Mushroom and feta mangio tortellini in a creamy mushroom sauce

Ogden Nash said it well, but I have to post an addendum to his famous words. Liquor is quicker, wrote the poet. But pasta is faster, I add humbly. If you want to cook a good meal at home, you can rustle up a wonderful plate of pasta tossed in olive oil in a matter of minutes.

So, without doubt, cooking pasta is easy — as long as you know your sauces, and when to take the boiling pasta off the fire. But for the last many months I have been interested in the process of making pasta. It is, of course, so much more convenient to buy your pasta from the local stores — these days you get different kinds of packaged pasta — but you just can’t beat the flavour of fresh, homemade pasta.

I got a taste of this many years ago when our Italian journalist friend Gabriella was posted in Delhi and would call us home for dinner.

Homemade mangio fetuccini tossed in pesto di basilico

Then, a couple of days ago, I got a mail from Mangio, an Italian restaurant in Calcutta, with some wonderful recipes of pasta, as well as detailed instruction on how to make pasta at home. These are the basic steps, for Italy boasts of some 600 types of pasta shapes and regional sub-varieties.

There are two essential ways of preparing pasta — one is by mixing flour with water and the other by adding eggs to the flour. Mangio’s pasta dough has been inspired by the kind of pasta that originated in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna. These are pastas made only with flour and eggs which, Mangio owner Lovey Burman says, absorb sauces better. And they work out very well if you are cooking pasta with basil at home, or with butter and tomato sauce, or a creamy mushroom sauce — all of which are Mangio specialities conjured up by Burman herself.

There are different ways of making pasta at home, for pasta preparation is an art that goes back to the time before Christ. Some think the pasta came to Italy after Marco Polo travelled to China and back, but records show that it was eaten by the Romans much before Marco Polo.

It flourished in southern Italy mainly because invaders took away its rich produce, leaving the locals with little food. To feed their families, people started preparing flour-based food at home which soon became a vital staple because of two reasons — it was cheap and easy to store.

Homemade mangio ravioli in burro e pomogoro (butter and tomato sauce)

Pasta, says my Italian food guru Antonio Carluccio, should be prepared with durum wheat, which is different from the wheat that’s used to bake bread. Durum has a structure that is just right for pasta. It keeps its intricate shapes, yet gives it elasticity. Carluccio stresses that there are five basic categories of pasta: dried durum wheat semolina pasta, fresh durum wheat pasta, dried egg pasta, fresh egg pasta and special pasta. The last category includes different kinds of pastas, such as green pasta which is kneaded with spinach or black pasta which has squid ink in it.

Burman offers a few tips to those who want to make homemade pasta. Knead the dough slowly and gradually, she says. With slow kneading, and the warmth of the hands, the dough becomes more elastic. It’s important to impart some warmth into your dough as you knead it, so make sure that the surface that you are using is not cold. If you are making your pasta with eggs, ensure that the eggs are not straight out of the fridge.

The other interesting thing about pasta is the stuffing. This is more cumbersome — and I shall go into details in another column. But, says Burman, homemade stuffed pastas and layered pastas for baking make some of the most elegant and delicious pasta dishes such as tortellini, cannelloni, ravioli and lasagna.

But that shall come another day. Right now, it’s time for a quick pasta.

Fettuce

Tagliatelle and fetuccini; (below) a pasta machine which is used to roll and cut the pasta

For the dough

Ingredients

• 3 eggs • 300gm plain flour

Method

Starting

• Pour the flour into a mound on a wooden or any other smooth, warm work surface. Make a well in the centre with your hand. Break the eggs one by one into the centre of the well. Beat the eggs gently with a fork until the yolks and whites are evenly mixed. With the fork, gradually incorporate the flour from the inside of the well into the egg until the egg is no longer runny. Do not break the wall of the flour or the egg will escape.

Kneading

• Now using both hands, swiftly bring the remaining flour over the egg mixture so that it is completely covered. Begin working the mass with your hands until all the flour is mixed in with the eggs. Add more flour if needed: the dough should feel moist but not sticky. When it is the right consistency, wrap it tightly in cling film. Scrape away all dough stuck to the work surface and wash your hands to remove any egg and flour. Unwrap the dough and begin kneading. Hold the dough with one hand while folding it over with the fingers of the other hand. Use the heel of your palm to push the dough down and away from you. Rotate the dough a quarter turn and repeat the two-part process. Continue until the dough is uniform and very smooth. Immediately wrap it in cling film and leave it to rest for at least 20 minutes before rolling it out.

Rolling and cutting

• Remove the dough from the cling film. Knead it again for about a minute or so that the moisture that has collected on the surface is worked back into the dough. Flatten the dough by rolling the pasta to the thinnest setting of the rollers. Use a knife to cut the pasta into strips around 12 inches long. If you have a pasta machine, attach the cutters to the machine and let the strips of pasta pass through the wider set. Set it for fettuccini at 5mm for tagliatelle at 8mm. Unravel the ribbons. If you are cooking them on that very day, let them flat on a towel to dry.