Pasta al Mattarello

I find rolling out a big sheet of pasta using a long rolling pin to be a very satisfying and therapeutic exercise. It is easier than it looks. I was worried that rolling up the dough onto the rolling pin to move it around would cause it to stick and make a mess, but it simply does not happen. It is not a big deal at all. I have pretty much abandoned using a machine. It is particularly efficient for filled pastas because you can do the whole machine at once. For hand-cut pastas, it becomes more efficient as you gain proficiency.

I learned a good trick from pro pasta guru Evan Funke, which is to use some number of Post-It notes to determine the final thickness. For example, for delicate pastas such as tortellini and tortelloni, 9 Post-Its thick (0.45 mm) is a good number according to him. I tend to use the same thickness for all of my pasta, and I will need to measure how many Post-It notes that is. I like this method of using Post-It notes because you can record precisely how thick you prefer (even if it's not 9).

Pasta all’Uovo (semola OR 00 recipe), prepared until it tells you to return here

1. I need to add a bunch of photos here the next time I do this.

2. If you had frozen your pasta, let it get to room temperature. Otherwise you will have let it rest for at least 15 minutes.

3. Put some base flour (semola or 00) on the bottom and top of the dough ball.

4. Rotate the dough around with your hands on the sides and try to get that ball/disk as circular as possible before you take out your rolling pin.

5. Balance your 1 1/2" x 48" long rolling pin (mattarello) in the middle of the dough.

6. In phase one of the rolling here, keep you hands together on the rolling pin and use the base of your palm to apply moderate/light pressure as you roll it back and forth.

7. After a small amount of rolling, rotate the dough 45 degrees, then roll it some more. The goal here is to try to keep the dough as circular as possible. Obviously, as you roll back and forth, you will make it more oval, but if you keep rotating it as you go, over time it will come circular.

8. By the way, if the dough starts to stick a lot to the work surface, add just enough dough to keep it happy. Do not add any flour unless necessary.

9. It's good to flip the dough every once in a while so that both sides end up with the same amount of flour.

10. Once the sheet is roughly 12" in diameter and about 1/8" thick (possibly slightly more), we will switch to phase two, which is very different.

11. Let about 40% of the sheet hang over the work surface closest to you.

12. With one foot back and one foot forward, place your hands wide on the long rolling pin and hold it loosely in your fingers.

13. Roll forward to extend the sheet away from you. The 40% overhand keeps the dough from slipping (unless you have a lot of flour on it). As you roll forward, let your hands come together on the rolling pin. This will make your arms end up pointing straight outward. This is tricky buy you don't want to be holding the rolling pin tightly. You want it very loose in your fingers so it can roll, but you want to be applying pressure on the top of it using the middle of your palms, otherwise the sheet won't extend very quickly forward.

14. Once your hands come together at the top tip of the dough, let the rolling pin roll backward toward you without any pressure applied. Let it roll freely. We only want to extend the sheet away from you.

15. Extend this sheet away from you with a few rolls.

16. Next, place your rolling pin at the top of the sheet (furthest away from you) and let the dough roll onto the rolling pin as you roll it back toward you. Don't worry, it will not stick.

17. Now rotate the whole thing 90 degrees and unroll it back out over the edge of the counter so that (a different) 40% ends up hanging over the edge.

18. Repeat the previous steps.

19. Once in a while, when you unroll the sheet off the rolling pin, flip the whole thing over.

20. One probably you undoubtly have is that you may start seeing it bunch up a little. There are several things you can do: 1) use your hands to spread the sheet out left and right a little to undo those little folds, 2) slow down your outward roll, 3) apply less downward pressure when extending, and 4) give in and add some flour under the sheet near where the fold is developing (usually toward the top). This can be a little frustrating, but is manageable.

21. If the left side is not extended as much as the right side, apply more pressure with the left hand to help even it out. And vice-versa obviously.

22. You'll know it has reached its proper thickness when you can start to see through it. It helps to hold it up to a window (on the rolling pin) to see how uniform the thickness is. If part of the sheet is thicker, add more pressure on that hand to even it out.

23. Keep going until you get the desired thickness and it's fairly uniform across the sheet.

24. If you are cutting your own noodles, return to Pasta Tagliata a Mano for further instruction. There is a little drying that has to be done for that first.

25. If you are instead making a stuffed pasta such as Ravioli or Tortelloni, return to that recipe for further instruction. You do not want to do any drying for that.