Whole Wheat Dough for Tagliatelle and Other Long Pastas

Ingredients

2 large eggs, at room temperature

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

1 cup (120 g) tipo "00" flour

1 cup (120 g) whole wheat flour

3 large egg yolks, at room temperature

Semolina, for dusting

Directions

Whisk the eggs and olive oil in a small bowl to blend

In a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, mix both flours for a few seconds on low to blend. Pour in the egg-olive oil mixture and mix on low until the ingredients look like coarse sand

Add the egg yolks, one at a time, mixing for a few seconds after each addition. The dough will become "chunkier" and then start sticking together as a mass.

Knead on low until the dough seems very dense and springy, about 5 minutes. Wrap the dough in plastic and let it rest for at least 20 minutes and up to 24 hours (put it in the refrigerator if you'll rest it for more than 1 hour). The rest helps the flour absorb the liquid in the eggs and fully hydrate.

To roll out the dough, attach the pasta roller to the stand mixer. Start with a golf-ball-size chunk of dough. You'll see how long a

strip this produces and whether you can comfortably handle it. Make the next chunk bigger or smaller; it doesn't really matter how long your noodles are, but it does matter that you can manipulate the dough easily as you roll.

Flatten the dough chunk slightly with the heel of your hand. Insert the dough into your pasta roller set on the widest setting. For these instructions, we'll say 1 is the widest and 7 is the narrowest.

Run the chunk through on setting 1, then again on setting 2, and finally on setting 3. Don't worry if the dough doesn't look perfect; it might be streaky or a bit ripped but the texture will improve with subsequent rolling.

Fold the pasta sheet in thirds crosswise. On the end that looks straightest, fold the corners over a tiny bit so the edge is now slightly angled. This will help you insert the dough strip into the

Repeat rolling through settings 1 through 3 . As you roll, try to keep the tension even between the portion of the dough sheet entering the rollers and the portion exiting the rollers. This will help create a sheet that is of even width, the full width of the rollers. While an even width isn't critical for long noodles like tagliatelle, it will make your noodles more uniform, and it's a good practice to develop.

Fold the pasta into thirds again, fold the corners of the leading edge, and repeat for a third cycle. By now, the texture of the dough should be evening out; it should look smooth and uniform in color.

You can stop now or run the sheet through setting 4 and maybe 5, depending on how thick you like your noodles.

Generously dust a sheet pan with semolina and lay out your pasta sheet, folding it so it fits on the sheet pan and dusting with more semolina between the folds. Cover loosely with a dry towel or plastic.

Repeat with the remaining dough.

You can now run the pasta sheets through the cutting blade of your pasta maker, or cut noodles by hand: Stack a few sheets together and roll into a loose cylinder, leaving about 1 inch (2.5 cm) unrolled, sticking out like a tab.

With a very sharp knife, cut across the cylinder into strips of your desired width. I think ⅜ inch (1 cm) is a good width for tagliatelle (but there's probably an Italian law that specifies the width to the precise millimeter).

Pick up the strips a few at a time by grabbing the unrolled tab

and letting the noodles dangle. Shake off the excess semolina. Shape the noodles into a loose "nest" and arrange back on the semolina-dusted sheet pan.

Let the tagliatelle rest on the counter loosely covered until you're ready to cook it, up to 4 hours. You can also freeze the pasta: Slide the sheet pan into the freezer until the pasta is solid, then transfer the nests into a freezer container. They will be best protected if you put them into an airtight box, but a zip-top freezer bag will work also. Just take care that they don't get crushed by a bag of frozen peas in the freezer.

To cook, follow the instructions on page 262. When the tagliatelle is freshly made, the cooking time should be 4 minutes, so start checking at 3 minutes.

Notes

Making pasta from scratch is a bit of a project, so plan your time accordingly. Fortunately, the tagliatelle freezes nicely, so make more than you'll need for one meal to maximize your efficiency. You can make these long noodles totally by hand, but you'll get the best results if you have a pasta machine. The hand-crank kind is fine, but once you've tried the pasta attachment that works with a stand mixer, you'll never go back. Not only does the motor do all the hard work, but not needing to turn the crank gives you both hands to guide the dough strips through the rollers. In this pasta, by using two flours, we get depth of flavor and more nutrients from the whole-grain flour and a chewy, silky, springy texture from the white tipo "00" flour, an extra-fine flour you can find in many well-stocked grocery stores or online. If you can't find it, an all-purpose white will work just fine. This dough will work for other noodle widths, though I wouldn't go narrower than about ⅞ inch (3 mm) or you risk the noodles breaking. The wider the noodle, the thinner the sheet of pasta should be. Of course fresh pasta is sublime with just butter and a shower of grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, but I also love these tagliatelle with the Beef and Pork Ragù (page 320) or even the Perfect Simple Tomato Sauce (page 275) that I use for my pizzas. —Makes just less than 1 pound (455 g)