Step 1

Put the flour in a large mixing bowl. Add the water to the flour and mix vigorously with a rubber spatula until it looks shaggy. Knead with your hands for about 5 minutes, until the dough is lumpy but relatively cohesive. Place the dough on the counter, and cover with an overturned bowl (the bowl you mixed it in is fine). Let the dough rest for 30 minutes, or up to 4 hours. Meanwhile, make your desired filling.

Step 2

After resting, the dough will be pliable and appear much smoother. Divide dough into quarters. Work with one quarter of dough at a time, and keep the remaining pieces covered with the bowl.

Step 3

Take your piece of dough and flatten it into a roughly rectangular shape. Then roll it out slightly using a rolling pin, just so it’s thin enough to go into the pasta roller. You can stretch out the corners of the dough to keep it rectangular before rolling. Dust the dough thoroughly with cornstarch on both sides.

Step 4

Roll out the dough through the roller, starting at the thickest setting, and gradually rolling it through each successive setting. When the dough gets very long, you can cut it in half crosswise to make it easier to handle. You’re done rolling when the dough is just short of paper thin. On my Atlas Italian Pasta roller, it was the second to last setting, setting #Dust each side of the dough sheet thoroughly with cornstarch again.

Step 5

Trim the dough with a knife so you have straight edges, and cut into squares about 3½  to 4 inches (9-10 cm) wide. Then assemble the wontons, use water to seal the wrappers, as you would with any wonton wrapper. It’s best to assemble the wontons as you make the wrappers. Then repeat with the remaining pieces of dough.

Step 6

Cook the wontons or freeze within 1 hour of assembly, or the moisture in the filling may soak through the very thin wrappers, causing cracks and leakage.

Step 7

To cook the wontons, drop into boiling water while stirring gently to keep the wontons from sticking to the bottom of the pot. Boil for about 5-6 minutes, adding cold water to the pot every time the water comes back up to a vigorous boil. This gives the filling enough time to cook without overcooking the wrapper. See notes for freezer instructions.