Sonoma chef shares secrets to perfect homemade pasta

There are many home cooks who are afraid to make their own pasta. These are usually the same folks who fear pie crust and are haunted by visions of dough and the white flour stuck all over their hands and kitchen counters.

Do you resemble that remark? And do you ever wonder, “If I can purchase dried pasta out of a box, is it really worth the time and effort to mix, knead, rest, roll out and cut my own pasta dough?”

For those who adore the silky texture and the delicate, eggy flavor of fresh pasta, the answer is a resounding “Si!” It’s only flour and eggs and water, after all. What could go wrong?

Well, as it turns out, it’s not always easy. While there are dozens of perfect pastas out there - think about the last time you ate at Scopa in Healdsburg or Cannetti Roadhouse in Forestville - it turns out that there is no perfect recipe for making pasta.

“It all depends on the weather,” said chef/instructor Lisa Lavagetto, who taught a pasta class earlier this month at Ramekins Cooking School in Sonoma. “Humidity can make a difference.”

After Lavagetto threw together her dry ingredients (flour and salt) to make agnolotti, a small ravioli, she added the eggs and olive oil to a stand mixer with a dough hook.

“After you add the eggs, look for the dough to come together around the beater,” she said. “If it’s too dry, add water until it barely comes together.”

The dough flagrantly refused to come together until Lavagetto splashed water on it several times, demonstrating one of those pesky pitfalls.

Here are some other tips Lavagetto offered for making your pasta dough behave as it should:

When you throw the dry ingredients together, mix and aerate them a little.

Always use large eggs. All pasta recipes are written for large eggs.

If you don’t have a stand mixer, try making it by hand, the way Italian nonnas have been doing for centuries. Simply make a mound of the dry ingredients, put the eggs in the middle and then using a fork, in a circular motion, mix the dry and wet ingredients together.

After the dough comes together, hand knead it, folding it on itself and using the heel of your hand to push it away. “I always hand knead it, because that tells me how the dough is doing,” Lavagetto said.

Don’t try to roll it out right away or you will end up with tough pasta. “I rest the dough for a half hour to three hours,” she said.

If you mess up while rolling out the dough, don’t try to re-roll it immediately or it will be tough. Let it rest again, and start over.

Once the dough has rested and the glutens have relaxed, you need to run the dough through some kind of flattening machine: that means either hand-cranked pasta machine from Italy or a pasta attachment (with roller and cutters) for your stand mixer.

“The hand-cranker works wonderfully, but it’s a challenge by yourself,” she said. “You need three hands.”

The pasta attachment is a bit pricey but worth it if you end up making a lot of your own fresh pasta.

For her classes, Lavagetto always uses the pasta attachment roller, which has settings that go from 1 (the thickest setting) to 10. The only down side is that the attachments need to be re-oiled once a year or they will squeak loudly.

“Never put the attachment in water,” she warned. “Just brush it off.”

For cutting the pasta, you can go as old school or as high-tech as you want. The class used an old-fashioned pastry cutter to make fresh farfalle (butterflies) and the agnolotti (stuffed raviolis; simple wooden stamps to make flat corzetti; and a chitarra maker (wood box with metal strings) to make the long, thin spaghetti known as chitarra.

While rolling and cutting the dough, it’s important to keep a “bench” of extra flour to prevent the dough from sticking when it goes through the machine.

If you are stuffing the pasta, you want to roll it out at least to the 5 setting, because you want the pasta to be thinner.

To use the chitarra, Lavagetto demonstrated how to put flour on the side of the dough facing down against the strings. Then she rubbed a rolling pin back and forth over the dough and the strings, which eventually cut the dough into narrow strings.

The corzetti, a pasta that comes from the heart of Genoa, are even easier. You simply cut them into circles with the hollow side of the stamp, like a cookie cutter, then imprint them with the design side.

The farfalle are crimped along the edge with the pastry wheel, then cut into rectangles and pinched.

