we'll make some squares , any scraps like that .

Don't throw it away .

Chicken soup , chicken soup , just chicken soup .

And so what I would do is I would leave these out , let them air dry a bit and then just put them into a closed container and right into the , into the freezer and use them whenever you're ready for a quick pasta or , you know , added a little bit of starch to uh or if you're home alone .

Oh , exactly .

And want some pasta .

You have it made all the scraps .

What a delicious thing .

So , what we've done is made squares again , what a simpler solution to the brushing .

OK .

So this is what kind of meat .

So this is uh this is a filling that has a bit of parmigiano and uh Mortadella , all different types of meats .

And so what we'll do is we'll go forward just like we did , we'll close it just like them .

So then what we do is we go under .

So you make a little , a little indentation like a pillow .

Exactly .

And then you walk it forward like this like that like that , you know , just like that .

Then we walk forward and like this and it's like a little cup , a little hat , a baby pot , baby po pat .

And now we're gonna make these little teeny .

Oh , here we go .

What are they called ?

These are called to .

Ok .

And these are the pasta namesake of uh Bologna .

OK .

So you want very thin pasta but very small squares , small squares are these filled with meat or cheese .

We do cheese , we do cheese this time , but traditionally is a , is a mixture of mortadella and prosciutto , copious amounts of parmigiano and a little bit of nutmeg but no exact edges on these .

These are great .

So we do the same as this .

We can do a couple of different ones .

We'll do it .

We'll show you the simple one .

Exactly .

The , the great part about this kind of pasta is is that it can be frozen .

So after making this , what we do is uh leave it uncovered and we'll put in the freezer on a small tray like this freeze and we can put it into storage bags .

These work so well perfect , very nice .

And next , we're going to show you how to make long strand of pasta .

There are many different types of long stranded pastas , spaghetti , fettuccini , pale Tagliatelle or Tagliolini .

And when making long stranded pastas .

Michael likes to add a bit of semolina flour to give the dough a little bit more structure .

A little bit more texture .

Help it be a little bit .

Um is the southern equivalent to .

Right .

Exactly .

OK .

And so you use a thin pasta .

This is like number six , this is number six on the machine and we fold towards you and away from you .

Then we bring these two together a little bit of semolina .

And so we'll , we'll take the first one , clean it up a little bit and then fettuccini and it has to be a bit dry like this .

See how nice and sharp it is and clean .

Fantastic .

We'll bring this together like grandma's .

No , these are , we can also make lasagna sheets .

This is once you make one type of pasta , we can use it for many , many applications .

Lasagna really is in its form right now .

I like to blanche this just for maybe a minute or so .

Shock it in ice water and then you can start to layer sheets of this pasta .

Oh , so shock it in ice water .

That'll keep it from sticking .

Exactly .

Or you could use a , that was a little bit more liquidy and then you wouldn't have to cook it in the moisture that cooks out of the , from the edges so that they're nice and straight or doesn't , it really doesn't matter because once it gets all put together and we would go this way this way , this way to cover one sheet .

But the next sheet of pasta I would go this way .

I go this way .

So when you cut inside it never , it never , it never separates .

You create structure both ways .

We'll also do some fun shapes such as Papper Deli .

Popper Deli should be zigzagged .

And these are a great pasta for wild mushroom Ragu , wild boar , Ragu who's gonna find a wild , you don't have one up at the farm .

No .

Oh , ok .

All right .

And , uh , at any rate we have these so long should be .

Well , there are two different types of pali , these are really difficult to eat , although you will find them that long .

What I like to do is what we call stray and stray are about four inches long .

And , uh , what we do is off the machine , we do 11 cut down the middle and then we do short ones like this .

You get the same effect and mouth feel , but you don't get the , the cumbersome , you know , sloppiness of the pasta .

So really nice , a little bit shorter such as this .

And then it's really about , um , about utilizing all the different you want .

Very fine nose .

You can also do that .

Exactly .

This is Taulli .

So we'll go to the machine , we could do the spaghetti .

I need a rolling pin and I'll tell you why .

This is a little trick , the rolling pin on the front end of this because it is thick .

Oh , I see .

Makes it , it goes into the machine better .

A bit better and it goes in for you like that .

Oh , fuck .

Is that there you are ?

We'll do that again .

Yes , you can't , you have to hold it , you have to hold , it doesn't wait for anybody .

We'll start on this side because it tends to walk to the other side .

Gorgeous .

Now , I sometimes just take it like that and hang it over a rack .

You absolutely can do that and use it for another time .

Yeah , I would hang it over .

All right .

Just , uh , just so cooking time , I'll , I'll use that and that way it's not sticking together on the board .

This is going to be , these are so it will be a pasta .

Oh , this is like almost like uh spaghetti , spaghetti .

Exactly .

But thin and we'll change up now and we'll do some tele or fettuccini if you will .

So let's show the hand crank machine because this probably more people have this machine than any other .

This machine has been around for years and is , is really part of the fabric of Italian cooking , uh especially for fresh pasta , making a little bit of bench .

And I really want you to feel this again because you see the , it has flour but it , it has a little , just a little bit of sand , which is so what percent semolina to double zero , if you're going to do a cup of bench flour , I would say maybe a quarter cup , semolina and a three quarter cup , uh , of regular , uh , double zero , all purpose there .

And this is the way I've made pasta for many , many years .

And there's something about doing it by hand though .

You know , it's fun .

It's fun .

But isn't that absolutely beautiful ?

That's , uh , tali .

Right .

Tell you , tell , or if we're in the south we'd call it fettuccini .

But fettuccini in reality is just a bit wider than , than , and how do you make your fettuccini sauce ?

Well , are you talking about the , the , the classic , all the Alfredo sauce .

Do you ever make that ?

Well , I , I tell you in the restaurants people do ask for it but it is , uh , it is really what we would call in bologna or with cream and some people put a little bit of nutmeg in it .

Some people put it , you know , maybe a bit of , uh , garlic .

I've seen all these types of things , but we try to tend to stay away from those , but there is something soothing and comforting on a cold night with cheese .

We'll do , we'll make some of the , the capellini with parmigiano cheese , nutmegging cream and butter as well .

Um , there we go .

Here we are .

And now these are capellini which really have to have a very , uh , thin sauce .

Something that doesn't weight the pasta down because it is very delicate .

Oh , that is so beautiful .

Or angel hair .

Exactly .

A little bit of , or Pecorino , Romano black pepper and a little bit of pasta water and you can be off to the races with , uh , with a very , very quick baby , Jude's favorite pasta .

There we are , baby .

Yeah , baby .

Yeah , she's 14 months old and loves .

That's her .

That's awesome .

That's great .

So , this is , this looks like uh Goldilocks's hair and if you're gonna do a soup or something like that .

So Michael , uh thank you very much for sharing in this lesson and I hope you at home will try making your own pasta .

You'll find it's well worth the effort and it's a lot of fun .

See you next time .