Penguin Books Australia

Pappardelle with Peas, Lettuce and Prosciutto

SERVES 4 Every child loves making pasta and it is such a simple and useful skill to have that I think the whole family should become comfortable with whipping up a small amount of pasta without any fuss. The instructions may at first look long and off-putting, but with two or three people working together this amount of pasta can be made from scratch in less than 15 minutes (excluding the one hour resting time). While I like to hand-cut pappardelle, you could just run the dough through the pasta machine cutters if you prefer. This delicate and gentle sauce is perfect with tender homemade pasta.

40 g unsalted butter
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
6 slices prosciutto, cut widthways into 1 cm-wide strips
12 cos lettuce leaves, hard stalks cut away, leaves cut widthways into 3 cm-wide strips
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
salt
500 g peas in pod (to yield 1 cup shelled peas)
1 cup pouring cream
2 tablespoons chopped
flat-leaf parsley
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
grated parmesan, to serve
FRESH PASTA
300 g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
3 free-range eggs, lightly beaten
1 free-range egg yolk (optional)

EXTRA EQUIPMENT
food processor
hand-cranked pasta machine

To make the pasta, put flour into a food processor. With motor running, add eggs. Process for a few minutes until dough clings together and feels springy (it should not feel sticky); if mixture is too dry, add an extra egg yolk. Tip dough onto a workbench, knead it for a few minutes, then wrap in plastic film and rest for 1 hour at room temperature.
Clear a large space on your workbench and have a bowl of plain flour nearby. All surfaces must be dry. If serving pasta immediately, bring a large saucepan or pasta pot of lightly salted water to the boil. Divide dough in half. Press each piece into a rectangle about 8 cm wide. Pass this piece of dough through pasta machine rollers set to its thickest setting. If dough comes through ragged at the edges, fold it in 3, then turn it 90 degrees and roll it through twice more. Change to next-thickest setting and pass the dough through 3-4 times. Continue in this manner until dough has passed through thinnest setting desired. If dough gets too long to handle comfortably, cut it into 2-3 pieces and roll each piece
separately. Either cut pasta sheets into 10-15 mm-wide pappardelle, or run them over cutting rollers. Lay cut pasta on flour-dusted bench or a clean tea towel and roll and cut remaining dough. Use as soon as possible, or hang over a length of dowelling (or a broom handle) or the back of a chair to dry. It will take 10 minutes or so for pasta to dry in a well-ventilated room.