Empty wine bottles used to depress me. I started using them as candle holders, which helped a little. Then I discovered their true purpose. It was 2009. Mattie and I were spending a few days in a little town on the Amalfi Coast, in a hostel that included breakfast in the price: cappuccino and deliciously flaky homemade croissants. “You made them?” we asked the guy who served us breakfast. “Yes, yes!” he said. Then he said something in Italian while making rolling motions. We thought he was telling us that he drank wine while making croissants. After a while we figured out that he uses wine bottles to roll out the dough.
Well, what’s good for the croissant is good for the pasta, so when we wanted to try our hand at making linguine and found that we lacked a rolling pin, we grabbed a couple of the wine bottles that were lying around the house. Maybe you think making pasta is hard. Maybe you’re under the impression that it requires a pasta machine. It isn’t. It doesn’t. All it takes is flour, salt, water, a table, and someone willing to polish off a bottle of wine. In fact, many, many things require only these ingredients. I’ve used wine bottles to roll out dough for croissants, pies, biscuits, pasta — the only kind of dough I can’t roll out is the kind that buys stuff.
Would a rolling pin make the job easier? I’m not going to lie to you: I’ve got a rolling pin now, and I use it. It’s nothing special, just an old-fashioned wooden rolling pin, but it gives you more leverage, or torque, or something. But if you’re making pasta with three friends and you only have one rolling pin, don’t worry. In fact, it’s better that way. Break out the wine and get rolling.
Pasta for 2:
1 ½ c. all-purpose flour*
pinch of salt
½ c. warmish water (give or take)
1. Make a flour volcano and toss in a pinch of salt. Pour in a little water and mix it in with your fingers. Continue to add water and mix it into the flour until you can form it into a ball. Knead dough until smooth and silky, but not sticky. If it feels sticky, sprinkle a little flour onto it and knead it in. If it feels dry, dip your fingers in water and continue kneading. It takes practice to get the right texture, but it’ll happen. And your pasta will taste good even if it’s a little too wet or dry.
I find that warm water helps to get the dough softer faster. You can make the pasta directly on a tabletop (that’s what I like to do), but if you want to contain the process, put the flour in a bowl or on a dinner plate.
2. Let the dough sit for ten minutes (I don’t always do this and that’s OK).
3. Roll out your dough. Use plenty of flour so it doesn’t stick to the table. Try to get it as thin as possible. If it stops stretching or if you get tired, just cut it into thinner strands in step 4.
4. Cover the dough in flour and roll it up. This is important: if you don’t use enough flour, it will stick to itself and make you crazy. Slice and unroll the individual strands. If you’re not cooking the pasta right away, try to spread it out so that it doesn’t stick together.
5. Cook! The pasta is done when it rises to the top. Taste to make sure.
*Using half all-purpose flour and half semolina makes for a chewier, slightly better pasta. In Italy flour costs around 30 cents a pound; it can be more expensive here, especially semolina. Winco sells it in bulk at prices on par with Italy’s. But if you’ve only got all-purpose, that works more than fine.
Funny, I used to use wine bottles to roll out dough before I took the plunge and bought a rolling pin. Looks like they worked fantastically!