No-roller fresh pasta — Legate Ears

***EGG LEGATE EARS WITH FENNEL, FEEDS TWO***

1 cup (120g) all-purpose flour + more
2 eggs
1 fennel bulb
half a head of garlic
olive oil
butter
chili flakes
parmesan or pecorino cheese
salt

On a big board or in a large bowl, mound up the flour and make a well in the center. Crack in the eggs, and put in half a teaspoon (3g) of salt (or you could just salt the pasta water a lot). Use a fork to beat the eggs together and then gradually start integrating the flour. When you've done all you can with the fork, flour your hands and knead the dough, adding more flour as you go. When the dough ball has absorbed as much flour as it will easily take, and it's reasonably smooth and elastic, cover it and let it rest in the fridge for a half hour.

Cut the stalks off the fennel and pick all the fronds off the stalks. Roughly chop or tear the fronds and reserve. Discard the stalks. Thinly slice the bulb into semi-circles. Peel and chop the garlic.

After the pasta dough has rested, role it out into a long snake. Dust the snake and your cutting board heavily with flour, then cut the snake into thin circles, kicking away each piece with the knife as you cut to make sure they have space and don't stick to each other. Toss the circles in flour, then smash each one with your fingers to turn it into a thin noodle with a raised lip around its edge.

Bring a big pan of salted water to a boil (salt it extra-heavily if you didn't put salt in your dough), and boil the pasta until it floats forcefully to the surface (plus a minute or two longer if you like a firmer texture). Drain, then return the dry and empty pan to the heat. Cover the bottom with olive oil. When it starts to smoke, put in the fennel bulb and sauté until it's about half-cooked (you might want to turn the heat down a bit).

Push the fennel to the sides of the pan, and drop 1-2 tablespoons (15-30g) of butter in the center. When it's melted, return the drained pasta to the pan, and stir constantly. When the noodles are starting to brown a bit, put in the garlic and a pinch of chili flakes. Cook and stir for another minute, then turn off the heat. Grate in a little cheese, stir to combine, then transfer to plates. Top with more grated cheese and the fennel fronds.

***VEGAN LEGATE EARS WITH CHERRY TOMATOES, FEEDS TWO***

1 cup (120g) all-purpose flour + more
1/2 lb (450g) cherry or other small tomatoes
1 bunch basil
half a head of garlic
water
olive oil
pepper
salt

On a big board or in a large bowl, mound up the flour and make a well in the center. Pour in half a cup of water, 1 tablespoon olive oil (15 ml), and put in half a teaspoon (3g) of salt (or you could just salt the pasta water a lot). Use a fork to beat the water and oil together and then gradually start integrating the flour. When you've done all you can with the fork, flour your hands and knead the dough, adding more flour as you go. When the dough ball has absorbed as much flour as it will easily take, and it's reasonably smooth and elastic, cover it and let it rest in the fridge for a half hour.

Cut all the tomatoes in half, peel and chop the garlic, roughly chop the basil.

After the pasta dough has rested, role it out into a long snake. Dust the snake and your cutting board heavily with flour, then cut the snake into thin circles, kicking away each piece with the knife as you cut to make sure they have space and don't stick to each other. Toss the circles in flour, then smash each one with your fingers to turn it into a thin noodle with a raised lip around its edge.

Bring a big pan of salted water to a boil (salt it extra-heavily if you didn't put salt in your dough), and boil the pasta until it floats forcefully to the surface. Drain, then return the dry and empty pan to the heat. Cover the bottom with olive oil, then return the drained pasta to the pan and stir constantly (you might want to turn down the heat a bit). When the pasta is starting to brown a bit, put in the garlic and stir to combine. After another minute, stir in the tomatoes, some pepper and half the basil.

Transfer to plates, top with the remaining basil, more pepper, and some raw olive oil.

[rangergxi]

"All you need is a bowl and you don't even need that" - Diogenes.

