Homemade Tagliatelle Pasta with Cherry Tomatoes, Garlic and Basil
Homemade tagliatelle pasta paired with a simple cherry tomato, garlic and basil sauce is the perfect summer meal! This sauce comes together in minutes so you can take the extra time to make tagliatelle, one of the easiest fresh pastas you can make if you've never tried making homemade pasta before.
- Prep time
- 1 hr
- Cook time
- 13 min
- Yield
- 4 servings
- Difficulty
- HARD
Ingredients
Quantities are shown as originally provided.
- 400 grams all-purpose flour (about 2 1/2 cups)
- 4 large eggs
- pinch salt
- 2 pints cherry tomatoes (rinsed and dried)
- 4 cloves garlic (finely minced)
- 1/2 cup olive oil (plus extra for drizzling on top)
- pinch red pepper flakes (optional)
- handful basil leaves
- grated Parmigiano or Pecorino Romano cheese (for serving)
- salt and pepper (to taste)
Instructions
- 1
Place all-purpose flour in a mound on a your counter. Make a well in the center, add eggs and a pinch of salt. Be sure to keep the eggs within the walls of the flour. Use a fork to carefully beat the eggs slowly incorporating the flour to begin forming a dough.
- 2
When you have a shaggy looking dough, begin kneading the dough with your hands. Use the palms of your hands to apply pressure on the dough. Continue kneading for about 10 minutes until you have a smooth dough.
- 3
Cover and let rest at room temperature for 30 minutes. Do not skip this step. The gluten in the flour needs time to rest in order to make the dough more malleable and easy to roll.
- 4
Set the pasta roller at the widest setting. Divide the dough into 4 pieces and work with 1 piece at a time, keeping the rest covered in order to prevent from drying.
- 5
Flatten the dough with the palms of your hand in order to help ease it through the pasta roller. Roll the dough at this widest setting several times, folding the dough over on itself lengthwise a few times until you have a smooth strip of dough.
- 6
Begin decreasing the width of the pasta rollers, running the dough at each setting twice until you reach the second to last setting. I prefer tagliatelle that are not paper thin but have some bite to them. But if you prefer thinner pasta, continue on to the last setting.
- 7
You'll notice the pasta sheets lengthen as you roll them through each thinner setting. As they become more difficult to roll due to their length, and especially if you're working alone, simply cut the sheets in half for more manageable sheets.
- 8
Cover the rolled pasta sheets to prevent from drying and roll the remaining pieces of dough.
- 9
Attach the pasta cutter attachment to your pasta machine. Begin rolling each sheet of dough to cut into tagliatelle. Shape loosely into nests and place on a lightly floured sheet pan. If you have one, you may hang the tagliatelle on a drying rack. Continue rolling the remaining pasta sheets.
- 10
In a large skillet heat olive oil on medium heat. Add whole cherry tomatoes and minced garlic cloves. Add red pepper flakes for a touch of spiciness. Cook stirring for about 5 minutes until the tomatoes begin to blister and soften.
- 11
Use the back of a wooden spoon to gently crush the tomatoes so that they release some of their juices and thicken as well as flavor the sauce. Cook for 5 minutes longer. Add salt and pepper, to taste.
- 12
When the cherry tomato sauce is almost ready, add the tagliatelle to a large pot of salted boiling water and boil 2 minutes or until al dente.
- 13
Drain and the cooked tagliatelle into the skillet with the cherry tomatoes along with a ladle or two of pasta water to help the sauce adhere to the pasta. Stir in fresh torn basil leaves and an extra drizzle of olive oil.
- 14
Serve immediately with grated Parmigiano or Pecorino Romano cheese at the table.