There is simply nothing like fresh, tender pasta to serve with your favorite sauce or pesto. It’s the best comfort food there is! This recipe uses silken tofu and olive oil in place of eggs. Saffron also adds a lovely color and will add that distinctive flavor as well. I use a combination of fine semolina flour and pasta flour type “OO” which you can find in Italian grocery stores or well-stocked supermarkets. If you can’t find the “OO” flour, all purpose flour will work just fine.
Start by mixing the all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl. You can also mix the dough in a food processor, but I prefer to mix dough with my hands. Use a large wooden spoon to mix the dough until it is quite stiff, then turn the dough out onto a marble or wood board. Knead the dough for about a minute with your hands. Wrap the dough into a ball and store in the refrigerator for about 3o minutes.
Cut the dough into 4 equal sections. (A pastry cutter works great here, but any long sharp knife will do.) Flatten a piece of the dough and begin to roll it through a pasta roller on the widest setting. Refold the dough onto itself and roll it again. Repeat 3 or 4 more times until you have a nice smooth dough. If you don’t have a pasta roller, you can use a rolling pin, but it will be a bit more work.
Roll all the dough sections out, and then begin to re-roll them, each time using a smaller setting on the pasta roller. Continue until all the dough is rolled out and is thin. Store the dough on a drying rack. I purchased mine at a local woodworking shop for $9.00. It goes together like an old-fashioned tinker-toy (if you are old enough to recall tinker-toys!)
Hang the pasta as you roll it out. It will dry slightly which helps for when you go to cut it into thinner strips. (If you want to use the pasta for lasagna, cut each wide strip in half and it’s ready to use.)
Now for the fun part: switch the handle on the pasta roller so it operates the cutting blades. I find the widest (or fettucine) setting works best with fresh dough. Roll each sheet through the cutting rollers, catching them underneath and hanging them on the drying rack. Stand back and admire your work! Again, if you don’t have a pasta rolling machine, you can cut the pasta with a knife into the desired width.
The pasta takes about 30 minutes to dry. At this point, you can store the pasta in a plastic bag in the refrigerator for a day or two if you won’t be using it all at once. To cook the pasta, drop it in simmering water with 2 teaspoons of kosher salt. Bring to a boil, lower the heat, and cook, stirring often, for 1 1/2 to 2 minutes. Drain and serve immediately with the sauce of your choice.
Love pasta as much as I do? Here’s are a few more delicious ideas:
Savory Butternut Squash and Pasta
Fresh Vegan Pasta
Prep
Cook
Total
Yield 1 lb
Ingredients
- 8 ounces silken tofu, drained
- 2 cups fine semolina flour
- 1 cup "OO" pasta flour
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon fine salt
- 2-3 tablespoons water
- small pinch saffron threads (optional)
Instructions
- Mix all the ingredients (start with 2 tablespoons of water; only add the 3rd tablespoon if the dough is too stiff or dry) in a large bowl or in a food processor
- Mix until well combined. The dough should hold together in a large ball.
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board. Knead for about 3-5 minutes until the dough is smooth.
- Wrap the dough ball in plastic wrap and chill for at least 30 minutes.
- Assemble the pasta roller and the drying rack of your choice.
- Divide the dough into 6 equal sections. Start the first section by flattening the dough in your hands until it is thin enough to feed through the wide rollers of the pasta roller set on the widest setting.
- Pass the dough through the rollers about 3 or 4 times, folding it back on itself each time to eliminate any rough edges. Hang the dough on the drying rack and repeat with all sections of the dough. Let the dough dry for about 15 minutes.
- Change the handle of the pasta roller to the cutting side of the pasta roller so the handle operates the cutting rollers.
- Feed each flattened piece of dough through the cutting rollers, catching it from beneath the rollers and gently collect it as it comes out of the rollers. Hang the cut pasta on the drying rack, separating it if it has clumped together.
- Let the pasta dry for about 30 minutes. At this point you can cook it in salted boiling water for no more than 2-3 minutes (very important!). Drain the pasta and add it to your desired sauce.
- If you will not be cooking the pasta right away, store it in a sealed plastic bag in the refrigerator until needed.
Notes
There is a lot of controversy about the environmental impact of palm oil. Make sure you are buying responsibly sourced non-gmo product. If you purchase your red palm oil from Thrive Market, you can be assured of organic, non-gmo, responsibly harvested red palm oil. If you don't want to use the red palm oil which imparts a lovely golden color to the pasta, you can use olive oil and saffron or turmeric. The taste will be slightly changed, but the pasta will still be delicious.
Courses main dish
Cuisine Italian
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