Sourdough Pasta
Once I learned you could freeze homemade pasta, I was hooked! Make it anytime of day and then chuck it in the freezer, it goes straight from the freezer to the pot and the texture is the same as unfrozen. Even more convenient and useful was this recipe I found while looking for new ways to use all sourdough discard I had in my fridge. The taste is amazing, taste the pasta plain and it tastes like you would think sourdough pasta tastes, but add a sauce and it’s just a depth of flavor, a subtle hint in the background. It’s delicious. This was Samin Nosrat’s pasta recipe adapted by the nytimes on how to add the discard. I changed it by swapping 00 flour for semolina because I found when using my pasta extruded, it held up better with semolina. Feel free to sub 00 for the semolina as Samin suggests.
Adapted from Samin Nosrat’s Pasta recipe, and the NYTimes “8 Delicious ways to use your Sourdough Discard” article
Adapted recipe by: Tierney Larson
Sourdough Pasta:
107 grams of All Purpose Flour or 00 Flour
107 grams Semolina Flour (you can sub all purpose here if you don’t have semolina)
1 egg plus 2 yolks
175 grams of sour dough discard
About 1 1/2 tbl of a finely chopped herb you’d like to add to the dough such as sage, thyme, oregano or tarragon (optional)
Mix the flours together and pour them out onto a clean dry surface. Make a large well in the middle of the flours, and add the discard and egg with yolks. With a fork start whisking the eggs and discard together, once they’re combined, start adding flour from the edges of the well and continue to combine until you’ve mixed about half of the flour, or it gets hard to use the fork. Switch to a bench knife or bowl scraper and start adding the rest of the flour by folding the flour over the dough and mixing it in by tapping it into the dough using the scraper, or if you feel comfortable enough start using your hands at this part to incorporate the rest of the flour.
If you’re using a pasta extruder, try and incorporate all of the flour to have your dough on the drier side, it will come out of the extruder easier and the pasta will hold its shape better. If you’re going to cut the dough by hand, then stop adding flour when the dough no longer feels sticky and it’s a nice consistency.
Either way you choose, let the dough rest covered by an inverted bowl or plastic wrap (a towel will draw out the moisture in the dough), for 10 minutes before kneading so the flour can absorb. Then knead the dough for 5-8 minutes until it’s completely smooth and it no longer tears on the surface when you shape it into a ball.
Let the dough rest for 30 minutes-4 hours at room temp covered before shaping the pasta.
Follow your pasta extruders instructions for different pasta shapes, or if you’d like to cut fettuccine or linguini by hand, read below.
After your dough has rested, sprinkle semolina flour generously all over a large sheet tray and set aside. Set your pasta roller onto the widest setting.
Cut your dough in half and keep the other half covered while you work. Shape the other half into a rough square shape by gently stretching and flattening the dough. Pass the dough through the roller once, and then fold it like a letter, in thirds, so it resembles a square again, and pass it through again on the widest setting. Repeat 3 or 4 times, (this helps to knead the dough further), then turn the dial to the next widest setting and continue to pass the dough through (no need to fold it this time) until you reach the thickness you like. *to add herbs to the dough see note below. For linguine, I rolled it to the 3rd setting on my pasta roller.
Place the sheet of dough on a lightly floured surface and square off the edges. Then cut the dough in half or to the desired length you want your noodles. Then fold the sheet of dough in half and cut using a sharp knife into the desired width you would like. Linguine is about 1/8-1/4 inch in width. Fluff and separate the noodles and toss in the semolina flour on your sheet pan, then leave them in a little nest on the sheet pan covered in plastic wrap until ready to cook or freeze for future use.
To freeze, place the sheet pan with pasta uncovered in the freezer for 10 minutes, then immediately place the pasta nests or whatever pasta shape you made, into freezer safe zip lock bags and press out any air. Then freeze for up to a month. When ready to cook, place them in generously salted boiling water straight from the freezer (or fresh), it should take anywhere from 2-4 minutes depending on what shape you made.
Notes: *To add herbs, make sure to remove the leaves from the stem as the stem will tear the dough, after a few passes through on the widest setting, sprinkle herbs over half the dough, then fold the dough over itself sealing in the herbs by gently pressing down and pass it through until your desired thickness is reached. I used thyme in my linguine.
