One of the biggest challenges we encountered when hosting meals at college was cost. With education running a hefty price tag of $50,000 apiece we had minimal spending money. Frugality is the college student’s watchword. At the same time, we’ve got to live, right? How could we align cost-consciousness with our love of entertaining?
The answer is as elusively simple as the cuisine from which it derives: pasta. Containing only flour, water, and (depending on the chef) egg or oil, it’s no mystery why pasta is the foundation of Italian cooking. And, despite what Barilla advertisements would persuade you to the contrary, pasta fatta in casa does taste different - and better! - than the dried, boxed variety. Most importantly for our purposes, flour is one of the cheapest ingredients in our cabinets and water (unlike in Europe) is free! Finally, pasta is an almost universal crowd pleaser (a necessary consideration if one’s roommates don’t really care about haute cuisine).
Mixing the dough is a fantastically rustic process done without a bowl (a big bonus when entertaining, because it means fewer dishes to wash when the diners lapse into soporific post-meal complacency).
1. Begin by pouring the flour onto a clean surface, using between ¾ cup and 1 cup per diner. It is ideal to use “pasta flour,” but I’ve had success with generic white flour, and have even mixed white with whole wheat (this makes the pasta slightly heavier, so you may have to compensate with extra egg/oil, but it also adds a distinctive homemade flavor). Make a well in the center of the pile, turning your flour-mountain into a flour-valley.
2. Then, crack your eggs into this valley, using 1 egg for every ¾ cups of flour.
3. Using a fork, break the yolks and whip them into the whites. Begin slowly incorporating flour from the edges of the mound, moving the fork in a circular motion. It is important to do this gradually, only pulling in more flour after the previous portion has been fully integrated; otherwise, the dough will become gummy and difficult to mix.
This is my favorite part of making pasta, and it’s especially good when hosting because it looks impressive. After practicing once or twice on your own, whip this out during pre-dinner cocktail hour to show your guests just how “hand made” their meal is going to be.
4. Once the dough becomes too thick to mix with a fork, begin kneading it into smoothness with your hands. If you have guests, here’s a great moment for them to (wash their hands and) pitch in. Keep kneading until you get a silky texture; if that seems elusive just keep going - you will be glad you did! Mold the dough into a ball and let it rest under an inverted bowl for at least 30 minutes.
The next step is rolling out the dough. Though Italian grandmother’s might scoff, I sometimes use a pasta maker - for those of us lacking upper-body strength this makes the process much less labor-intensive. (Biggest bonus of using a pasta maker: you can clean it with just a few swipes of the sponge!)
If you need help deciding which technique to use, consider your guests: a manly man trying to showcase his strong shoulders on date night should definitely roll by hand. If the idea is to be more participatory, however, most guests can take a turn at cranking the machine without fear.
When it comes to rolling by hand, success really depends on the quality of your dough. Let your dough sit for at least 45 minutes to reach the right elasticity. Then, using a lightly floured rolling pin, work it into a flat, thin sheet, about the height of a dime (for stuffed pastas, leave it a bit thicker).
To flatten by machine, feed lumps of dough smaller than your fist into the mouth of the pasta maker, pulling them through repeatedly until they are of uniform thickness. Then cut the sheets into the desired shape - wide stripes for fettucine, thinner ones for spaghetti, rectangles for farfalle, etc - and hang it up to air-dry briefly.
Another great bonus about homemade pasta for hosting is time: once prepared it cooks in literally 1-2 minutes. This is great if your event doesn’t allow time for you to disappear into the kitchen, or if you’re sporting a designer outfit that you don’t want covered in flour (sadly, this was rarely a problem for us in college...). If your guests are complaining of hunger at this point, assign one of them as taste-tester to sample every 30 seconds until the pasta is cooked to al dente perfection.
Eat, Enjoy, Repeat!
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