Talking to a Chef awhile back, I was told that there is a very traditional pasta from one region of Italy that is yeasted. This was a Chef that told me that my hand kneaded pasta was better then his because I am a baker. I knead bread so often that I was not surprised. Last week, bread was made at least four times and I am not counting this pasta!
I did a bit of research and found out that this pasta was actually made on baking day. That way you did not have two doughs going. I read the recipe for this pasta a year ago and decided that I did not wish to go through the process of getting the book from the library and using it as a go by. I
know how to make bread. I know how to make pasta. I know how pasta dough should feel. My Beloved asked for sourdough pasta so why not!
The taste of this is similar to a non-yeasted pasta. There is more flavor. It rolled easier. Which is a plus. And if I am making a simple bread, I would put a bit of dough aside to make into pasta. It just need tweaking.
yeasted pasta dough
Note: I started this from scratch. If you have a French dough, Italian dough, or a baguette dough, just knead in flour until you have a VERY stiff dough and go from the resting point of these directions.
sourdough starter
100 grams water
100 grams white whole wheat flour
2 eggs
a pinch of salt
1 1/2 to 2 cups flour
Eight to fourteen hours before, refresh your starter with 100 grams of water and 100 grams of flour. Cover and let it get bubbly. I have been finding that cling wrap works very well for this step but I want to make some of the coated linen to try.
When the starter is bubbly, remove a bit for next time. A bit is a couple tablespoons.
Mix in two eggs.
Mix in the flour. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead. You want a very stiff dough. Wrap and let sit. I would have liked it to sit for more then the couple hours it did but I kept forgetting what I was doing on Saturday. That was because I was mostly sleeping.
Unwrap the dough. It will be a bit puffy. Divide in half and roll out into a thin sheet.
Cut and place on a floured baking sheet. Dust with more flour as more pasta is sliced.
Put the pasta into salted boiling water. Cook for about three minutes. A few more if you did not roll the dough very thin.
Serve with any sauce you wish. One of the reasons I wanted eggs in the pasta was I knew I was going to serve it with a vegetarian sauce. It was a day of sleep and looking for calories. In another words, a weekend of healing and not traveling. Guess what I wanted it be doing!
I will be making more of this. It makes my life easy because I just have to knead extra flour into a bread dough and I have pasta for dinner. Talk about frugality!