Ever wondered how to make pasta? Celebrity chef Theo Randall shows how to make this Italian classic in a few easy steps, here.
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00:00Hello, my name is Theo Randall and I'm from Theo Randall at the Intercontinental.
00:02Today I'm going to be showing you how to make fresh pasta.
00:09Okay, so this is my recipe how to make fresh pasta.
00:11So I'm going to use whole eggs and egg yolks.
00:14It's a very rich pasta dough.
00:16So first of all, we take 350 grams of fine Tipo 00 flour.
00:21It's the only pasta flour you can use.
00:23You cannot use plain flour.
00:25So you put the flour in the food processor.
00:27Then I've got some fine semolina flour.
00:29So about 25 grams, just to give a bit of texture and colour.
00:33And then we're going to do the eggs.
00:36So we're going to do two whole eggs.
00:39And I try and use a very enriched egg yolk.
00:42Burford Brown is a very good breed of hen for the eggs.
00:45Or these ones which are Cornish eggs.
00:47It's very important that the quality of the egg is organic or it's of a nice colour.
00:53So we'll do four of these.
00:56Now there's lots of recipes where you add salt and olive oil.
00:58Do not add salt or olive oil to pasta dough because it will make it go black.
01:01So just a little bit of water if you need anything.
01:05OK, so we'll just do one more yolk and that will be four yolks and two whole eggs.
01:10And we might need to add another yolk but let's just have a look at this now.
01:13OK, so we'll turn the food processor on.
01:26So at this point I'm going to add one teaspoon of water.
01:37And then we'll just empty the pasta dough into the bowl and it should have this Play-Doh
01:42sort of texture, so plasticine.
01:45And then we'll just work that in and we'll start to push it down onto the bench.
01:52Just going to fold over the dough and just make sure that all the dough is incorporated
01:56together.
01:57And then add a little bit of semolina flour so it doesn't stick.
02:01Start kneading the dough just to get a nice smooth paste.
02:04And the thing about pasta is that the more elasticated it is the better it is because
02:08then you can roll it much thinner and it tastes so much nicer when the pasta is really thin.
02:12So when you make fresh pasta it's very important to have a damp tea towel because the damp tea
02:16towel will stop the pasta from drying so you can pop it on the side and not have to keep
02:19going backwards and forwards to the fridge.
02:21So we're just going to cut this piece of pasta dough in half to make it more manageable.
02:24If you put too much pasta dough through the machine it's just going to break your machine.
02:28So keep it quite small, the quantity, and then damp tea towel over the top of the pasta
02:33and then just leave that on one side.
02:35And then we'll just start putting this through the machine.
02:37Now press it nice and thin so it goes through the two rollers.
02:41If you put it too thick it's just going to break the machine.
02:43This process is called proving the pasta and proving the pasta is a little bit like bread.
02:47It's basically getting all the gluten working so it becomes nice and tough and elasticated
02:53so you can really work the pasta so the pasta's got a nice chewy al dente bite to it.
02:57And then we'll start putting the pasta through the machine.
03:00Go slowly, don't go too fast because you want to get that first roll through and then fold
03:06over so each time you can fold over.
03:08You need to do this about five or six times so the pasta becomes really elasticated.
03:14So we'll keep going through.
03:15And I find actually using a manual machine is better than an electric one because you can
03:22kind of control it so much better.
03:23And as you can see the pasta's really starting to come together and it'll become really really
03:28smooth almost like silk because you're squeezing extruding that pasta through the two rollers
03:34and that's just making it really really stretchy.
03:37Now if you go to Bologna they always roll the pasta by hand and everything's done with a wooden
03:42rolling pin and using a pasta machine is unheard of but at home this is probably the best way to do it.
03:48So we'll keep rolling, you can see the pasta's becoming silkier and silkier but you can see
03:56the colour of it's beautiful from those amazing eggs but you can't really over-prove the pasta
04:02anything will happen is it'll become too dry so five or six times should be enough.
04:06And then that's the sort of consistency you want a very silky pasta dough that's quite elasticated
04:14and then what we're going to do we're going to start putting it through the machine so notch by
04:17notch one notch down you'll hear a kind of click and then put the pasta dough through the finer
04:24setting on the wheels and then do it two times another notch then it goes holding the pasta
04:33stretching it so it doesn't get stuck that pasta's getting thinner and thinner and also it's becoming
04:37really really silky. You can be quite rough with it because you've made it very very tough you've made
04:42it very elasticated rather now we're getting a bit too long now so anything longer it becomes
04:47unmanageable so we'll just cut this into the right size but that's kind of what you want beautiful
04:52silky golden yellow pasta so we'll just cut this into three one two three and then put a little bit of
05:03semolina flour on in between each sheet of pasta just so it doesn't stick and then we're going to
05:08pop the tea towel our damp tea towel on top until we're ready to make our next stage so now we've
05:16rolled out the pasta we can now make whichever pasta we want to do so we can make tagliarini we can make
05:21tagliatelle we can make pappadelli we can make ravioli or we can make cappoletti anyone you want
05:26but let's start off with the tagliatelle so we get the pasta dough now i always say if you can kind of see
05:32your hand through the pasta dough just the sort of silhouette of it it's the right thickness if it's
05:38too thick it's not very nice when you eat it it's not very digestible and if it's too thin it just
05:42cooks too quickly so you want to have that sort of nice little bite to it the al dente bite which is
05:47to the tooth it's got texture so we'll cut the pasta to the length we want so this is going to be the
05:52length of the tagliatelle and you can just cut this all up beforehand what you do when it's just not
05:57too dry but it's just dried a little bit you then put it through the machine so we take the handle
06:02out of the pasta rollers then put it into the cutter this is an attachment you get with all pasta
06:07machines and this one is tagliatelle another one is tagliarini so we'll do both and we put the pasta
06:12through and then we start rolling clockwise to pull the pasta through and then you have your tagliatelle
06:19and that just goes somewhere flat and dry don't be tempted to curl it to lovely little curls like you
06:25get in the supermarkets it's better to keep it flat because if it's slightly damp what'll happen is the
06:30pasta will stick together and you'll end up with a blob of pasta which is not very nice then we'll do
06:35the tagliarini so just to the other rollers put it through slowly starting off put the pasta through
06:44the cutters and then you get beautiful tagliarini this is not spaghetti it's tagliarini there's a very
06:49big difference spaghetti is always using dried durham wheat flour and it's always a dry product
06:54this is fresh pasta and this one is called tagliarini this is probably the most famous
06:59piamonte where they serve it with butter and white truffles which is amazing so the best way to cook
07:04tagliarini is by adding tagliarini to the pasta water salted pasta water and then cook the pasta
07:10for about two minutes not two months long because tagliarini is very very fine so it cooks very very
07:14quickly and then using a pair of tongs take the pasta out of the the water and add it to the sauce
07:21and move the pasta in the pan together so it emulsifies
07:27okay so make sure that you stir the pasta a lot and give a little toss then lift up the pasta and
07:34it should be really lovely and juicy not too wet but juicy and that butter and all that pasta
07:41water has emulsified so you get this really beautiful thick coated pasta and then we just finish
07:50this with some parmesan cheese just fine grating of parmesan cheese and a little bit more black pepper
08:02pepper and if you're lucky to have a white truffle or any kind of truffle you can grate that on top