Recently, I’ve fallen in love with making handmade Italian flat noodles (Tagliatelle) from scratch. Although it takes quite a bit of time, making it personally at home feels fresh and particularly healthy. Especially when I want to clear my mind and find some inner peace, I find it in the process of kneading dough. It might sound a bit odd, but this has always been my habit.

There is a wide variety of Italian flours, distinguished by the texture of the wheat: coarse, fine, soft, and hard! For making pasta, people usually use Type 00, because it has the finest grains. However, I personally prefer using a mixture of Type 00 (Farina Tipo) and Durum wheat semolina flour.

Although adding Durum makes the dough less smooth than using pure 00, since I don't have a pasta machine at home, I need a flour mixture that is easier to manage by hand. It helps in two ways: first, it reduces the elasticity slightly so it's easier to roll thin with a rolling pin; second, the coarser grains prevent the pasta from absorbing too much water, expanding, and turning mushy!

Fresh handmade pasta cooks much faster than dried pasta; it is fully cooked in about 2 minutes. Therefore, boil it in water for 1 minute, and then transfer it to the sauce for another 1 minute.

<Handmade Tagliatelle Recipe>

Ingredients:

• 50g Italian Type 00 Flour
• 50g Durum Wheat Semolina Flour
• 1 Egg
• A pinch of Sea Salt

Instructions:

1. Mix all the ingredients above. Knead by hand until the dough is smooth and no longer sticky.
2. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and let it rest (relax) at room temperature for at least 40 minutes. It is then ready to be rolled out.

＊Tips: Use 1 egg for every 100g of flour, 2 eggs for 200g, and so on. If the dough is too dry, add a little water; if it is too wet, add a little flour!