Rich Egg Yolk Pasta

While I was at Indigo the other day, I came across a cookbook I would have written had somebody not beaten me to it. Entitled 'Ratio,' it takes a scientific approach toward cooking and baking, and gives useful guidelines using experimentally proven ratios. It gave the following guidelines for pasta:

-Use a 3:2 ratio of flour to eggs, by weight
-If no scale is available, use 2 eggs per 1 cup of flour
-Knead the dough by hand, not with a machine
-Dough should be allowed to rest for at least 10 minutes to relax the gluten

It also gave a recipe for richer yellow-coloured egg yolk pasta:

• 10 oz flour
• 6 oz egg yolks
• 2 oz eggs
• 1/2 oz olive oil

I made the egg yolk pasta today. Didn't have a scale, but I used: 1/2 cup flour, 1 egg, 1 egg yolk, a dash of olive oil, and a pinch of salt... kneaded, then immediately formed into fettuccini. It worked out really well, resulting in a soft and delicious pasta.

Tip: I have found that it's best to have too much moisture when starting to make a pasta dough, rather than too much flour. Whenever I try to add moisture to a dough, it becomes very tough.