I was really excited last time I have visited Greece for summer. Well, that’s actually what’s happening every summer… but this one was a bit more special. I was about to learn how to make homemade Greek pasta, ‘petoura’! ‘Peter’ or ‘chilopites’ is one kind of traditional Greek pasta similar to Italian pappardelle but thinner. In my village Krokos, people prepare big quantities of this kind of pasta during the summer and they consume it throughout the upcoming winter.

“Let me ask aunt Stella when she has time, we will make ‘petoura’ all together!” my mom said on Skype.”When you will be here we’ll have everything ready.” My aunt took care of the flour and my mom got some fresh eggs from a neighbor that has chicken. Everything set!

That day, even though summer, it was really windy. Ideal for drying the pasta as my mom explained “We’re lucky!” We were at my aunt’s place around 12 at noon so that we have a lot of time ahead to prepare everything. My aunt was just finishing up cooking for lunch time (in Greece people eat the main meal of the day around 14.00). We got a big bowl where we would break all 30 eggs of the recipe. When my aunt was also ready she started with the eggs with my mom and me with photo shooting so that I remember everything and be able to share it with you!

PREPARING THE DOUGH

So all eggs are in a bowl and my aunt mixs them sloghtly so that we get nice mixture!

When eggs were ready we started making the dough, happy! My aunt Stella has for occasions like these a big basin, I’m pretty sure you too have a similar one! She put in the basin the flour and made a small puddle in the center with her hand where she poured the milk.

After adding the milk she did the same with the beaten eggs. She added also one tablespoon of salt and started mixing with her hands.

The mixture became slowly a dough…

When the dough was ready, we left it rest for 2 hours before we went through the next step.

OPENING THE ‘FILOS’

As the time went by and the dough was ready we went to the attick where there was peanty of space and we could lie the ‘filos’ and the petoura when ready. My aunt had already put on the floor big sheets and in the corner of the room there was a table with all the equipment we needed: a thin wooden rolling pin, a round wooden surface for opening the dough into filos, some flour, a plastic surface and a small sharp knife for the later part of cutting the filos to peter pasta.

My aunt cut a piece of dough size of a big mandarin and started opening the filo, placing it round and round lots of times in order for it to have the same thickness everywhere to be as round as possible.

Every ready ‘filo’ was placed directly to the sheets for 20 min. per side so that it gets dry enough to be cut afterwards but not too dry to break into pieces.

MAKING THE PETOURA

The moment that all dough had been ‘filos’ the first of the ‘filos’ we have prepared were ready for cutting! We wrapped each filo first at half and then one more time as shown in the photo below.

So here we go with cutting the ‘filos’ ! The moment that the initial dough becomes actually pasta! My aunt cut the wrapped filo in thin pieces.

All the pieces were slightly thrown in the air by us so that they don’t stay stick together and dry out easier. This process also gives to this kind of pasta their random, free shape!

Here are my chefs! My mom on the left and my aunt on the right. That time I was using my first camera that was not performing that great in dark places but I believe you still can have a good look at them!

And here are our freshly made ‘petoura’ ready to place them in the sheets for drying..

Since we made a big batch of pasta which we wanted to store for a lot of months, we made sure we let it dry well for 4-5 days so that there was not humidity left in them.

And here are the ingredients!

• 30 eggs
• 1 liter of milk
• 4 – 4,5 kilos all purpose flour
• 1tbsp. salt

Bye for now..