Handcut Tagliettelle with Clams

Handmade pasta is well worth the effort.

Begin with 3 eggs and 2 tablespoons olive oil in a flour mountain. I’m hesitant to give a measurement because the amount that the flour will absorb will change every time you do this. It’s roughly 2 cups of flour, but this technique allows you to put way too much flour on the board and not ruin your dough. Using a fork, stab the yolks and begin to incorporate the flour into the well while stirring. As you do this, the sides of the well will recede, I like to push them back every few seconds or so. Pretty quickly you will reach a point where the fork is useless. Flour your hands, and knead for ten minutes. An easy method is to turn the dough 90 degrees, fold it on itself and push with the base of the hand into the dough. Form a ball, cover and let rest for 30 minutes.

Because of size of my work surface, a 3 egg ball of dough needs to be cut into 8 separate pieces for rolling. Hopefully your surface is bigger than ours and you can get away with more. Try cutting into quarters, if you can roll the dough to the point where you can barely make out light through it, you are fine. Roll the dough evenly as thin as you can. I flip the sheet and re-flour often. Once you are happy with the thickness, trim any jutting pieces (not necessary but makes more uniform noodles), flour well and fold the dough over on itself. Using a sharp knife, cut your desired pasta.

Unravel the noodles and drape them on your hand. Dredge them in flour if they are sticking, and place them in curls on a plate to wait for boiling. These noodles need significantly less time than the dried variety. I would taste one after one minute, but two minutes is usually safe.