When using my torchio pasta press, I work with different dough recipes depending upon the type of pasta
shape I am making. Because I am on a bit of a gramigna kick (here), my current dough-of-choice consists of 250
grams of type 00 and extra fancy durum flour mixed with 125 grams of eggs. This
2:1 flour-to-egg ratio produces a dry, hard dough suited to making gramigna in a torchio.
Just for fun, I used this
same dough to make flat egg noodles in a conventional pasta machine with
rollers. Although a 2:1 flour-to-egg ratio
works exceptionally well in a torchio,
this mixture felt a tad too hard for a home pasta machine. So, over the course
of a week, I made multiple batches of dough, adding varying amounts of additional
water to create a dough that was dry and hard—which results in a pasta with a
firm texture—but not so hard that it would unduly stress my pasta machine.
With each batch I started
with a mixture of type 00 flour from Central Milling (150 grams) and extra
fancy durum flour from Giustos (100 grams). I sifted the flour into the bowl of
a standing mixer and added a large pinch of salt. Next, I placed a glass on a
scale, tared the scale and added 2 whole medium eggs and 1 medium egg yolk. On
average this egg mixture weighed approximately 125 grams.
Over the course of five runs,
I added as few as 5 grams and as many as 20 grams of additional water to the 125
gram egg mixture. I set the mixer, equipped with a paddle attachment, to low and
drizzled in the egg mixture. Next, I mixed the dough until it came together (about
2 minutes depending upon the amount of liquid). Then, I removed the dough from
the mixer, kneaded the dough by hand for a minute or two, and wrapped the dough
in plastic and let it hydrate at room temperature for 30 minutes. Finally, I
rolled the dough to setting 3 on my Imperia R220 Manual pasta machine.
By adding a relatively
small amount of water to the eggs—as few as 5 grams—the dough became noticeably
easier to roll in the R220. Of the dough variations, I preferred the driest batch
(i.e., the dough with 5 grams of additional water), which produced a pasta with
a great bite.
