Strozzapreti - Fresh Hand Rolled Pasta

I have always been a bit nervous about making my own pasta because it seemed like it would be difficult without a pasta machine and I'd probably manage to mess up the recipe somehow.  How wrong I was!  Ok, there might be some types of pasta that are quite difficult to make but these Strozzapreti are hard to get wrong - you don't even need to make sure that they are all the same shape or size.  

My sister's been visiting (from Finland) and brought this recipe with her.  She first made strozzapreti in an Italian kitchen last year - look at that MASSIVE rolling pin!  Don't worry - pretty stone walls, giant sized rolling pin and brick fireplace are optional for making real Italian pasta!

Just before we get to the pasta making action, my sister told me some brilliant things about strozzapreti/pasta that she'd learnt from her stay in Italy and it kind of makes the pasta even more tasty!

The name "strozzapreti" comes from "priest strangler" or "priest choker".  Pretty grim, hey?!  Marina (my sister's Italian friend, this recipe is from Marina's mum) says that the name means "priest strangler" because…"Romagna in the past was part of the pope state but we always have being 'a bit!' against the church".  I'm also informed that you need to be able to roll very thin pasta sheets if you want to get a husband…

500g "00" flour

10 - 12oz water

1 medium egg

1 tablespoon olive oil

pinch of salt

Yes, that's all you need to make pasta!

I really can't stress how easy it is to make these - all you need to do is mix the egg and oil with the flour and then slowly add water until the dough is firm, silky smooth and not sticky.  Sticky dough is impossible to work with especially as the dough needs to be rolled out as thinly as possible.  I used the dough hook on my Kitchenaid mixer and it probably took about 15 minutes to get the dough approved by my sister!

Take a small handful of the dough to roll out, leaving the rest in the mixing bowl covered by a damp tea towel.  Lightly flour a surface and start rolling.  Rather than flipping the dough over once you've rolled as much as you can, just gently lift it up and rotate then start rolling again.  We managed to roll it so thin that you could start to see the counter top through the dough - basically you want it as thin as you can without it tearing.  Mr Jones take note - I am officially wife material!

Flour the top of the dough and then roll it around your rolling pin.  You then want to kind of layer it up so that it's easy to cut a length of pasta.

Slice through the dough to create ribbons about 3/4 centimetre wide.

Un-bunch the ribbons and place them on a lightly floured surface.  You could use these ribbons for linguini but what you really want to do is move on to the but that turns these into strozzapreti…

Roll the pasta strip between your palms in a single motion, pinch the rolled part off and put on a floured tray.  Here's my sister in action:

It couldn't be easier and it's really quite therapeutic!

Once you've worked your way through all of the dough you can either cook it straight away (boiling water, lightly salted, cook until soft but with a little bite) or you can freeze portions for later!  If you want to freeze the strozzapreti then lay them out on a tray, freeze and then pop them in a freezer bag.  When you want to cook them just put the frozen pasta straight in boiling water.