Handmade Sourdough Pasta

2-Person Sourdough Pasta

A simple, properly fermented sourdough pasta with a silky garlic, chilli and olive oil sauce. The dough is made with an active sourdough starter and fermented for around 24 hours, giving the pasta more flavour, making it beautifully tender and easy to digest.

This is not a discard pasta recipe. You want a healthy, active starter that is ready to ferment the dough.

Ingredients

For the pasta

• 130 g Italian 00 flour

• 70 g fine semolina

• 2 eggs

• 15 g active sourdough starter

• 3-4 g salt

• tsp of good quality extra virgin olive oil

For the sauce

• 40-50 g good quality extra-virgin olive oil

• 2-3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

• Chilli flakes, to taste

• A little lemon zest

• 80 ml pasta water

• Fresh parsley

• Pecorino or Parmesan, optional

Make the sourdough pasta

1. Mix

Combine the 00 flour, semolina and salt in a bowl. Add the eggs, olive oil and active sourdough starter and mix until you have a rough, shaggy dough.

Don’t add water initially. Pasta dough should be fairly firm. If the dough feels extremely dry and simply won’t come together, add a few drops of water at a time but give it a proper mix first. The eggs, oil and starter provide most of the moisture.

2. Knead

Turn the dough onto your work surface and knead for around 8-10 minutes, until it becomes smooth and elastic. It will feel quite firm at first. Keep working it... the dough will gradually become smoother as the flour hydrates and the gluten develops. Shape it into a ball and place it in a covered container or just wrap tightly into ciling film.

3. Ferment

Leave the dough to ferment in the fridge (4-5ºC) for approximately 24 hours.

The exact timing will depend on your fridge temperature and the strength of your starter. You’re looking for a dough that has relaxed and developed some fermentation, rather than necessarily doubling in size. Because this is a long-fermented dough, use an active, recently fed starter at its peak or close to peak activity. Don’t use old discard straight from the fridge.

4. Roll and cut

After the 24-hour fermentation, divide the dough into two equal pieces. Keep one covered while you work with the other. Flatten the dough with your hands, then use a rolling pin to roll it out on a lightly rice flour-dusted surface. Keep turning the dough as you roll, gradually working it thinner until you have a long, thin sheet. You want it thin enough to make delicate pasta, but still with enough structure to hold its shape.

Dust the sheet lightly with rice flour, fold it loosely over itself, and cut it into your preferred width with a sharp knife. Unroll the strips and dust lightly with rice flour so they don’t stick together.

Repeat with the second piece of dough.

I’m using rice flour to roll and shape the pasta, which helps prevent sticking without loading it up with extra flour after the starter has done all the hard work.

You can absolutely make this in batches. Once cut, portion the pasta into loose nests and freeze them on a tray until firm. Once frozen, transfer the portions to a freezer bag or container.

When you’re ready to eat, cook the pasta straight from frozen no need to thaw it. Drop it directly into a large pot of well-salted boiling water. It will take a little longer than fresh pasta, but still cooks very quickly. (4-5 mins)

5. Cook the pasta

Fresh pasta cooks very quickly, especially when rolled thin. Add it to the boiling water and cook until just tender usually only a couple of minutes. (2-4 mins)

Before draining, reserve 80 ml of the pasta water. That starchy water is what will turn the olive oil into a glossy sauce.

Make the garlic, chilli & olive oil sauce

While the pasta cooks, gently warm the olive oil in a large pan over low to medium heat.

Add the thinly sliced garlic and chilli flakes and let them slowly infuse into the oil.

Don’t brown the garlic. You want it soft, fragrant and lightly golden at most.

Add the freshly cooked pasta directly to the pan.

Pour in a splash of the reserved pasta water and toss aggressively. Keep tossing while adding a little more pasta water as needed until the olive oil and starchy water emulsify into a glossy, silky sauce that coats every strand of pasta.

Finish with fresh lemon zest, chopped parsley and plenty of freshly grated Pecorino or Parmesan if you like.

Serve immediately.

The magic here is simple: properly fermented dough, good flour, eggs, great olive oil and that starchy pasta water. You don’t need much else.