Simple Ingredients

Making a well for the egg, olive oil and salt.

The Atlas used for rolling and cutting.

Tagliatelle

Fresh Pasta
adapted from The Fine Art of Italian Cooking by Giuliano Bugialli

Ingredients:

1 cup of unbleached all-purpose flour
1 extra-large egg
1 teaspoon olive or vegetable oil
pinch of salt

The proportion of ingredients to each other is given, rather than a fixed amount per serving, because the amounts vary depending on which dish the pasta is being made for. White flour is used in making fresh pasta but Bugialli notes that Semolina should be used when making dried pasta.

Directions:

Place the flour in a mound on a pasta board. Make a well in the center and put in the egg, olive oil, and salt. With a fork, first mix together the egg, oil and salt, then begin to incorporate the flour from the inner rim of the well, always incorporating fresh flour from the lower part, pushing it under the dough to keep the dough detached. When almost half of the flour is absorbed, start kneading using the palms of the hands in a folding motion. Continue kneading until almost all of the flour has been absorbed. This process can take up to 10 minutes. Then the pasta is ready for the machine. If more than one egg has been used, cut the dough into as many pieces as eggs used. For each piece of dough, begin at setting 1 and pass dough through the rollers. Then fold the dough into thirds and press down. Sprinkle with flour and repeat the rolling and folding eight to 10 times until the dough is very smooth. These steps take the place of hand kneading. However, if you prefer hand kneading, then repeating the rolling and folding can be skipped. With whatever process you use, then move the wheel to the next notch and pass the dough through once, do not fold. Move the wheel to each successive notch to produce thinner layers of pasta. Stop when the layer reaches the thickness desired. Sprinkle a cotton dishtowel with flour and lay the sheet of pasta upon it until a think film forms, before cutting. Once cut, let the tagliatelle stand one a pasta board, or hang as in the photo above, until needed. When cooking fresh tagliatelle, add coarse salt to boiling water, then pasta, stir with wooden spoon and let cook for only 30 seconds. Drain and arrange on serving dish with prepared sauce. Serve immediately.