The agnolotti are made with long strips, crimped along the edges, then folded lengthwise over little mounds of filling. In between the filling, you press the dough together and cut to separate.

Raviolis are similar to agnolotti, only you make them with a metal mold for stuffing, and a rolling pin, for cutting the dough to the correct shape.

Lavagetto uses a mix of all-purpose flour and semolina flour for her farfalle and agnolotti, because she wants the dough to be a little sturdier. The chitarra, a pasta from the Abruzzo region of central Italy, is made with all-purpose flour and eggs.

When choosing an all-purpose flour, the most important thing is to stick with the same kind so that you can predict how it will react in different weather conditions.

“When baker Nick Malgieri comes here, he uses Gold Medal,” she said. “That’s because he knows how it works. Just be consistent.”

Lavagetto, who has been cooking authentic Italian food for the past 35 years, has an array of savory pasta sauces she likes to pair with the fresh pasta, mixing and matching as the mood suits her.

She likes to nap the fresh, sturdy farfalle in an Italian sausage sauce rounded out with vodka and heavy cream. The lighter, simply corzetti float gently in a light seafood soup, scented with saffron. The hearty, short rib agnolotti cry out for a traditional, Italian meat sauce like Nona used to make.

“The Italian sausage sauce is divine,” she said.

“And the short rib agnolotti is a great dish if you have leftover short ribs.”

Homemade Farfalle

Serves 4

2 large eggs

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

2/3 cup semolina flour

Mix the all-purpose and semolina flour together, then make a volcano-like mound of flour on your work surface.

Place dry ingredient sin food processor and slowly pour in eggs until dough comes together. If too moist, add a bit more water. You want the dough to be soft but not sticky. Cover and let it relax for 30 minutes.

Roll the dough and cut into piece 1 1/2-inch x 1-inch and then pinch into butterflies.

Farfalle with Vodka Sauce and Sausage

Serves 4 to 6

1 pound fresh farfalle

4 tablespoons olive oil

1 pound Italian sausage, removed from the casing and crumbled or chopped

2 cups chopped yellow onions

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

- Pinch crushed red pepper flakes

6 teaspoons minced garlic

2 14.5-ounce cans crushed tomatoes

1/2 cup vodka

1 cup heavy cream

1-2 tablespoons?chiffonade of frehs basil leaves

- Freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, for garnish

- Sprig fresh basil, for garnish

Bring a medium saucepan of salted water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook until just al dente, 5 to 6 minutes. Drain in a colander and return to the saucepan.

Meanwhile, in a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the sausage and cook, stirring, until browned and all pink has disappeared, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the onions, salt and red pepper flakes and cook, stirring, until the onions are soft and golden about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the tomatoes and cook, stirring until thick, about 8 minutes. Add the vodka and cook until the sauce us reduced by half, about 3 to 4 minutes. Stir in the cream and cook until the sauce thickens, about 4 to 5 minutes. Stir in the basil and remove from the heat. Toss the sauce with the pasta to coat evenly and transfer to a pasta bowl for serving. Top with cheese and sprig of basil and serve immediately.

Corzetti Dough

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

3 eggs

- Pinch salt

Place flours and salt in the food processor, add the eggs and mix until dough comes together. Add water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until dough is smooth. Wrap and allow to rest for a half hour.

Roll through pasta machine until you can see your hand. Cut out corzetti and stamp with design.

Corzetti with Swiss Chard and Seafood

Serves 6 to 8

1/2 pound sea scallops

1/2 pound mussels

1 pound of clams

- Fine sea salt

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 medium shallots, thinly sliced

1/2 pound Swiss chard, center ribs removed and leaves coarsely chopped

1 cup vegetable broth or more as needed

1/2 teaspoon crumbled saffron threads

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 pound fresh corzetti or dried corzetti

- Freshly ground white pepper (optional)

Cut scallops into quarters; set aside. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, heat oil over medium high heat; add shallots, reduce heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally, until shallots just begin to soft, about 5 minutes. Add chard in batches, then add broth, 1/4 teaspoon salt and saffron; cook, stirring until greens are just wilted.

