Pepper And Mussel Linguine Pt. 1

To maximize on the budget, I figured pasta would be the best choice. It’s simple, delicious and when it’s made by hand, incredibly cheap.

Handmade Semolina Pasta
(Approx. 2 hours)

3 cups Semolina Flour (plus a little extra)

2 Tbsp Olive Oil

1 cup warm water (around 85 degrees)

The best thing about this recipe is how simple it is. Just remember that it’s 3,2,1.

3 cups flour, 2 Tbsp oil and 1 cup warm water. It’s very important to use warm (not hot) water or else it won’t come together right.

Combine all the ingredients in a stand mixer or a large mixing bowl until all the liquid is incorporated and your mix looks a little crumbly.

If there’s too much liquid, you can add a little bit more flour, not enough and it could be a little harder to work with.

When in doubt, save about 1/2 cup of flour for the next part.

Transfer to a clean and lightly floured surface so you can knead and fold the dough together. Add any extra flour you may need a couple tablespoons at a time and continue kneading until your dough stops feeling tacky.

Toss in a lightly greased bowl, covered, and let it sit at room temperature for an hour. After that, it’s time for my favorite part, THE MACHINE!!

Now, if you don’t have a pasta maker, you could spend hours trying to roll the dough thin enough to make pasta and honestly, you most likely still won’t be able to. If you HAVE gone out and spent $35 or so to get a decent pasta maker, this step should be a breeze.

Go ahead and take that dough out and bust out a rolling pin. Roll it out into a long strip roughly 4-6 inches (10-15 cm) wide and a thickness of 1/4 inch (7 mm) or less.

Cut that into three equal sections and pass each of them through your rollers on the thickest setting. Dust the sheet in flour to keep the dough from sticking to the machine if needed and fold it in half.

I like to give the seam a slight tug before running it through, it just gives the rollers a little more to pull on and helps you get your dough through easier.

Fold it in half and run it through the rollers again.

Reduce the thickness by one setting do this all again.
And again.

And again...

Keep rolling, folding and reducing the settings (and maybe cut your sheets down when they start getting too long) until you get the thickness you want, I usually use one of the last three.

Give it all a liberal dusting of flour and let sit for 15 minutes to dry in preparation for the next step.

Ok, 15 minutes is up and we’re almost done. Take a sheet of pasta and slowly pass it through the cutting wheels. Catch the cut noodles from the bottom and save them for cooking right away or pack them up in your fridge to use later.

And that’s it, you’re done!!

Just boil for 3-4 minutes and add your favorite sauce for a dish better than your local restaurants and cheap that you won’t want to go back to boxed stuff.