Making Pasta

Hi CraftyCat!

Do stick with it, it will be worth it. Resting it in the fridge will help with the structure. Making filled pasta is possibly more difficult than say tagliatelle, but so long as you carefully exclude all the air, shouldn't be a problem. Good luck!

Thank you NannaBanana
It was exhausting- Kenwood did not do the trick for kneading so did it by hand. First batch OK so have just now put 2nd batch in fridge as I had far too much filling. I cooked one to check it was edible & it was very nice. I'll freeze the raviolis I have left over then.
It took me ages to work out how to assemble the drying rack thing & pasta machine .
When they say on Masterchef they are ' just going to make a quick ravioli' they have got to be joking. I bet someone does the kneading for them & assembling the machine. I started at 11.30 & will probably finish about 4.30- mind you a lot of that was waiting while it rested in fridge.
I'll try Tagliatelle next time as I also made far too much sauce- but it will freeze.

I do feel quite noble & it is very satisfying as it is something I have always wanted to try.

Read this to D and she's was saying"No, no!" Tell her not to put it in the Kenwood, which I see you have discovered for yourself.

I gave my pasta machine away as I got fed up with spaghetti all over the place. This was 30 years ago and I never saw a drying rack. Tempted to try again.

I could not be bothered to make my own pasta. By the range of types of pasta you seee in Italian supermarkets neither do most italians. The Italian mamas who do this must have time on their hands.

Nelliemoser it would be nice if I had access to Italian supermarkets. Have great difficulty getting decent pasta and specialist Italian shops don't seem to be into internet shopping.

My next door neighbour is Italian!

She never makes pasta by hand. I used to make the dough in a magimix and it always turned out well. Made a drying rack out of bamboo squeres spelling?

But she makes marvellous gnocchi, mine is a mess.

Each to their own

I've bought lovely Italian dried pasta in TK Maxx.
The recent one was beetroot and spinach.
Quite expensive, about 3 x the price of the standard supermarket variety but as there's only the two of us it won't break the bank.

TK Max - the things I gave up when we moved here! We have a Spar. Actually have Tesco, Lidl and Asda in the nearest town, which unfortunately is the opposite direction to work.

Most Italians don't set much store by fresh pasta unless they are making a filled pasta like ravioli. I don't think they bother with fancy racks if they are making spaghetti or tagliatelle, you just hang it over a broom stick propped up on two chairs.

It does get better with practice Craftycat One large egg to 100 grammes of plain flour, double zero for preference. If the dough is too wet you can add more flour, if it's too dry a drop of water or olive oil.

We used to make all our own pasta - now I think I was mad! I still have the machine. The thing is, once you have put it through the machine four times it has all been evened out and mixed for you, with all that folding. I've made it with normal plain flour and SR flour too, it just needs less time cooking. I was about to offer you my machine but I see you have one. I was sent the wrong ravioli machine so always made ravioli by hand, however I do have a little hand cutter/press thing for shapes that crimps the edges when you fold it over with the filling inside.

I am now coeliac, and your mentioning this has made me think, perhaps I should try mixing a few flours of my own rather than relying on the usual corn pasta available to me.

I'm not giving up!! The book that came with rolling machine says to put the dry ingredients into food processor first which makes the kneading process quicker so I will try that. I open froze the ravioli I did not cook & it all stuck together but I expect it will be OK when dunked in boiling water.
Next time I may add spinach. This is now a 'project'.

Has anyone tried making spätzle? We have a spätzle maker inherited from DH's grandmother but have never tried to use it.

Katek we saw spätzle in Lidl and OH bought it as he loved it as a child in Germany. He was most disappointed. Either he remembered wrong or the product has changed.

DH remembers his grandmother and great grandmother making it but hasn't had it in years. I'll maybe try the Lidl variety and see what he thinks.

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We make pasta more often these days as we have plenty of fresh eggs. As Deedaa says it gets easier with practice and it does taste better than dried pasta. We have a pasta machine but just lay the rolled out dough on a well floured work surface or tray until we are ready to cook it. DH is Italian and uses his mothers method!!

It is strange how threads on gransnet seem to coincide with my life.
I have told DGS we will make pasta when he stays here on Saturday, a dear friend gave me a pasta maker 17 years ago and it is about to come out of it's box, for the first time.
I am going to use a clothes airer to dry it on.

Our lovely James Martin said don't put things in machines to be kneaded which should be kneaded by hand. Somehow the machine tears and stretches the flour and robs it of its elasticity.
I mix it by hand, then use a pasta machine from IKEA You keep putting the dough through it again and again until it comes our really thin. Grandchildren love using it!

It's a bit like making fish fingers or baked beans in my view .Why would you ..
Having said that ,I once had the best meal I've ever had at a family- run sea food restaurant in Italy. Mamma was standing in the corner kneading and rolling pasta .It was divine but it looked incredibly hard work

I've made Spatzle. I bought a potato ricer & it had an attachment for it. It was very easy & worked well. Haven't made it for ages- you've reminded me- thank you.
Incapacitated at the moment but as soon as I can stand again I'll make some more.
Also some more pasta.

With us, its just another gadget DH wanted to buy after seeing Masterchef. I need to remind him its in the cupboard I think

Someone said "life's too short to stuff a mushroom" and I would say that about home made pasta.

Was lucky enough tp have a session with true artisans in Italy so have had great success with their years old recipe.

You will need 00 flour and some fine semolina flour and eggs. You also need a large wooden board and a long wooden rolling pin and one on those plastic dough scrapers.

One portion is 90gms 00 flour + 10gms fine semolina and one whole egg.
On the board heap the flours and make a well in the middle to crack the egg into (the larger the amount of flour the easier it is so I never do less than a two portion mix). With a finger or spoon slowly mix the egg into the flour from the centre. Once the mixture has become a bit thicker its not too messy. Work all flour in until you have a nice firm dough and knead for a minute or two. The dough will seem dense and unpromising at this stage. Then wrap in cling film and leave to rest on counter for 90 minutes or so.
The dough will have changed texture and be much more pliable and relaxed and this is where it gets a bit strenuous!
The real artisans frown on those metal pasta makers as it leaves the pasta with too smooth a surface - wooden boards give a subtle texture which makes the thinnest sauce cling much better.
Its now just a matter of rolling it out as thin as you like dusting the board with a mixture of flour and semolina as needed (I do it in small batches and as it gets thinner I use the weight of the dough to hang over the edge of the table to elongate it. Just keep rolling - get a GC to help!
Leave the rolled dough out to 'air' for 5-10 minutes then roll up like a swiss roll and either using a long knife (I use a pizza roller) to cut tagliatelli strips. You can also use this to make ravioli etc and you only need water to stick the edges.
To cook you need a large pan of boiling salted water and the tagliatelli takes 2 minutes to cook (filled ravioli float when cooked) - I always taste to check but its done in no time.
We've had huge fun with this recipe and it has always been very dependable making the simplest tomato sauce seem very special.