[0 - 2] Hey, what's up guys? Welcome back to "Basics With Babish."
[6 - 8] Hey what's up guys? Welcome back to "Basics With Babish"
[8 - 10] where this week, we're taking a look at pasta.
[10 - 13] One of the most beautiful and elegant dishes that you can create in your
[13 - 16] kitchen with little more than a table and a rolling pin.
[16 - 19] We're gonna take a look at a few ways to roll out and shape your pasta
[19 - 21] and a few sauces to flavour them with.
[21 - 23] Now, let's get down to basics.
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[57 - 61] OK, so we're gonna start off by making pasta entirely by hand. No machines involved
[61 - 64] Grandma-style, fork and egg; the whole deal.
[64 - 67] We're not going to measure anything either. This is something by feel
[67 - 74] I'm gonna start by making a mound of flour on my countertop, then I'm going to make a well in that I can crack 2 eggs inside
[74 - 77] 2 to 3 eggs, depending on how much pasta you wanna make.
[77 - 84] And a little drizzle of olive oil, optionally and a little bit of salt. Then grab your fork and get to beatin' those eggs like you're making a Sunday omelet
[84 - 89] We wanna be picking up little bits of flour every time and with every stroke of the fork
[89 - 94] Dumping little bits more in there as necessary. Once it starts to get too sticky to beat with a fork,
[94 - 97] grab a bench scraper and start folding everything towards the center.
[97 - 101] You can do this with your hands but it's a much more messy operation.
[101 - 107] Once a shaggy dough starts to form, we're gonna start kneading by hand for a solid 10 minutes.
[107 - 111] I hope it was a light day at the gym because you're going to get a little bit of an upper-body workout.
[111 - 114] We're talking 10 minutes of pressing this guy into the countertop
[114 - 117] And you can see that there's a bunch of leftover flour; that's totally OK
[117 - 123] We're trying to incorporate enough flour so we get a dough that's about the consistency of Play-Doh.
[123 - 127] We want it tacky but not sticky. Smooth, supple, elastic.
[127 - 136] This is a great recipe to start learning how to not follow a recipe and do things by look and feel, smell and touch, and feel and touch are really the same thing.
[136 - 142] So, anyway, we'll be wrapping this guy in plastic wrap and letting it sit at room temperature for at least 30 minutes
[142 - 146] We want to let the gluten relax a bit before we start rolling it out.
[146 - 152] In the meantime, I'm gonna make another kind of pasta dough, a semolina pasta that is gonna be half all-purpose flour and half semolina flour.
[152 - 160] This is gonna result in a slightly different flavor, color and texture and is yet another example of how you're gonna put your own spin on this recipe.
[160 - 169] Just as before, we're dumping the flour out on a worktop, making a little mound, making a crater in the center, dumping our eggs in, and then adding a little bit of olive oil
[169 - 174] And while we're starting the dough the same way, we're finish it, this time, just for fun, in a pasta machine
[174 - 176] Gotta make sure we're covering as many techniques as possible
[177 - 184] But, this doesn't get us out of kneading duty, so same deal as before: we're beating our egg with a fork until it can't be forked no more.
[184 - 190] Using our bench scraper to scrape everything into the center and kneading it rigorously for ten minutes
[190 - 196] Get creative, throw an elbow drop in there, and cease the kneading once the dough has become smooth and elastic
[196 - 200] Wrap in plastic wrap. You'll notice that I'm trying to get as little air in there as possible
[200 - 202] Air in this situation's gonna ruin your pasta dough
[202 - 208] All right, while that guy's resting for 30 minutes, let's get down to the old school by-hand pasta dough
[208 - 210] The first thing we're going to do is liberally flour everything;
[210 - 216] The pasta, your hands, the work surface, your rolling pin, your hair, your shoes, your dog, your cat, your goldfish
[216 - 219] Then, for a relatively small piece of dough like this one, we're gonna cut it in half.
[219 - 223] If it's a little bit bigger, (if you used 4 or 5 eggs), cut it into quarters.
[223 - 229] And now it's time to start gently rolling it out. We're gonna start by doing what we would do if we were using a pasta machine:
[229 - 235] Which is laminating the dough a little bit: rolling it out, folding it into thirds, turning it 90 degrees, rolling it out again,
[236 - 243] folding it into thirds, maybe 3 times total before we start going for the big roll; that is, rolling it out until it's nice and thin
[243 - 245] and thin enough that you can almost see your hand through it
[245 - 252] There's also advantages to different kinds of rolling pins: the dowel style I was using before is great for getting a nice even roll
[253 - 260] but a French rolling style like this that's tapered at each end kind of helps you get a more even shape because when it starts getting deformed,
[260 - 264] You can use the center of the rolling pin to roll certain parts harder than others
[264 - 266] so you can make it, at least, closer to a rectangle
[266 - 270] Once we've got the dough rolled out to our desired thickness and size, it's time to cut
[270 - 275] I'm gonna start by cutting off the rough edges to give me a nice, even rectangle.
[275 - 279] From here you could make lasagna noodles or filled pasta like ravioli or tortellini,
[279 - 281] but I'm gonna go simple today:
[281 - 286] By loosely rolling up the dough and cutting it into nice, wide fettuccine.
[286 - 290] Get a little sawing action in there with your knife 'cause you don't wanna press straight down
[290 - 291] If you find that once you're done cutting your noodles aren't unfurling properly,
[292 - 295] If you find that once you're done cutting your noodles aren't unfurling properly,
[295 - 299] just dust the dough sheet with a bit more flour before rolling it up
[299 - 302] Now we're gonna unfurl all of our noodles to make sure none of them stuck together
[302 - 308] but I'm gonna go simple today:
[308 - 313] just dust the dough sheet with a bit more flour before rolling it up
[313 - 318] Fettuccine made entirely by hand. Hang to dry or place under plastic wrap until ready to use.
[318 - 323] Now it's time to get crankin', so to speak, with our pasta maker.
[323 - 329] Start similarly by dusting half of the dough with flour, and laminating at least once before running it through the machine.
[329 - 333] Then with the pasta machine on its widest setting, it's time to start running it through.
[333 - 338] This machine's widest setting is 7, so I wanna get it down to about a two or three
[338 - 341] that means running through four to five times.
[341 - 344] Now it's going to start getting pretty long halfway through the rolling process
[344 - 346] so i recommend cutting it into two pieces
[346 - 349] and starting to work with those individually.
[349 - 353] And you can see on the thinnest setting that I wanna put it through, I think this is a two,
[353 - 358] it is thin and beautiful. Just like the stuff we rolled out by hand but we have an advantage here
[358 - 363] it is a bit more uniform than what we can do with a rolling pin so it makes it better for a ravioli
[363 - 366] or for filled pastas where you'll need very exact dimensions.
[366 - 371] But as you can see, this pasta machine, like most others, comes with a cutting attachment.
[371 - 374] So, we are going to use this to make some good ol' fashioned linguine.
[374 - 381] Now, just like when cutting by hand, you want to make sure to dust your dough with flour before running it through the blades
[381 - 385] otherwise you're going to end up pulling pasta out of the cutter and then when you try to toss your noodles with flour
[385 - 391] they get stuck together, you end up with a bird's nest, and you consider giving up cooking entirely.
[391 - 394] But, this was an actual mistake I made, I didn't do it for demonstration.
[394 - 398] I wanted you guys to see that mistakes are learning experiences.
[398 - 402] So this sheet I dusted with extra flour, and guess what? Came out perfect.
[402 - 406] Nothing stuck together and I decided to keep making the show.
[406 - 410] Just like the hand-cut stuff, we're tossing this with flour, sort of forming into a nest,
[410 - 414] and then keeping on a baking sheet under plastic wrap until we're ready to use it.
[414 - 420] You can also put these in a Ziplock bag and freeze them and then you'll have fresh pasta at the ready whenever you want it.
[420 - 424] And now it's time to finally cook the stuff. Fresh pasta cooks very quickly,
[424 - 429] so place into salted boiling water for probably no more than 90 seconds
[429 - 434] The best way to tell when it's done? Taste it. None of this throwing-it-against-the-wall crap. That doesn't work.
[434 - 439] It has always baffled me that that's a trick for testing the doneness of pasta. Just put it in your mouth!
[439 - 442] So we're going to be treating our two different kinds of pasta two different ways today.
[442 - 447] Let's start with cacio e pepe, maybe one of my favorite pastas in the entire world.
[447 - 453] I'm grating equal parts parmesan cheese. Make sure when you're shopping for it you're buying parmigiano reggiano.
[453 - 461] And then over here we've got some romano cheese. This is funkier, sharper, saltier than parmesan and it's going to make for a greater cacio e pepe.
[461 - 466] Now, I'm kind of breaking the rules a little bit here; I'm using butter. True cacio e pepe should not have butter
[466 - 468] but it's just kind of training wheels a little bit.
[468 - 473] We're also gonna use this as an opportunity to toast a little bit of freshly ground pepper before we add our cooked pasta.
[473 - 478] Try and time your pasta-cooking with the butter reaching a foamy stage
[478 - 483] You want to not have this pasta hang out in the water for a second longer than it needs to.
[483 - 486] Now we're going to add our grated cheeses, you'll notice that they're very finely grated
[486 - 488] we don't want it to be a huge effort to make these melt.
[488 - 492] And then I'll say, a solid half cup of the pasta water.
[492 - 496] Pasta water is loaded with starch and it's going to help us make a more cohesive sauce.
[496 - 501] This is honestly something you can do with almost any sauce that you're finishing pasta in.
[501 - 507] You can always add a little bit of pasta water to thicken and toss rigorously until all the cheese is melted
[507 - 511] and emulsified with the pasta water to create a creamy sauce.
[511 - 516] As is the way with all food ever made, I'm going to salt and pepper this to taste
[516 - 521] right at the end when I'm about to serve it to make sure that the seasonings are where they need to be.
[521 - 525] Always plate up your pasta with a carving fork for extra pasta XP.
[525 - 530] Twirl it into a little mound, we can go for a small portion here because this is very very rich.
[530 - 534] And it wouldn't be cacio e pepe without a little bit extra pepe.
[534 - 538] We're going to put some freshly ground pepper right on top. And there you have it, a wonderful date night pasta
[538 - 540] made by hand.
[540 - 547] But is it my favorite pasta in the world? No. My favorite is a classic from binging pasta aglio olio.
[547 - 549] A pasta I'm obsessed with for it's simplicity. A pasta