Image by JCarrot

Carla shared with us the ancient Italian secret of mixing pasta dough with a food processor. She promised us it created a perfectly luscious pasta noodle without the mess of the old “egg in a well of flour” method.

Carla kneaded flour into a batch of spinach dough, which we used to make linguine. (The water in the spinach made the dough a bit wet, so the extra flour evened things out.)

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

We used a pasta machine to thin out the mounds of dough into perfectly flat sheets. You can buy one here.

We filled our tortellini with a ricotta cheese and parsley mixture. The original plan was a pork and chicken mixture, but once Carla found out I was a vegetarian and Jewish she kindly switched the menu!

The first step to making tortellini is pressing the dough into a triangular packet around the filling. A little bit of water on the tips of your fingers helps seal the dough together.

Here are our beautiful tortellini! They look pretty authentic, no?

Basic Pasta Dough

This is not the exact dough recipe we used, but it’s from Gourmet, so I trust it completely!

2 cups flour

2 1/2 large eggs

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 to 2 tablespoons water

In a food processor blend all ingredients except water with a pinch salt until mixture begins to form a ball. If mixture is too dry, add enough water, a little at a time, to form a stiff dough.

On a lightly floured surface knead dough until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes. Pasta dough may be made 2 hours ahead and chilled, wrapped well in plastic wrap.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

$36 $500

$120 $180 Other amount