Pappardelle Floral Pasta with Basil Pesto

To begin making the homemade pappardelle Start by placing the flour on a board or in a bowl.

Make a well in the middle and add the eggs. Beat the eggs with a fork and then start incorporating the flour until you obtain a thoroughly combined mixture.

Knead the dough with your hands, shaping, pulling, stretching (alternatively you can use a mixer with a dough hook).

Knead it until the dough is smooth and elastic. If it sticks to your hand when touched then add a little more flour and knead till smooth. You can also help yourself with a rolling pin, rolling and folding and rolling again the dough. The process takes a while so be patient! It’s a necessary step so that the pasta becomes smooth and silky, not lumpy and dry.

Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough till it is flat enough to feed into a pasta machine on level ‘0’. Continue feeding it through ‘0’, folding it in half then feeding it through repeatedly until a regular shape. Make sure to sprinkle lightly with flour to stop it from sticking. Then you can make it thinner with the machine. OR If you use a rolling pin for the whole process, make sure to roll it out and stretch it into thin sheets. Make sure to have 2 (or an even number of) sheets with a relatively similar size. Or you can cut a long one into 2, as you will need to layer one on top of the other.

When you have a thin long sheet of pasta dough, stretch it on your work plane and arrange your fresh herbs and flowers on it. Then carefully lay another sheet on top.

With the help of a rolling pin, carefully roll over so that the two sheets of dough get stuck together. OR If you are using a pasta machine, you can pass the dough through it and you will really begin to see the edible flowers and herbs showing through the pasta dough.

Cut the pasta. I chose to cut it into long strips, like Tagliatelle or Pappardelle, but you can cut it in different shapes/sizes. To cut it into long strips, you just need to fold the pasta a couple of times and then just cut with a knife.

To prepare the basil pesto, just mix/blend together all the pesto ingredients. It’s as simple as that!

To cook the pasta, put it in boiling water and cook for 3 minutes, combine with the basil pesto and serve immediately.