Homemade Pasta

With Robert Ozoonian

Nothing tastes as good as homemade pasta, and Executive Chef Robert Ozoonian of Joseph’s Trattoria Bakery and Café says that once you taste this you will make it again and again. He will show you how to prepare the dough and then roll it out using the pasta roller attachment with your Kitchen Aid mixer. You can also roll out the pasta by hand or by using another type of pasta roller, as long as you get thin, even sheets to cut it into fettuccine or another preferred pasta shape.

He uses duram wheat flour, which is a fine milled flour and helps with the texture and flavor of the pasta, also giving it its’ strength to hold together. If you cannot find it in your supermarket, duram wheat may have to be found in a specialty store. This recipe calls for 4 eggs and an additional 2 egg yolks to help with the color and the flavor. While combining the liquids with the flour to make the dough, you will want to hand-mix the pasta dough so as to not overwork it.

Ingredients

4 eggs, whole
2 egg yolks
1 cup water (cool tap water works best)
3 tablespoons olive oil
5 cups duram flour
2 teaspoons Kosher salt

Instructions

1. In a bowl, mix together the eggs, egg yolks, water and olive oil.
2. Place flour on a board or counter and mix in salt. Make a "nest" (like a volcano) in the middle of the flour and begin to add the liquid into the flour, mixing with a large spoon. Now continue to work the dough into a ball until you can lightly knead it into a ball.
3. Lightly cover the dough ball with olive oil, cover and place in the refrigerator for a couple of hours.
4. Remove dough and cut into six even pieces.
5. Sprinkle some of the left over flour onto one of the pieces and place it into the roller at the thickest setting, #1, and the middle speed setting, #4. (You want to be sure that the dough is not too wet as it will stick in the roller.)
6. Roll out once, sprinkle with more flour to absorb some of the moisture, fold over a few times into a hand size piece and repeat through the roller two more times. 
7. Repeat rolling to #2, then #3, #4, and finally #5. You will have a large, thin sheet of perfect pasta dough.
8. Cut sheet into three pieces and place fettuccine roller onto Kitchen Aid to make the fettuccune pasta.

Recipe courtesy of Executive Chef Robert Ozoonian, Joseph’s Trattoria Bakery and Café, 2011.

Robert graduated from Johnson and Wales College in 1984 with his degree in culinary arts. He has since worked for Caesar’s Hotel in Lake Tahoe, corporate hotels - including Marriott, Hilton, and Sheraton - as well as Odyssey Cruises of Boston.

Robert has worked in the industry for 25 years. His latest endeavor is Executive Chef at Joseph’s Trattoria and Bakery, where he feels that the staff of 20 "...perfect Tuscan Italian cuisine only to be rivaled by the Italian Kitchens of Tuscany themselves."