Flour + Water

Happy first weekend of the new year! Everyone is trying new things thanks to 2019, whether it's hitting up the gym, changing your eating habits, or saving for that next vacation. For me, it's been transitioning from eating out to cooking my own meals. Being home with family for the holidays reminded me of how much I love home-cooked meals, including homemade pasta.

Inspired by Chef Thomas McNaughton, the owner of Flour + Water restaurant in San Francisco and author of Flour + Water: Pasta recipe book, my family and I decided to host our own Italian cooking class. We made beautiful trofie pasta using our hands, some patience, and a little extra love.

Despite the extra time spent, we enjoyed each other's company, critiquing each other's technique, and discussing what sauce and wine would go best. I loved that we knew exactly what was going into our dish, everything was hand-rolled, and we didn't need a pasta maker!

Hand-rolled Trofie Pasta

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups 0/0 Flour (we ended up using All Purpose and it came out just as well)
• 1 Teaspoon Sea Salt
• 3/4 to 1 Cup Water

     Optional:

• Grated Parmesan cheese
• Pesto sauce

Directions:

1. Place flour and salt in a bowl and add 3/4 cup water. Use a fork to mix together. Pour in the remaining water as needed to create the dough.
2. Place the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead it with your hands, adding additional flour as needed until it becomes smooth with minimal stickiness.
3. Wrap the dough with plastic wrap and set aside at room temperature for at least 30 minutes to help it relax and make it more malleable to work with for creating the trofie.
4. Once 30 minutes is up, break off about 1/4 of the dough keeping the rest still in plastic. On a lightly floured surface roll the dough with your hands into a cylinder about 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch in diameter.
5. Cut the cylinder into 1/4 of an inch to form small "pillows." Sprinkle the pillows with flour.
6. To create the spiral shape of trofie, take a lightly floured pillow, rub it briskly between the palms of your hands to form another, smaller cylinder with tapered ends. Place this on a lightly floured board and twist around a skewer (see pictures above). Once finished, carefully remove, ensuring it retains its shape and place on wax paper. Make sure none of the trofie are touching.
7. Use the trofie within a two-hour window or refrigerate until ready for cooking.
8. To cook, boil a large pot of salted water and drop in the trofie. Let them boil for a few minutes until "al dente." Set aside a small cup of the boiled water and drain the trofie. Add your preferred sauce and toppings then dilute with the pasta water as needed. Serve warm and feel free to add some grated Parmesan cheese if desired.

We opted for a pesto sauce and it came out delizioso! For the full recipe, see below and for more, check out the cookbook Flour + Water: Pasta on Amazon.



Have you ever made homemade pasta? How did it go? What are your favorite recipe books?

Here are some of my favorites: