Latest news with #SaminNosrat
New York Times
28-03-2025
- General
- New York Times
Our Ultimate Step-by-Step Guide to Making Soup
Let Samin Nosrat, the author of 'Salt Fat Acid Heat,' help you change the way you think about this beloved dish. Karsten Moran for The New York Times Published March 28, 2025 Updated March 28, 2025 [This article was originally published on Jan. 9, 2017.] Soup is a true wonder of alchemy. Together, water, onions and time turn water into broth, bland into savory and thin into thick. But for those results, process is critical: The finest soups layer flavor every step of the way. We will teach you about soup's building blocks, then walk you through combining them with a basic recipe that will help you transform practically any ingredient into a simple, satisfying meal. A large, nonreactive (stainless steel or ceramic) soup pot or Dutch oven that can hold at least six quarts will allow for large batches. Strain puréed soups through a round, sturdy fine-mesh sieve with a handle and tabs that will allow it to sit steadily on the edge of any pot or bowl. An immersion blender will keep you from having to transfer hot soup from the pot to a blender. Look for one with a metal base, which will survive repeated dunkings in hot liquid. Karsten Moran for The New York Times There are three main types of soup — brothy, chunky or puréed. No matter the kind, all soups follow a similar path to deliciousness: Aromatics and main ingredients go into a pot, a liquid is added and the whole thing is simmered until done. Brothy soups, like egg drop, consommé or matzo ball, are best made right after you've cooked up a batch of homemade stock. Restraint is an essential ingredient; the best brothy soups taste clean and allow the nuanced flavors of a long-simmered stock to stand out. Keep it simple: Use a high proportion of liquid and limit how many, and how much of, other ingredients you add into the pot. David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Maggie Ruggiero. On the other hand, black bean soup, chowder, minestrone or any other chunky soup is defined by transformation . Flavors develop, vegetables soften, liquids reduce and starches thicken. As these soups simmer, their varied ingredients — choose three or four from the list of vegetables, grains, legumes, or bits of meat — coalesce into a whole that's inexplicably greater, and more delicious, than the sum of its parts. A puréed soup, such as a bisque, creamy tomato soup, or vichyssoise, is the paragon of refinement. Yet it's deceptively simple to make. Start with a base of onions, then add one or two main ingredients and just enough liquid to cover. Simmer gently until done, then blend, taste and adjust the seasonings. Soon you'll start to see the potential for a smooth, silky soup hidden within every vegetable and legume. Samin Nosrat's butternut squash and green curry soup. Linda Xiao for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Now that you've chosen your soup, you'll want to start building its foundation. Choose a cooking fat based on the cuisine that inspired your choice: butter for a French soup, olive oil for an Italian one. And use the same thinking to select an aromatic base of chopped vegetables, whether versatile garlic and onions, classic mirepoix, Italian soffritto, or Southeast Asian shallots and ginger. Then, select your seasonings, sticking to three or fewer to keep from muddying flavors. For a basic aromatic foundation, heat 4 tablespoons of a neutral-tasting oil, like grapeseed or peanut, or olive oil in a soup pot over medium heat. Add 2 diced medium yellow onions and a generous pinch of salt. (If you want to work in a little meatiness, start the pot off with 4 ounces finely diced bacon or pancetta and 2 tablespoons of water over low heat. When the water is gone and the meat is rendered, reduce the oil to 2 tablespoons and continue as above.) Stirring occasionally, cook until the onions are tender and the meat is just starting to brown. Add 3 cloves thinly sliced garlic and cook for another 20 seconds, just until the garlic gives off a savory aroma. For a Mexican tortilla soup or pozole, crumble 1 tablespoon dried oregano into a base of onions and garlic. Add 1/4 cup basic pepper paste or canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce and 1 cup chopped tomatoes . For an Indian soup, turn a simple onion and garlic base into the foundation for an Indian soup by stirring 1 teaspoon cumin seed in with the garlic. Sizzle together for 20 seconds, then add 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder. When you're not sure what to do, make mirepoix , the classic French aromatic base perfect for chicken soup, black bean soup and red chowder alike. The onions and carrots will add sweetness, while the celery subtly enhances umami. Cook these vegetables gently in butter and stir them regularly to keep them from taking on color for a light, vegetal soup foundation. Melt 4 tablespoons of unsalted butter in a soup pot over medium heat. Add 2 diced medium yellow onions, 1 diced large carrot, 1 diced large rib of celery and a generous pinch of salt. (If you want to work in a little meatiness, start the pot off with 4 ounces finely diced bacon or pancetta and 2 tablespoons of water over low heat. When the water is gone and the meat is rendered, reduce the oil to 2 tablespoons and continue as above.) Cook until the onions are tender, and the meat is just starting to brown. For traditional French flavors, add a few peppercorns, a bay leaf and a bundle of fresh parsley stems and thyme sprigs to any soup that starts with mirepoix. Soffritto, similarly made with onions, carrots and celery, is the Italian equivalent of mirepoix. However, there are a few important differences between the two. For one, soffritto begins with olive oil, rather than butter, to give it a classic Italian flavor. It should be finely chopped, rather than diced, to allow it to disappear into the soup rather than stand out visibly. And lastly, soffritto should be caramelized, making it a savory, rich foundation. Use it for zuppa, minestrone, pasta e fagioli and any other Italian soup. Heat 4 tablespoons of olive oil in a soup pot over medium heat. Add 2 chopped red onions, 1 chopped large carrot, 1 chopped large rib of celery and a generous pinch of salt. (If you want to work in a little meatiness, start the pot off with 4 ounces finely diced bacon or pancetta and 2 tablespoons of water over low heat. When the water is gone and the meat is rendered, reduce the oil to 2 tablespoons and continue as above.) Increase the heat to medium-high, and, stirring regularly, cook until the onions are tender and caramelized and the meat is brown. For classic Tuscan flavors, add a bay leaf and a bundle of fresh rosemary and sage to a soffritto base. Or skip the herbs and add 1/2 teaspoon ground fennel seed, 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander and some freshly ground black pepper. For some savory umami flavor, add 2 tablespoons tomato paste, 2 cups chopped tomatoes, 1 teaspoon ground porcini mushrooms, a Parmesan rind or a ham bone to the soffritto for a minestrone or bean soup. For Thai, Laotian and Vietnamese flavors , skip the onions, carrots and celery, and look to shallots, ginger and lemongrass. Commonly found in dishes throughout mainland Southeast Asia, these elements create a vibrant, intensely flavored aromatic base. Heat 4 tablespoons of a neutral-tasting oil over medium heat. Add 3 diced shallots, a sliced 2-inch piece of peeled fresh ginger, 1 stalk of lemongrass cut into 3-inch pieces and a generous pinch of salt. Cook until the shallots are barely tender. Remove the lemongrass before puréeing or serving. For sweetness and umami in a Vietnamese soup, sneak 3 tablespoons fish sauce and a large pinch of brown sugar into a base of shallots, ginger and lemongrass. For a rich and spicy Thai soup, add 6 to 8 tablespoons of red or green Thai curry paste and a large pinch of white sugar to a base of shallots, ginger and lemongrass. Karsten Moran for The New York Times Once you've built up your soup's foundation with aromatics and seasonings, it's time to add a stock or broth. No single element in a soup wields as much influence on its taste as its liquid. You will want about a cup per serving: a little more for a brothy soup, a little less for a hearty one. Use 8 cups for a large batch (about 6 to 8 servings), and freeze the leftovers for up to 2 months. You will thank your past self for your generosity and foresight. To paraphrase the food writer M.F.K. Fisher, there is a slippery slope from water to soup. If you have water around, you can have soup. Use water when you're after clean, light flavors rather than rich ones, or when you don't have any stock on hand. Water is never a bad choice, but sometimes stock is a better one, especially if your goal is to make a hearty, savory soup. Avoid canned and boxed stocks. Made with a lower ratio of bones and packed with ingredients — like cabbage, turmeric extract or yeast extract — that you would never add to a pot of stock yourself, they never taste quite right. Instead, either make and freeze stock or buy good quality fresh or frozen stock from a butcher. It will make all the difference. Karsten Moran for The New York Times If you're hoping to make miso, ramen or any other Japanese soup, skip the aromatics and start with dashi. This broth of kombu seaweed and dried bonito flakes is at the base of most Japanese home cooking, and it couldn't be simpler to make. Place two 12-inch pieces of kombu in a saucepan with 3 cups of cold water. Bring the water to a boil and remove the kombu, then add two generous handfuls of dried bonito flakes, or katsuobushi. Simmer for 10 minutes, then remove from heat. Strain and use as you like. Don't forget to use bean cooking broth and the juice that comes with canned tomatoes . Both will lend terrific flavor and body to a minestrone or bean soup. For a velvety vegetable soup or seafood chowder, replace some of the water or stock with dairy — preferably heavy cream, which can withstand some cooking without curdling. Or, to evoke the flavors of South India or Thailand, use full-fat coconut milk . Whether you use stock or water, or add dairy, bring the soup to a boil, then reduce to a simmer to finish cooking. You're almost there! After diligently building layer upon layer of flavor, there's the payoff of adding the ingredients that inspired you to make soup in the first place. Add them to the pot raw, so they can release flavor into the soup. Bring it all to a boil, then simmer. You will know it's done when it's all tender, anywhere from 25 minutes to 3 hours depending on the ingredients. Ryan Liebe for The New York Times Meat is a luxurious addition to any soup. When you can, choose stewing cuts, such as chicken legs, pork shoulder, beef chuck, short ribs or shank. Rich with fat, these cuts will add body and flavor as they simmer. For a soup that's rich with bites of chicken, add a 4-pound chicken, cut into 8 pieces, or 2 pounds of boneless chicken to a mirepoix base. Add enough water or stock to cover and simmer until the meat is tender, about 10 minutes for white meat and 45 minutes for dark meat. Remove the cooked meat from the pot and allow it to cool. Pick the meat from the bones and shred it into bite-size pieces. Chop the skin. Add the meat and skin back to the pot and return to a simmer. Add any remaining soup ingredients and cook until tender. Use a ladle to gently skim fat from the surface of the soup. Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper. To make pozole, sauerkraut soup or any other soup with pork, add 2 pounds cubed boneless pork shoulder to an onion-garlic base. Add seasonings and enough water or stock to cover and simmer until the meat is tender, about 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Remove the cooked meat from the pot and allow it to cool. Shred the meat, removing any gristle or very fatty bits as you go. Add the meat back to the pot and return to a simmer. Add any remaining soup ingredients and cook until tender. Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt. For a satisfying beef soup, cook a mirepoix or soffritto base and set it aside in a bowl. Return the soup pot to medium-high heat and add 2 tablespoons olive oil. When it shimmers, add 3 pounds of beef osso buco (shank) or cubed short ribs, or 2 pounds of cubed chuck in a single layer. Cook for about 4 minutes per side until evenly golden brown on all sides. Add browned meat to the bowl of vegetables. Carefully discard cooking fat and return pot to stove over medium heat. Add 1 cup white wine to deglaze, scrape thoroughly with a wooden spoon to release all the brown bits, and return the vegetables and meat to the pot. Cover with water or stock, and simmer until the meat is tender and falling off the bones, about 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Remove the cooked meat from the pot and allow it to cool. Shred the meat, removing any bones, gristle or very fatty bits as you go. Add the meat back to the pot and return to a simmer. Add any remaining soup ingredients and cook until tender. Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt. Add grains, pasta or bread to a brothy soup to transform it from a light meal to a hearty one. Watch and stir starchy simmering soups attentively, since they tend to stick and scorch. Stand at the ready to add more liquid if the grains or pasta absorb too much. To lend chewiness and texture, add 1 cup uncooked rice, farro or barley to a pot of chicken soup when the liquid comes to a boil. Cook until the grains are tender. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt. Add 4 ounces fresh or dried egg noodles, cut into 3-inch pieces, or ¾ cup uncooked orzo, tubetti or other small pasta shape to any brothy soup 15 to 20 minutes before the soup is expected to be done. Stirring occasionally, cook until the noodles are tender. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt. For a bread soup, stir 2 cups diced stale bread into minestrone or bean soup about 20 minutes before the soup is expected to be ready. Stirring occasionally, cook over low heat until the bread falls apart. Bread soup should be quite thick, so resist the urge to thin it too much. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt. Karsten Moran for The New York Times Whether pinto, navy, black or borlotti, dried beans will grow tough while cooking in the presence of acidic ingredients, such as tomatoes, so cook them on their own before setting out to make bean soup. If you can't wait for dried beans to cook, make up a pot of lentils before you get the aromatics going. They'll be done by the time the onions are cooked. Alternatively, drain and rinse a few cans of cooked beans. To make a bean or lentil soup, add 4 to 6 cups cooked beans or lentils and their broth to a base of mirepoix or soffritto. Simmer for at least 20 minutes, until the beans begin to fall apart and their released starches begin to thicken the soup. Purée if desired and thin with more liquid as needed to reach desired consistency. Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt. While you can make a soup with any vegetable, the best-tasting produce will always yield the brightest flavors. Choose in-season or frozen vegetables and resist combining too many kinds — about three is just right — in a single soup. If you're using vegetables with wildly different textures, stagger their additions to the pot in the order of their cooking times, from longest to shortest. • For a hearty vegetable soup, add up to 4 cups of diced mixed vegetables, such as potatoes, bell peppers, broccoli rabe, fennel, kale and cabbage, to a mirepoix or soffritto base just before adding the liquid. Simmer until all the vegetables are tender. Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt. • For a puréed vegetable soup, add about 2 pounds of a trimmed, sliced, fresh or frozen vegetable, such as fennel, cauliflower, turnips, butternut squash, corn or English peas, to a tender onion-garlic base. Add enough liquid to cover and simmer until the vegetables are barely soft. Use a hand blender to purée and thin with more liquid as needed to reach desired consistency. For an extra silky soup, strain the purée through a fine sieve, stirring it with a ladle to encourage everything but the fibrous bits to pass through. Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt. You've cooked up a hearty pot of soup, but you're not done just yet. Before you sit down to eat, finish the bowl with a bright garnish. Think of it as an opportunity to both balance the flavors and textures of a soup and make it eye-catching. Christopher Simpson for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. For creaminess and tang, garnish with a dollop of sour cream, yogurt or crème fraîche. Chopped herbs such as parsley, cilantro, chives or dill bring a fresh contrast to long-cooked flavors. A sprinkle of crushed toasted croutons or toasted sesame or pumpkin seeds will add a welcome crunch to a puréed soup. Crumbled cheeses, such as feta, ricotta salata or goat cheese, or any grated hard cheese such as Parmesan, pecorino or Asiago will finish a soup with a welcome bit of salty and tart flavors. Don't be afraid to experiment. The spicy peanut and coconut topping, shown above, was inspired by a classic Thai bar snack. It simultaneously complements the flavors and introduces contrasting textures. And a drizzle of a good, fruity olive oil never hurts.
Atlantic
08-03-2025
- General
- Atlantic
Kosher Salt Is Actually Just Big Salt
When I was a child, in the 1990s, there was only one kind of salt; we called it 'salt.' It came in a blue cylindrical container—you probably know the one—and we dumped it into pasta water and decanted it into shakers. I didn't know that any other kind existed, and the women who taught me to cook didn't seem to, either: Joy of Cooking, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and Moosewood Cookbook all call, simply, for 'salt' in their recipes. But about a decade ago, I started buying coarse kosher salt instead of the fine, uniform, iodized table salt I'd grown up with. I do not remember why. As my friends grew up and started building their own pantries, many of them also made kosher salt their default. These days, The New York Times calls explicitly for kosher salt in nearly all of its recipes, as does Bon Appétit. Two of the most influential cookbooks of the past decade, The Food Lab, by J. Kenji López-Alt, and Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, by Samin Nosrat, both devote paragraphs to the benefits of kosher over table salt. It is now 'the lingua franca of restaurant kitchens'—as Mark Bitterman, who has written four books about cooking with salt, put it—and a cheffy shibboleth in home kitchens, too. You can find Diamond Crystal, the coolest brand, in the background of the famously verisimilitudinous restaurant show The Bear, and on cooking influencers' beautiful countertops; in 2023, when Trader Joe's started carrying it, chef Reddit exploded in enthusiastic all caps. Pretty much everyone eats salt, every day, and it's different now. Yet even kosher salt's most fervent converts may not entirely understand how it's different. Kosher salt, like all salt, is NaCl—sodium ions electrostatically bound with chloride ions and arranged in a crystal formation. Unlike certain specialty salts, it doesn't have unique properties by virtue of its provenance; it's not collected from the coast of France or mined from a mountain in Pakistan. Kosher salt is just big salt. It's also more expensive than table salt. You might assume that this is because it has been manufactured according to a stringent set of religious rules. But much iodized table salt is kosher—that is, prepared in adherence with Jewish dietary law—and what we call 'kosher salt' isn't categorically kosher: If you're feeling pedantic, the right term would be 'koshering salt,' because its oversize, craggy crystals are best for drawing the blood out of animals during kosher slaughter. America's great salt swap began in the 1980s, when farmers'-market culture and the health-food movement helped American chefs acquaint themselves with specialty ingredients, Bitterman told me: Himalayan pink salt; 'bad-ass, real good' fleur de sel from France. But by and large, chefs settled on kosher as their go-to. They did this for a reason so unbelievably basic that I laughed out loud when I first heard it: Kosher salt is easier to pick up. 'Table salt is too hard to pinch,' Adam Ragusea, a food YouTuber, told me. 'I mean, just try it. Anyone who's reading, just try it. Just pick it up … It's a pain in the ass, and it's messy.' Kosher salt is simply better for the way chefs tend to season their food, which is frequently, and without measuring, by eye and by feel. No one wants to be fiddling with a teaspoon on the line at a busy restaurant during the dinner rush. 'You can really feel it sort of touching your fingers, and leaving your fingers,' Chris Morocco, the food director at Bon Appétit and Epicurious, told me, whereas finer salt 'has a tendency to want to slip away.' Kosher salt's migration to home kitchens started in the late '90s, when the Food Network became a cultural force. Its big crystals suddenly had an added benefit: They look great being pinched out of a saltcellar and flung around on television, or at least better than table salt does being juddered out of a shaker. (Ina Garten, one of the network's early celebrities, has described Diamond Crystal kosher salt as 'always perfect.') As television turned chefs into celebrities, their fans began trying to emulate them at home. At the same time, recipes, like the rest of media, were moving online, and their tone was changing. Older cookbooks, Morocco told me, assumed a lot of knowledge on the part of their readers: 'Recipe language was very terse. They were not really holding your hand too much.' Online, recipe writers had unlimited space, a broader potential audience, and a business imperative to build a relationship with their readers. So their guidance became chattier and more descriptive, designed for a home cook who was eager to learn—and who could hold recipe developers more immediately accountable, yelling about bland soup or bad bakes in the comments section. 'Salt to taste,' which had for decades been a standard instruction in most savory recipes, gave way to specific measurements. But different salts have different densities, meaning a teaspoon of one brand can be recipe-ruiningly saltier than that of another. So recipe developers needed to be able to recommend a standard salt. Being chefs, they already liked kosher. In 2011, Bon Appétit, which was then becoming a major resource for Millennials teaching themselves how to cook, adopted Diamond Crystal as its house salt. This is all a little funny. Restaurant chefs started using kosher precisely because it was easy to use without measuring—now home cooks are measuring it out by the teaspoon. And a movement that espoused seeking the ideal ingredients for every dish resulted in widespread adoption of a one-size-fits-all salt. In doing so, modern cooking has inadvertently all but abandoned one of the most significant public-health advances in history. A few years ago, a 6-year-old girl showed up at a medical clinic in Providence, Rhode Island, her neck so swollen that it looked like she'd swallowed a grapefruit whole. After a series of tests, doctors figured it out: She was iodine-deficient. Her thyroid—the butterfly-shaped gland that is responsible for just about everything the body does, and which requires iodine to function—had swelled in an attempt to capture any microgram of iodine it could from her bloodstream. For centuries, thyroid dysfunction was endemic; millions of people around the world suffered from slow heartbeats, weakness, muscle fatigue, sluggish metabolism, and brain fog. When, in 1924, American manufacturers introduced artificially iodized salts, it was a miracle, right there on the shelf in the grocery store. Within a few years, the thyroids of the developed world were working again. Recently, however, doctors have started reporting more cases of iodine-deficient hypothyroidism—and our salt preferences may be at least partially to blame. Kosher salt, as you have probably guessed, does not contain iodine. Neither do most ultraprocessed foods, the main vehicle by which most people in this not-exactly-sodium-deficient country take in salt. Iodine deficiency can be serious, but is eminently treatable. (Pregnant women should be particularly attentive to their iodine levels, the UCLA endocrinologist Angela Leung told me, because deficiency can result in birth defects.) The 21st-century rise in hypothyroidism might therefore be less a cause for alarm than a chance to rethink our contemporary salt orthodoxy. Kosher's dominance, to hear Bitterman tell it, 'doesn't come out of magic or merit—it's cookbook writers and chef culture, a weird confluence of circumstances brainwashing everyone at the same time.' What's great for chefs may not be great for home cooks. Kosher salt isn't inherently better, and in some cases may be worse. I've now spent hours on the phone with salt connoisseurs—at one point, Bitterman earnestly described a certain type as 'luscious' and 'warm'—and have come around to the view that we should all be more open to using different salts for different purposes, in the same way that well-outfitted cooks might keep different types of olive oil on hand. Flaky fleur de sel is great for finishing dishes; flavored salt is perfect on popcorn. And for everyday cooking, iodized table salt is just as good as kosher—preferable, even, if you're worried about your iodine levels. Sure, all the recipes now call for kosher salt, but a solution exists: Ignore the instructions and season intuitively. Like a real chef would.
New York Times
20-02-2025
- General
- New York Times
Our Ultimate Guide to Making Fresh Pasta
It's much easier than you think. Samin Nosrat, the 'Salt Fat Acid Heat' author, shows you how. Learn to make fresh pasta dough, and you can dress it up in countless ways. Karsten Moran for The New York Times Published Feb. 20, 2025 Updated Feb. 20, 2025 [This article was originally published on April 9, 2017.] Making pasta from scratch is the ultimate exercise in instinctual cooking, a method that gets only stronger with practice and yields dividends. With time and a little effort, a versatile pasta dough — made of just flour and eggs — can take infinite forms. We'll help you perfect a dough, make cut or filled pasta and walk you through the fillings and accompaniments that prove that one recipe can open the doors to countless remarkable meals. A hand-cranked pasta roller isn't too expensive and speeds the process. Karsten Moran for The New York Times Invest in a pasta roller, whether a hand-cranked model or a stand mixer attachment. It doesn't have to be fancy. Even an inexpensive model will save you time and frustration. A long rolling pin is essential for rolling out pasta by hand. Karsten Moran for The New York Times If you prefer to roll pasta by hand, you'll need a long rolling pin (preferably French-style) and a large wooden cutting board or a clean, smooth countertop . It's worth seeking out Italian 00 flour for your dough. Milled far more finely than American flour, it yields a particularly smooth, satiny pasta. Use it as you would all-purpose. A fluted pasta wheel gives ravioli its zig-zagged edge. Karsten Moran for The New York Times A fluted pasta wheel is also useful, both for cutting ravioli and other stuffed shapes, and for creating fluted edges on farfalle or pappardelle. How to make pasta dough from scratch. Dig a well in the center of 2 cups 00 or all-purpose flour, and add 2 large eggs and 3 yolks. Beat together the eggs with a fork, and mix in the flour, starting from the well's inner rim, until the dough is a shaggy mass. Then use your fingers to continue to mix the dough, pressing in any loose bits. If needed, add another egg yolk or a tablespoon of water. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and knead by hand for 4 to 5 more minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic. Set aside, wrapped in plastic, at room temperature for at least 30 minutes (and up to 4 hours). While it rests, line three baking sheets with parchment paper and lightly dust with semolina flour. Before passing the dough through the rollers, you'll want to flatten it by hand. Karsten Moran for The New York Times Cut off a quarter of the dough, rewrapping the rest, and flatten into an oval about the same width as your pasta machine. Pass the dough through the rollers set at the widest setting. Lay the dough onto a lightly floured countertop and press together into halves again about the same width of the pasta machine. You want to roll out the pasta dough until you can see the outline of your hand through it. Karsten Moran for The New York Times Feed the pasta through again at the widest setting. Continue to fold the dough in thirds and roll it until it is smooth, silky and even-textured, doing your best to make the sheet the full width of the machine. Once the dough is silky and smooth, roll it once through each of the next two or three settings, adding flour as needed, until the dough is about ¼-inch thick. Then begin rolling it twice through each setting, lightly sprinkling it with all-purpose or 00 flour to prevent it from sticking. Roll out pasta until you can just see the outline of your hand through it, then cut pasta into 12- to 14-inch-long sheets. Dust the sheets lightly with semolina flour and stack on the prepared baking sheets. Cover with a clean, lightly dampened kitchen towel, and repeat with remaining dough. The rolling process can be meditative, but it also requires your attention to ensure the dough doesn't tear, warp or stick to itself. A little patience and awareness will help you turn out smooth, delicate sheets. How to roll out pasta dough using a machine. Making pasta from scratch isn't particularly difficult if you're using a roller , but it can be time-consuming at first. Leave yourself plenty of time for resting, rolling and shaping the pasta. Clear off your counters to give yourself ample work space. If you've never made pasta, take it on as a weekend cooking project rather than a weeknight meal. Working with pasta requires all of your senses. You'll quickly learn that every batch is different, depending on everything from humidity and weather to the type of flour and size of your eggs. If pasta threatens to stick, dust both the pasta and the work surface with flour. If it's too dry, add another yolk. Your judgment is as important for success as the recipe. And finally, though it can be hypnotizing, resist the urge to watch the pasta as it comes out of the rollers. Instead, watch as it enters the machine, using one hand to ensure it goes in straight and doesn't ripple or overlap onto itself. How to roll out pasta dough by hand. Anyone can roll pasta by hand, but it can be a challenge for beginners. Think of it as an advanced technique: Once you've developed a sense for working with pasta dough, you'll have a much better understanding of how it will respond to the rolling pin, how quickly it will dry out and how much flour is needed to keep the dough from sticking without overdoing it. Before you begin rolling, line three baking sheets with parchment paper and lightly dust with semolina flour. Set aside. Cut off a quarter of the dough. Rewrap the remaining dough and set aside. Place the portioned-off dough onto a lightly floured large wooden or marble board or countertop. Pushing out from the center with the heel of your hand, flatten the dough into a circle. Use a long rolling pin to roll the dough out from the center, without going all the way over the edge. Continue rolling outward from the center, moving the dough a quarter-turn after each roll to maintain a circular shape. If the dough starts to stick, lightly dust it with flour and keep working quickly to prevent the dough from drying out. When the pasta sheet is smooth and round, lay the rolling pin across the top of the circle from 11 o'clock to 1 o'clock. Wrap the shorter end of the dough circle around the pin and roll it a single turn toward yourself to create a tube of pasta around the pin. You'll be working with only about a quarter of the sheet at a time. Rocking the pin back and forth, use your hands to pull the two edges of the dough on the pin away from each other, stretching out the sheet until it's about the length of the rolling pin. Continue working quickly to keep the dough from drying out. If necessary, repeat until the whole sheet is smooth and translucent. Cut the pasta into two or three sheets. Dust the sheets lightly with semolina flour to keep them from sticking. Stack dusted sheets on the prepared baking sheets and cover with a clean, lightly dampened kitchen towel. Repeat with remaining dough. Basic pasta dough presents many possibilities. You could cut it into tried-and-true noodles; trim it into sheets for a savory lasagna or rich, satisfying cannelloni; form farfalle (bow ties); or use it as a base for ravioli and tortellini. Mastering one style is impressive, but commanding all four — that's the stuff of advanced home cooks. How to make sheets of pasta To cut noodles with a roller, run the pasta sheets, one at a time, through the cutting attachment, then toss with semolina flour. Gently fluff and separate noodles and pile into nests of single portions (about 3 ounces). Place on baking sheets lined with parchment paper and dusted with semolina, and cover until ready to use. To hand-cut noodles, stack four sheets of pasta lightly dusted with semolina flour, then loosely roll into thirds lengthwise (like folding a letter). Cut with a sharp knife (in ½-inch increments for tagliatelle or fettuccine and into ¾-inch increments for pappardelle), continuing until all the dough is used. Gently fluff and separate noodles and pile onto prepared baking sheets into nests of single portions (about 3 ounces). Cover until ready to use. Both methods are shown in the video above. For hand-torn noodles, pick up a single sheet of rolled pasta. Pinching about ½ inch at the corner with your thumb and forefinger, tear lengthwise down the sheet. Repeat, aiming for noodles of a consistent width. Toss with semolina flour. Gently fluff and separate noodles and pile onto prepared baking sheets into nests of single portions (about 3 ounces). Cover until ready to use. To make fluted pappardelle, use a ravioli cutter instead of a knife to cut noodles, one sheet at a time. Cut sheets of dough into 6-by-10-inch pieces to use for lasagna or 4-by-4 inch pieces to make fazzoletti (pasta handkerchiefs traditionally served with basil pesto). Cut the sheets into 4-by-6-inch pieces, then boil in salted water, drain and pat dry. Lay out the cooked pieces and spread ¼ cup ricotta filling — or a mix of ricotta and chard (for a recipe, see the fillings chapter below) — onto each, along the short side. Roll the filled sheets into cylinders. In an 8- or 9-inch square baking dish, spoon ¾ cup tomato sauce, and carefully lay the cannelloni onto the sauce in a single layer. Drizzle with ½ cup tomato sauce, ½ cup heavy cream and ½ cup finely grated Parmesan. Bake, uncovered, at 400 degrees until brown and bubbly, about 35 minutes. How to make bowtie pasta. Cut the sheets of pasta into 1 ½-inch-wide strips using a knife. Then use a fluted ravioli cutter to cut each strip into 2-inch-long rectangles. Place your index finger in the center of the rectangle, then use your thumb and middle finger to pull the top and bottom edges in toward the center. Remove your index finger and pinch the edges until they stick together. If the pasta isn't wet enough to stick to itself, dip your fingers in a little water and try again. Place farfalle in a single layer on remaining baking sheets lined with parchment paper and dusted with semolina, and cover until ready to use. Place a 6-by-14-inch sheet of pasta on your work space and dust off any excess flour. Fold the sheet in half lengthwise to create a crease and unfold. A quarter-inch below the crease, spoon rounded tablespoonfuls of filling, about an inch apart from one another. Moisten the entire strip very lightly with a spray bottle or damp pastry brush. Lift the top edge of the pasta sheet and fold it to meet the bottom edge, letting it drape loosely over the filling. Starting at one end with dry fingers, squeeze out air bubbles by pressing the dough around the filling (but don't press on the filling itself). Press on the edges of the pasta to seal completely. Using a fluted pasta cutter, trim the pasta edges, making sure not to cut the folded edge, then cut between the mounds of filling to form the ravioli. Toss the ravioli lightly with semolina flour, then spread in a single layer on the second prepared baking sheet. Cover with a piece of parchment paper. Repeat with remaining pasta. You should be able to yield about 80 or 90 ravioli from the standard pasta dough recipe. Working one 6-by-14-inch sheet at a time, cut the pasta into 2 ½-inch squares, or use a 2 ½-inch biscuit cutter to cut rounds. As you cut, stack and store the pieces under a lightly dampened dish towel or in a plastic bag to keep them from drying out. On a clean work counter, lay out about 15 pasta rounds or squares at a time. Spoon rounded teaspoonfuls of filling onto the pasta, just off center. Use a spray bottle or wet pastry brush to lightly dampen the edges of the pasta. Pick up the pasta pieces one at a time and fold in half over the filling, squeezing out air bubbles as you seal each tortellino, pressing the dough around the filling with dry fingers. If you're working with circles, you'll be left with a half-moon shape. If using squares, fold corner to corner to form a triangle. Holding a tortellino in one hand, use the index finger of your other to gently poke an indent into the center of its base (the bottom of the filling). Folding the tortellino around the indent, draw both of its bottom corners together as if forming a fortune cookie. Overlap the corners and press to seal them together. Toss lightly with semolina flour, then spread the pieces in a single layer on the second prepared baking sheet. Cover with a piece of parchment paper. Repeat with remaining pasta. You should be able to yield about 80 or 90 tortellini from the standard pasta dough recipe. Once you have a handle on the basic recipe, you can vary the flour, add flavorings and pair them with sauces that make their flavors stand out. Try whole-grain noodles with a hearty meat sauce, saffron fettuccine with shrimp and basil, green ravioli with a ricotta filling and herbed noodles with butter and Parmesan. Karsten Moran for The New York Times Substitute 1 cup sifted whole wheat, spelt or farro flour for 1 cup 00 or all-purpose flour. Add extra egg yolks or water as needed, and allow dough to rest for 1 hour before rolling. Karsten Moran for The New York Times Add a large pinch of saffron threads and a pinch of salt to a mortar and pestle. Grind finely, then add 1 tablespoon boiling water to make saffron tea. Allow tea to cool, then whisk into the eggs. Rinse the remaining saffron out of the mortar with another tablespoon of cool water and whisk into the eggs. Add to the flour in the recipe linked above and proceed from there. Karsten Moran for The New York Times Steam or sauté 6 ounces (about 6 cups) baby spinach until just wilted. Remove from pan and spread out in a single layer on a parchment-lined baking sheet. When cool, squeeze the leaves thoroughly, a palmful at a time, then chop roughly. Purée in a blender with 2 eggs and 1 egg yolk, then add egg mixture to flour in the main recipe. Karsten Moran for The New York Times Stir in ½ cup finely chopped parsley, chives, chervil, tarragon or basil in any combination to the eggs before adding to the flour. If you've chosen to make a filled pasta, you'll want to make your filling while the dough rests. And there are so many ways to fill your shapes. Whatever you choose — whether greens, cheese, meat or vegetable — you'll need about 2 ¼ cups for a single batch of ravioli (and a little less for tortellini). Use the freshest whole-milk ricotta you can find. If it resembles cottage cheese in consistency, drain it in a sieve lined with cheesecloth overnight to keep it from being too wet. In a medium bowl, whip together 2 cups (16 ounces) whole-milk ricotta, 1 ½ cups finely grated Parmesan cheese, freshly ground black pepper, a generous pinch of salt and 3 tablespoons very finely chopped parsley, chives or basil (optional). Taste and adjust salt as needed. Cover and refrigerate until using. Heat 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil to a large frying pan over medium-high. When it shimmers, add 4 diced shallots and a pinch of salt. Reduce heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally, for 8 to 9 minutes, until shallots are tender and golden brown. Scrape shallots into a small bowl and set aside. Wipe out the pan and return to medium heat. Add 3 tablespoons olive oil. When it shimmers, add 1 pound of trimmed, rinsed and quartered cremini or chanterelle mushrooms and a generous pinch of salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until all the water evaporates and the mushrooms are tender and golden brown, about 10 minutes. Push the mushrooms to the side of the pan, and in the clearing, add 1 tablespoon olive oil and 3 minced garlic cloves. Allow them to gently sizzle until they release an aroma, about 20 seconds. Before the garlic has a chance to start browning, stir it into the mushrooms and turn off the heat. Scrape mushrooms into the bowl of a food processor. Add 1 ½ cups grated pecorino, 1 tablespoon very finely chopped thyme and 2 tablespoons very finely chopped parsley. Pulse to combine, then taste and adjust salt as needed. Continue pulsing, stopping to scrape the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula, until the mushrooms are all finely chopped and no larger than a sunflower seed. Spoon the mixture into a bowl and allow to cool to room temperature. Add 3 tablespoons créme fraîche and stir to combine. Taste and adjust salt if needed. Cover and refrigerate until using. Add 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil to a large cast-iron pan set over medium-high heat. Crumble in ½ pound ground beef and ½ pound ground pork, and reduce heat to medium. Using the edge of a metal spoon, break up clumps of meat as they form, stirring regularly. Once the meat is evenly broken up, let it continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until all of the water has cooked off and it starts to sizzle, about 8 minutes. (You can also use cooked short ribs, from about 1 ½ pounds, stripped of bones and gristle, and shredded in a food processor. You should have 12 ounces of meat left over. Just proceed from here to the next step.) As the meat begins to brown, clear a spot in the center of the pan and add 1 tablespoon olive oil and 2 diced garlic cloves. Cook until garlic starts to release an aroma, about 20 seconds, then stir it into the meat and cook another 30 seconds or so. Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature. In the bowl of a food processor, combine meat mixture, 2 ounces finely diced mortadella, ¼ cup freshly ground Parmesan, 3 tablespoons very finely chopped parsley, ⅛ teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg, a large pinch ground cloves, 1 teaspoon salt and freshly ground pepper. Pulse to combine, then taste and adjust salt and pepper as needed. Add 2 eggs and pulse, stopping to scrape the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula, until the mixture is smooth and tacky. Cover and refrigerate the mixture until you're ready to use. Trim the woody ends from 2 large bunches Swiss chard (leaves and stems separated). Dice the stems into ½-inch pieces. Set a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil. When it shimmers, add 1 finely diced yellow onion, chard stems and a pinch of salt. Reduce heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally, for 12 to 14 minutes, until onions are tender and lightly golden. In the meantime, slice the chard leaves into 1-inch pieces. Add the chard to the onions and cook, using tongs to turn the chard until it wilts. Season with salt. Continue cooking, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes, until the chard is tender and sweet. Remove pan from heat and allow to cool to room temperature. Scrape chard into the bowl of a food processor and add ½ cup whole-milk ricotta, ½ cup finely grated Parmesan and ⅛ teaspoon finely grated nutmeg. Pulse to combine, stopping to scrape the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula, until the chard is evenly, finely chopped. Taste and adjust salt as needed. Cover and refrigerate until using. It's time to cook and eat your pasta. A few tricks, like adding the right amount of salt, preheating your sauce and deploying pasta water judiciously, will yield the best plate of tagliatelle or ravioli you've ever cooked. Karsten Moran for The New York Times Unlike dried pasta, which should never be cooked past al dente , fresh pasta must be cooked through, but just barely. At first, the only way to know when the pasta is done is to taste it, so stand by the pot, tongs in hand, and taste repeatedly. Eventually, you'll learn to tell when the pasta is ready by how it droops. Fresh pasta cooks quickly, often in 3 or 4 minutes. Have your sauce warm and ready before you drop the pasta into the pot. Cooked pasta should always be tossed with warm sauce — with the exception of pesto, which is raw — to ensure it gets coated properly. Cook pasta in plenty of heavily salted, boiling water. For four servings, use at least 5 quarts of water seasoned with ½ cup Diamond Crystal kosher salt or 6 tablespoons fine sea salt. Don't worry: Most of the salt will go down the drain. You just need to create a cooking environment that will season the pasta in the few minutes it spends in the pot. Bring the water to a rolling boil before adding the pasta. Otherwise, it may pile at the bottom of the pot and stick to itself. If cooking noodles, stir them with tongs or a wooden spoon after about a minute to encourage them to separate. Pasta cooking water, full of salt and starch, is a precious gift. It'll season and thicken sauces and help them cling to the pasta. If draining pasta in a colander, sneak out a cup or two before taking the pot to the sink. Instead of draining delicate ravioli and tortellini into a colander, use a skimmer, spider or slotted spoon to pull them out of the pot and set them gently into a waiting pan of warm sauce. To refrigerate: Store fresh pasta in a single layer on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Cover with plastic wrap to keep it from drying out. Refrigerate for up to one night. To freeze: Store fresh pasta in a single layer on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Freeze until rock hard and transfer to a freezer bag. If freezing noodles, divide them into about 3-ounce nests before freezing. To cook, drop frozen pasta into salted boiling water and cook for 4 to 7 minutes. Fresh pasta is so flavorful and tender that just a drizzle of good olive oil and some freshly grated Parmesan will make it shine. But if you're in the mood for something more, try one of these classic accompaniments. (All will yield enough sauce for 4 servings of noodles or 6 to 8 servings of tortellini or ravioli.) How to make classic meat tortellini with tomato sauce. Pour a 28-ounce can of peeled Roma or San Marzano tomatoes and its juices into a medium bowl and crush them with your hands. Pour ¼ cup water into the can, swirl and add to tomatoes. Set a small Dutch oven or saucepan over medium-high heat and add 3 tablespoons olive oil. When it shimmers, add 1 diced yellow onion and a generous pinch of salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until onions are tender and golden brown, about 15 minutes. Move onions to the edges of the pot and add 1 tablespoon olive oil in the clearing. Add 2 sliced garlic cloves, and allow them to gently sizzle until they release an aroma, about 20 seconds. Before the garlic has a chance to start browning, stir it into the onions and add tomatoes. Season with salt and 1 teaspoon dried oregano or 12 basil leaves, torn into large pieces, and bring to a hard simmer. Stir, then reduce heat to low and cover pot (to prevent splattering). Cook, stirring occasionally, for 40 minutes or until raw tomato taste is gone. Remove from heat and stir in ¼ cup olive oil. Pass sauce through a food mill or use a stick blender to purée. Taste and adjust salt as needed. How to make ravioli verdi with butter, parmesan and black pepper. Set a frying pan with curved edges over medium-high heat and add 3 tablespoons of pasta cooking water, plus more as needed (the starch in the pasta water will help the emulsion stay together). Bring to a simmer, then reduce heat to medium-low and add 8 tablespoons of butter, cut into 1 tablespoon-size pieces, a piece or two at a time while continuously swirling the pan. Keep swirling the pan until the butter melts and the sauce begins to thicken. Remove from heat and add ¼ cup (1 ounce) finely grated Parmesan, freshly ground black pepper and salt. Swirl to combine, then taste and adjust salt as needed. If the sauce continues to thicken, add more pasta cooking water, a half-teaspoon at a time, and continue to swirl. Use immediately, or keep in a warm spot for a few minutes, if needed. If the sauce starts to separate, add a little more water, heat it gently and continue to swirl. This yields enough sauce for 4 servings of noodles or 6 to 8 servings of ravioli or tortellini. How to make herbed pappardelle with parsley, garlic and pepper flakes. Set a large frying pan over medium heat and add 6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, 3 minced garlic cloves and ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes. Cook, stirring until the garlic threatens to turn golden, about 1 minute. Just before the garlic begins to brown, add 1 cup pasta cooking water and increase heat to medium-high. Let the sauce simmer until it reduces by about a third. Add just-cooked, drained pasta to the pan and toss. Add ¼ cup very finely chopped parsley and continue cooking over medium heat for 1 minute, tossing continuously with tongs. If the pasta looks dry, add a little more pasta water. It should be slightly wetter than you are comfortable with, because the pasta will continue to absorb sauce even after you pull it from the heat. Taste and adjust salt as needed. Remove from heat and serve immediately, with freshly grated Parmesan. How to make whole-wheat fettuccine with broccoli rabe. Trim woody ends from 1 pound (about 1 bunch) broccoli rabe and discard. Slice the stems and leaves into ½-inch pieces. Set a large frying pan over medium-high heat, and add 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil. When it shimmers, add 1 finely diced yellow onion and a pinch of salt. Reduce heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally, for 12 to 14 minutes, until onions are tender and lightly golden. Add broccoli rabe, ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes, a generous pinch of salt and 2 tablespoons water. Use tongs to turn greens until evenly wilted. Cook, stirring occasionally, until water cooks away and broccoli rabe is tender, sweet, and starting to brown, about 15 to 20 minutes. Move broccoli rabe to the edges of the pot, and add 1 tablespoon olive oil. Add 3 cloves minced garlic and allow it to gently sizzle until it releases an aroma, about 20 seconds. Before the garlic has a chance to start browning, stir it into the greens. Add ¼ cup pasta cooking water and just-cooked, drained pasta and toss. Continue cooking over medium heat for 1 minute, tossing continuously with tongs. If the pasta looks dry, add a little more pasta water. It should be slightly wetter than you are comfortable with, because the pasta will continue to absorb sauce even after you pull it from the heat. Taste and adjust salt as needed. Serve immediately, with 1 cup (about 2 ounces) freshly grated ricotta salata. Con Poulos for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Aya Brackett for The New York Times Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times Karsten Moran for The New York Times Elaine's fettuccine Alfredo. Craig Lee for The New York Times