[dubudub]

He had evolved beyond our mortal understandings

Adam IS the kitchen

[xp_studios]

You know, this 'kitchen' doesn't allow for cooking on Dwayne's drop cloths as tradition demands, but it's an okay substitute. Long live the Empire

[TacoCookiez]

Thanks for showing common mistakes that you can make while making this as well as the recovery. I think that really helps alot with newcomers and relieving that first-time anxiety you kind of get when doing anything new. Solid work!

[Greaseoverwatch]

Adam Ragusea making food on the floor of his demolished kitched has to be the ultimate power move

[bruh-ibhz]

Fresh pasta shaped like an ear. Should’ve call this thing Vincent van Dough

[matt]

This man doesn’t even need a proper kitchen

[umamito]

Alternate title: desesperate cook makes pasta from what he can find because supermarkets are empty due to corona

[WilliamMurphy-wp]

"Alright sir, will renovations should be done in probably two to three..."
Adam: FLOOR NOODLES

[dxnjqjg]

"the dough tells you when its had enough flour, still sticky, can take more flour" adam, you are genuinely the first person I've seen whos said more than "you don't need to measure out ingredients, just through it in a bowel and mix" and that bit of advice, seems really helpful to someone whos never made it by hand before without measurements.

[cerberuss]

Thanks for not yelling "NO!!!" at me every 15 seconds. It was refreshing.

[mistirion]

You are a legend. Normally chefs around the world tell you how great and easy fresh pasta is and start with equipment and ingredients I didn't even know that they existed. And now here are you telling me how easy and great fresh pasta is and actually making it easy. If just finished my first badge and it's currently chilling in the fridge and I'm very excited to try them.
Thank you Mr. Noodle magic man

[rime]

I love how he even made a "vegan" version of the pasta. I'm not vegan, but it just shows that Adam is very considerate of his audience. Great job Adam!

[jakejones]

"why i cook on my floor not my tabletop"

[felice]

I just did the pasta recipe for the first time today, and I wanted to share my experience and some issues that I had. I doubt anyone will read this but if you do, feel hugged:)

I had to add quite a lot of flour to the 120 grams for 2 eggs, at least 60-70 grams more, but I guess it depends on the size of the eggs and the flour that you are using. The dough itself came out perfect! I think it is advisable to add a good amount of flower to the place on your counter where you want to put the pasta after you shaped them - especially the cut sides of the pasta will stick considerably to the counter itself, many of mine were tearing when I tried to lift them into the water. I think it might make sense to even use a small cutting board, dust it with flour so that you can just lift the whole thing and push the little pasta-nuggets into the water, I had the problem that they also stuck to each other when I tried to lift multiple at once into the water from my counter.

Also keep in mind that the individual pieces of pasta will puff up and swell a whole lot in the water, so shape them around 40% (at least I would say so) smaller than you want your finished pasta to be when you eat it. I made a simple tomato sauce with it, it was fantastic! Really worth the (surprisingly small amount of) work. The taste is so different to dried pasta, they feel and taste a lot like Spätzle (for those who are from the germanic region haha).

Thanks for the nice recipe Adam! All the best to everyone here & have fun cooking:)

Greetings from Germany!

[soneyt]

We want kitchen tour, after the renovation is done!

[andrews]

Hand made pasta like this is perfect for anybody that is starting out at cooking by intuition instead of rigidly following a recipe from a box or a book. You'll know when you have it right as long as you have a basic idea of what you're doing.

[bucketcentral]

Everyone: where is your kitchen?

Adam: *the real question is why do you need a kitchen*

[bruhcorn]

this is literally the best starter pasta. Did this myself and literally only fried the pasta in butter with garlic and some chili flakes. My actual first time ever making fresh pasta and it came out so delicious and amazing

[MrFreakshow]

As a student in self isolation with the supermarkets constantly out of both pasta and eggs, this recipe is a godsend. Thank you!