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1
Put the flour in the bowl of a food processor and process for a few seconds to aerate.
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2
Mix the eggs, olive oil, and the water in a measuring cup or other spouted container.
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Start the food processor running, and pour in the liquids through the feed tube.
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Process for 30 to 40 seconds, until a soft dough forms and gathers on the blade.
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5
If the dough does not gather and is wet and sticky, process in more flour, in small additions.
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6
If it is dry and stiff, process in more water, by spoonfuls.
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7
Turn the dough out on a lightly floured surface and knead by hand for a minute, until its smooth, soft, and stretchy.
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Press it into a disk, wrap it in plastic wrap, and let it rest at room temperature for 30 minutes before using.
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To use later, refrigerate for up to a day, or freeze it for a month or more.
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10
Defrost frozen dough in the refrigerator; return it to room temperature before rolling.
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11
Rolling and shaping pasutice and fuzi: To roll the dough in a standard home pasta-roller, cut it into six pieces.
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12
Keeping the dough lightly floured, roll the pieces at progressively narrower settings, gradually stretching them into strips about 2 feet long and as wide as your machine allows, usually about 5 inches.
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Cut each strip in half crosswise, so you have twelve strips about a foot in length.
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14
Lay them flat on a lightly floured surface, and keep covered with towels.
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One at a time, slice the strips lengthwise into long ribbons, about 1 1/2 inches wide, using a sharp knife or a rotary pasta-cutter and a ruler to guide the blade.
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You should get three such ribbons from a 5-inch-wide strip.
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To make pasutice: Cut across the ribbons with parallel diagonal slices, spaced 2 inches apart, forming diamond-shaped pasutice (also called maltagliati).
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Lay them flat on a lightly floured tray or sheet pan, spaced apart in a single layer.
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When the tray is filled, cover the pasutice with a lightly floured towel, and lay another layer of diamonds on top.
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Leave the pasutice at room temperature on the tray for a few hours.
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For longer storage, freeze on the tray until solid, then pack in ziplock plastic bags until you are ready to cook them.
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22
To make fuzi: First cut a pasta strip into ribbons, and then into diamond-shaped pasutice, as described above.
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Roll each diamond around a lightly floured chopstick or similar-sized thin rod to form a hollow tube, resembling a quill.
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Press on the overlapping pasta to seal the cylinder and slide it off the stick.
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Roll all the pasta diamonds into fuzi, using up all the remaining dough.
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Place the fuzi, spaced apart, on a lightly floured tray, and cover with a floured towel.
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Fill another tray if needed (do not put one layer on top of another, like pasutice).
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Leave at room temperature for a few hours, or freeze on the tray, then pack in plastic bags until you cook them.
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To make mlinzi: For mlinzi, youll need a rolling pin or a pasta machine to roll the dough, and several halfsheet pans (12 by 18 inches) or other large baking sheets.
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30
Arrange your oven racks to hold as many baking sheets as fit comfortably inside, and preheat to 300 .
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To roll mlinzi by hand, cut the dough into four pieces.
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On a lightly floured board, roll each piece to a rectangle about 11 by 17 inches (to fit in a half-sheet).
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To roll out in a pasta machine, cut the dough in six pieces and roll each piece at progressively narrower settings, into strips about 2 feet long and as wide as your machine allows.
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Always keep the dough lightly floured and roll until very thin, as for any fresh pasta.
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35
Lay the rolled pasta out flat on the sheet pans, cutting it as needed to fit.
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Arrange as many pans as you can in your oven, rotating them and shaking so they dont stick.
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When they appear dry, flip the mlinzi over.
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Bake a total of 18 to 20 minutes, until the mlinzi are completely crisp and crack apart when bent.
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They should be pale gold all over, or even darker, for a nuttier taste.
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40
Let the mlinzi cool on the sheet pans, or move to wire racks.
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When all the mlinzi sheets are baked and cool, stack them up on a tray and leave them uncovered, in a dry place, so the air circulates between the sheets and they remain crisp.