Add scallops to skillet, tucking pieces among greens; gently simmer, turning scallops occasionally, until scallops are just cooked through, 3 to 4 minutes. Add butter and gently stir until melted, then remove skillet from heat and cover to keep warm.

Cook pasta in the boiling water until just tender - 2 to 3 minutes or until al dente.

Drain. Combine the pasta with the scallops and chard in the pan. Sprinkle with pepper if desired.

Agnolotti Pasta Dough

1 1/2 cup semolina flour

1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

4 large eggs

2-3 tablespoons olive oil

In a food processor fitted with a steel blade or in a stand mixer, combine the flours and salt. Add the eggs one by one and 2 tablespoons of the olive oil. Mix until dough forms a ball, adding water if necessary. Remove and place dough on a lightly floured surface. Hand knead until dough is smooth. Wrap in plastic and allow dough to rest for at least one hour in the refrigerator. Dough can be made the day before.

Wine Braised Short Ribs

Serves 6

5 pounds short ribs of beef

4 tablespoons olive oil

2 cups yellow onions, chopped

1 cup carrots, chopped

3/4 cup celery, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 cups red wine

1/2 cup tomato paste

8 ounces canned plum tomatoes, roughly chopped

2 sprigs fresh thyme

12 cups veal stock

For sauce:

2 cups dry sherry

3 tablespoons unsweetened chocolate

1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme

1/2 tablespoon chopped fresh marjoram

2 tablespoons finely grated orange zest

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

To make the short ribs, preheat oven to 300 degrees. Generously salt and pepper the ribs. In a large casserole pan, heat 4 tablespoons olive oil over high heat. Add the ribs and brown on all sides until golden, about 4-5 minutes. Remove the ribs and set aside. Sauté onion, carrots, celery and garlic in the same pan until well caramelized, about 10-15 minutes. Add red wine and cook over high heat until the red wine is reduced by half. Stir in tomato paste, tomatoes and thyme. Add browned ribs and veal stock. Bring to a boil, cover and bake for about 3 hours, or until meat pulls easily away from the bone.

For sauce: Remove the meat from the pan and set aside. Strain the remaining sauce through a colander, and then through a fine mesh strainer, into a large casserole pan. Add the sherry and reduce the sauce by half. Stir in the chocolate, thyme, marjoram, orange zest and butter. Taste and season with salt and pepper. Return the ribs to the pan and simmer until heated through, about 2 minutes.

Use to stuff the agnolotti, above, and serve with Nona’s Italian Meat Sauce, below.

Nona’s Italian Meat Sauce

Makes 6 to 8 servings

4 garlic cloves, mashed

2 teaspoons fresh rosemary

1/4 cup butter

1/2 cup olive oil

4 ounces salt pork, finely diced

2 onions, peeled and diced

1 carrot, minced

1 stalk celery, minced

1/2 pounds lean ground beef

1 pound fresh, lean ground pork

2 bay leaves, crumbled

1 teaspoon black pepper

- Pinch allspice

1/2 cup good red wine

2 cups Italian canned tomatoes, chopped

2 ripe fresh tomatoes, chopped

- Salt to taste

Finely chop the garlic and rosemary together and set aside.

Combine butter, olive oil and salt pork in the sauce pot and heat. When the salt pork is slightly rendered, add the onions, carrots and celery and cook on medium-high heat until slightly brown. Crumble the beef and pork into the sauce pot and continue cooking until browned, about 10 minutes. Add the bay leaves, pepper, allspice, garlic and rosemary to the pot and cook for five minutes. Add wine and cover for 3 minutes. Add the canned tomatoes and continue cooking on low heat until just slightly bubbling for 30 minutes uncovered.

Using stick blender or food processor, puree sauce, thinning with hot water as necessary. Serve very smooth or slightly rustic, over the agnolotti stuffed with wine braised short ribs.

Staff writer Diane Peterson can be reached at 521-5287 or diane.peterson@pressdemocrat.com.