Video: Bayly’s Bites | Fresh Pasta, Carbonara and Arrabiata recipe
Always wanted to cook like a chef? Now you can with Bayly’s Bites! Join Head Chef Nathan Jackson as he gives you all the tools you need to create fresh, nutritious and of course, delicious, meals at home. In the first installment, Nathan takes us to Italia with recipes for a simple egg pasta, Carbonara and Arrabiata sauce to match (find the recipes below). Buon Appetito!
Pasta dough
Ingredients
375g plain flour (400g for larger sized eggs)
4 eggs, at room temperature
Extra plain flour to dust
Method
Tip flour onto clean bench. Use your hands to shape the flour into a circular mound. Make a well in the centre. Place the whisked eggs into the well. Use your fingertips to gradually blend a little flour into the egg mixture. Working with your fingertips, continue to gradually draw the flour into the centre (being careful the egg mixture does not run out of the well) until the mixture forms a dough. To check if the dough is the right consistency, press a clean, dry finger into the centre of the dough. If it comes out clean without being sticky, it is the right consistency. If not, knead in a little more flour and test again.
Lightly flour the surface if necessary. Firmly knead the dough by using the heel of your hand to firmly push down into it and then away from you. Lift the dough with your fingertips and fold it back on itself towards you. Turn the dough a half turn and repeat. Continue and repeat. Continue kneading the dough for 6-7 minutes or until smooth and elastic. Kneading is an important part of the pasta-making process as it develops the gluten in the flour, giving the pasta a firm, tender texture. Divide the dough into 4 equal portions and wrap each portion in plastic wrap or cover with a clean, damp tea towel. This will prevent the dough from drying out. Set aside for 30 min to 1 hour to rest. This helps make the pasta more pliable and easier to roll out.
Attach a pasta machine to the side of a workbench and adjust the machine’s rollers to the widest setting. Spread about 4 clean, dry tea towels over the work surface close to the pasta machine. Unwrap a portion of dough and use the palm of your hands to flatten it into a rectangle. Dust the rollers with flour and roll the dough portion through. Dust again with flour and repeat on the same setting. Fold in the shorter sides of the dough to meet in the centre to form a smaller rectangle and feed through the machine again. Repeat this process 5-6 times or until smooth.
Reduce the width between the rollers by 1 and roll the dough through as before. Repeat the process, reducing the setting each time until the dough is 1-1.5mm thick. The settings on all pasta machines vary. The last setting on some machines may roll the dough too thin, resulting in it sticking to the rollers and tearing. So be careful to only reduce the setting and roll the dough until it reaches the desired thickness.
Spread the pasta sheet over the clean tea towels. When laying out the pasta sheets, they must not touch or overlap each other as the moist pasta will stick together. Repeat steps 3-4 with the remaining portions of dough. Set the pasta sheets aside for 10-15 minutes (depending on the temperature in your kitchen) or until dry enough not to stick together but pliable enough not to crack. Trim the edges of the pasta. Cut into 14 x 25cm pieces to make lasagne sheets or see step 6 to make fettuccine.
To cut the pasta into fettuccine by hand, loosely roll up a pasta sheet starting from the shortest end. Trim the ends and discard. Use a sharp knife to cut the pasta crossways at 5mm intervals. Unravel the pasta. To cut pasta into fettuccine using the pasta machine, you will need a fettuccine cutting attachment. Fit the machine with the attachment and feed the pasta sheets, one at a time, through the fettuccine attachment. Cook immediately or store individual portions as loose nests.
CARBONARA SAUCE
Ingredients
3 large free-range egg yolks
40 g Parmesan cheese , plus extra to serve
150g of higher-welfare bacon
200g fresh pasta
Extra virgin olive oil
Method
Put the egg yolks into a bowl, finely grate in the Parmesan, season with pepper, then mix well with a fork and put to one side.
Chop bacon
Heat medium sized pan, add bacon then cook for 4 minutes, or until it starts to crisp up.
Cook the pasta in a large pan of boiling salted water until al dente.
Reserving some of the cooking water, drain and add the pasta to the pan. Toss well over the heat so it really soaks up all that lovely flavour, then remove the pan from the heat.
Add a splash of the cooking water and toss well, then pour in the egg mixture – the pan will help to cook the egg gently, rather than scrambling it. Toss well, adding more cooking water until it’s lovely and glossy.
Serve with a grating of Parmesan and an extra twist of pepper.
ARRABIATA SAUCE
Ingredients
2 tbsp olive oil
1 brown onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 x 400g cans whole peeled tomatoes
4 anchovies
2 teaspoon dried chilli (or to taste)
Method
Heat oil in a large frying pan over medium heat.
Add onion and garlic, cook, stirring, for 3 minutes.
Add chillies and anchovies, cook for 1 minute.
Add tomatoes, cook, stirring often, for 15 minutes or until sauce thickens.
Season with salt and black pepper.
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