Lemon Pepper Fettuccine

I love Italian Cuisine.  One of the things I love is fresh pasta.  Making your own pasta is a satisfying way to work with your hands to create something delicious from ingredients you choose from your pantry. This is my first try at making pasta and I think it came out pretty nice.  There are so many ways to make homemade pasta these days, but I wanted to start out by taking a basic pasta recipe and put together some wonderful flavors for my first attempt.  

Kitchen Tools to Make Homemade Pasta

• My hands ( smile )
• KitchenAid 2 piece pasta cutter set.  Includes Pasta Roller and Fettuccine Cutter.
• One of my wine racks to hang the pasta to dry. This tool was a last minute creative drying rack. In my next pasta making adventure, I will have the real thing and that is “Pasta Drying Rack”. 

Basic Pasta Recipe

• 1 ½ cups (350 grams) Pasta Flour, Unbleached All-Purpose, or Semolina.  (I used Semolina for this recipe.)
• 3 large eggs @ room temperature
• 1 egg yolk
• 3 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice ( about the juice of 1 lemon)
• ¼ cup grated lemon zest ( about 3 lemons)
• 2 teaspoons freshly milled black pepper

You will need extra flour for dusting your board and pasta roller/cutter.  Also extra 1 or 2 tablespoons of water to make softer pliable, dough that’s easy to roll.

Steps

  

1.     Place flour in the center of your pastry mat or large wooden board or other work surface.  You may also use a large bowl.  Form a flour volcano with a crater or hole in the middle.

2.     Combine eggs, lemon juice, lemon zest, and pepper in a medium size bowl, blend well then pour mixture into the crater.

3.     With your hands, begin to incorporate the flour, starting with the inner rim.

4.     Once the flour has been incorporated and the mixture has formed a mass of dough, then transfer the dough to a floured work surface.

5.     Keep incorporating the flour, turning the dough mass over several times while kneading so that the moist side of the dough is exposed to the floured surface, making sure the flour will be absorbed.  Scrape up and discard any leftover hard bits of dough.

6.     Use the heel of your palm to push the dough down and away, and then fold the edge back over top to keep a round dough ball.  Do this process for about 5 minutes or until the dough is smooth.

7.     Now let the dough take a rest for about 30 minutes.

Now setup your KitchenAid Mixer with pasta roller attachment, then cut your dough into four (4) sections and flatten each section with a rolling pin.  Be sure to keep your working surface dusted with flour.  Now dust your pasta roller with flour and then feed your pasta into the roller.  (You may follow the instruction supplied by the manufacturer.)

Once you complete the rolling of your pasta, then change out the pasta roller attachment with the Fettuccine attachment to make your pasta strips.