Egg Pasta

Egg pasta (It. pasta all'uovo) is usually eaten fresh, although it does appear dried and packaged as egg noodles or occasionally in the United States as “Pennsylvania Dutch” noodles. Some cooks claim that the only correct way to make egg pasta is with flour and egg alone. Adding oil and salt makes a dough that is easier to roll but the final texture is not quite as resilient. All-purpose unbleached wheat flour is normally used for egg pasta, as egg pasta made with durum wheat flour is almost impossible to roll to the ideal thickness—a mere ⅙ in/1.5 mm. For stuffing, the pasta should be thinner still. A manual or electric pasta machine can be used to knead, roll and cut the dough to the correct shape and thickness. Common egg pasta shapes include flat, wide and narrow ribbons, stuffed shapes such as ravioli, agnolotti, tortellini and cappelletti and small shapes such as bows, which are the American equivalent of farfalle.