Pasta dough is not hard at all to make! Just a few pointers: Set your eggs out for a bit so they come to room-temperature....they mix in with the dry ingredients much better. Some recipes call for Semolina flour. I have not worked much with it so I am no expert for sure, but the little bit I did work with it I actually found it slightly more difficult to turn out pasta the way I wanted. I've just been using regular "All-Purpose" flour (unbleached) since.
In the past I've made pasta that was 'too thick' and just 'too much'.....so I try to roll my pasta pretty thin. You will need to adjust according to your preferences. But remember that pasta will 'plump up' more after you boil it. I have an electric pasta machine (which I use to make noodles, but I haven't used in awhile, admittedly)....what I do use fairly often is my manual pasta machine. I set it up and 'clamp' it on the counter, insert the 'crank' handle and I'm good to go. If you're concerned about cleaning them, no need to be. You just might have to be prepared to let it set out overnight so any 'residual' pasta can dry (depending on what attachments you use). Fresh pasta can be impossible to clean out, but dried can often just be 'knocked-out' by dropping an attachment against the counter. I really only use my flat rollers to roll pasta sheets, and they really don't get dirty....even still, I wipe them with a damp paper towel (while turning the crank) the next day. If you do have pasta stuck in there (maybe it wasn't the right consistency, it was too wet and got stuck), don't fret...just allow it to dry overnight then run a dry paper towel through the rollers a few times (as if it were a sheet of pasta)...that should clear the problem.
Don't let manual pasta rollers scare you, they are actually easier to operate than trying to pull out and put together an electric pasta machine! (Though those have their place in the kitchen, too!). If you don't have any 'machinery' to make fresh pasta at home, don't fret. In this case, to make Cannelloni, just buy some dried Manicotti shells. Just cook them according to package directions to "al dente". Anyhow, for those of you who want the fresh pasta recipe, on to that......!
Black Pepper Pasta (serves 4-6 as an entree) (*to make this PLAIN pasta, just omit the pepper)
2 cups All-purpose (unbleached) flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs (at room temperature)
1 1/2 tbsp. water
2 tsp ground black pepper
Put the flour in a bowl, add the salt & black pepper and stir around with a fork or whisk to blend. Add the eggs and water and stir with a wooden spoon. It may seem firm/dry, but keep stirring. Once mixture seems 'together' enough, dump out on a barely floured counter top. The dough mixture may seem quite 'crumbly' to you, but keep kneading it with your hands to try to get it to 'come together'. (At first it seems like way too small amount of water, but a lot of times, it is the right amount...just keep kneading to see). If the mixture still seems way too crumbly, try adding droplets of water at a time. But before you start adding, you may want to try to pass the dough through the pasta machine first to see what happens.
Pasta dough is drier than bread doughs you may have dealt with, so you may have to 'get a feel' for it. First, pat it out with your fingers/hands as flat as you can, like 1/4" thick. Then pass through the machine at the highest (widest) setting. You can pass it through a few times to get it right, and you'll have to 'flip over' the odd-shaped ends (to make a neat, rectangular pasta sheet) and re-run them, especially in the beginning. If after 2-3 passes it still seems "crumbly" (like at the edges or maybe a few holes in the center), you can try dabbing water on the edges/holes with your finger and then re-running. If the pasta is outright tearing/sticking to the roller, it is probably too wet. So it is better to start off with the minimum amount of water and add more in droplets as needed!
Start turning the machine settings down in steps. My manual pasta machine starts at "7". I go down in steps from there and keep rolling and drawing out the pasta, till I get down to the thickness I like. The setting I've used recently was "2" (I used this for lasagna a few months ago, but my husband admitted he would have liked the pasta sheets to be a little thicker), which I'd used for the cannelloni, too....I feared, since they were 'rolled', they could seem like too much pasta, so I rolled them to a "2". Now, my husband was quite happy with this setting. I think it could have probably been a "3" and been good still. And my lasagna before really should have been a "3". It can be hard to tell, as pasta can swell a great deal when it is boiled. This is more of a "try and see what you like" sort of thing. It helps to only boil fresh pasta VERY briefly, to avoid it becoming too puffed up and soggy. I only boiled the fresh cannelloni sheets about 1 minute. Fresh pasta cooks MUCH faster than dried!
Cannelloni Filling
Ricotta cheese (I used a 15 oz carton, but I had a few leftover pasta sheets...you may need more cheese if you want to make a bigger pan of pasta)
1/2 cup cooked, crumbled Italian sausage
grated parmesan, Asiago & Romano cheeses (to your preference)
dried basil & oregano (about 1/4 tsp or so of each)
1/2 tsp (or s0) granulated garlic (or you can use powdered or minced)
1/4 tsp minced dried onion
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1 egg
Mix filling well. Divide evenly among pasta sheets and roll up. Place pasta rolls in a pan (like a glass casserole/lasagna pan) that has been 'greased' with olive or vegetable oil. Pour your favorite spaghetti (meat) sauce recipe over the cannelloni. Sprinkle liberally with shredded mozzarella and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes to 1 hour. (You can do only 30 minutes of baking if all the ingredients are still hot/warm. But if you've chilled them overnight in the fridge, you will need to first bring the dish to room temp as best as possible--don't try to slide a cold glass dish into a hot oven! -- then bake it for a full hour to be sure it is fully heated through and all the cheeses are melted). Enjoy!! This is great with some crusty garlic toast and a hearty red wine like Chianti or Zinfandel! :)
