Pasta is comfort food, whether or not you grew up in an Italian kitchen. Some of my first memories are of eating spaghetti, slurping up the long noodles and licking up the sauce. The ingredients in pasta are so simple, flour, eggs, olive oil and water. How can something so simple taste so good? If you have never made your own pasta at home it is time to treat yourself. Homemade pasta is one of the great marvels of the kitchen. So, roll up your sleeves, gather the kids or grandkids, friends and family and get ready to transform wet and dry ingredients into dough. And from the dough into noodles and from noodles into comfort food.
A pasta machine is one of the tools that makes the job of turning dough into noodles easier. You can do it the old fashioned way and roll your dough into thin sheets using a wooden rolling pin, but I find that a uniform thickness is best achieved using a machine. There are electric machines and there are manual machines that you crank by hand. Weston, Lello and Imperia pasta machines are well known brands of electric pasta makers. The Kitchenaid pasta attachment is an wonderful addition to the Kitchenaid mixer for making pasta. Atlas, Imperia and CucinaPro are all good manufacturers of manual pasta makers. I personally have used the Atlas pasta machine for many years with absolutely delicious results.
If you are going to mix the dough by hand, start by placing the flour in a large bowl and make a well in the center. Crack the eggs into a smaller bowl and beat them lightly to break the yolks. Add the oil and water and mix well before pouring the liquids into the well in the center of the flour. Continue to mix with a fork or a wooden spoon until the dry ingredients are moistened and begin to clump together. Now roll up your sleeves and get ready to get your hands on the dough to finish the mixing.
Put a small bit of flour on your hands before touching the dough so it doesn't stick to your fingers. Begin kneading the dough in the bowl by taking the dough from the sides, folding it onto the center, pressing down and out with the palm of your hand and repeating the process. Rotate the bowl as you are kneading to make sure that all of the dough gets folded and pressed into itself. When the dough becomes one clump and is no longer sticking to the sides of the bowl, turn it out onto a lightly floured board and continue kneading for 2 to 3 minutes. The dough should be soft and elastic, smooth and shiny.
The dough should be smooth and shiny on the outside, soft throughout with no lumps, and it should be stretchy. If the dough seems too sticky or hard, you may want to adjust it with small amounts of water or flour until you get the right consistency. All pasta dough benefits from resting before rolling it out. Let your dough rest for about 30 minutes at room temperature, during which time the dough will soften and relax.
Divide your dough into quarters and work with one piece of dough at a time. The general idea is to start rolling the dough through the thickest setting on your pasta machine, gradually decreasing the setting to roll a thin sheet of pasta. If you are making raviolis you will place the filling on one sheet of pasta, cover it with a second sheet and then use a pastry wheel to cut between the ravioli squares. All pasta maker machines come with some attachments for cutting the pasta into other shapes like tagliatelle and tagliolini. Some of the electric ones will also provide an extruding attachment for making rounded shapes like spaghetti and capellini. You can even cut the sheets by hand into strips that are 1 1/2 inches wide, like papardelle.
After you have cut and shaped your pasta, the pasta needs to dry out a bit before it is cooked. Dry the pasta at room temperature on a lightly floured board or baking sheet. The flour helps keep the pieces of pasta from sticking to each other and helps seal the noodle. If you have made more pasta than you need for the meal you can freeze it on a baking sheet and then put the frozen pasta into freezer bags or containers for future use. If you just had a ravioli making party, you will be able to enjoy homemade raviolis any time. Pasta also dries well, although you will still want to cook it us within a couple of days because your dough does not have preservatives in it. Long pasta shapes can be dried in little nests or you can use a pasta drying rack, which allows you to dry the pasta as long threads.
Homemade pasta has a rich, delicate flavor and a softer texture than commercially processed pasta. It is made with fresh ingredients and they say that the good energy that goes into the making of the food you eat is healthier for you. Once you have eaten a dish or two of your own pasta and had the pleasure of making it with family or friends, you will realize that you want to make fresh pasta a regular event in your kitchen. Now that's comfort food. Start your own family tradition of making pasta together and create some special family memories. - 29955
A pasta machine is one of the tools that makes the job of turning dough into noodles easier. You can do it the old fashioned way and roll your dough into thin sheets using a wooden rolling pin, but I find that a uniform thickness is best achieved using a machine. There are electric machines and there are manual machines that you crank by hand. Weston, Lello and Imperia pasta machines are well known brands of electric pasta makers. The Kitchenaid pasta attachment is an wonderful addition to the Kitchenaid mixer for making pasta. Atlas, Imperia and CucinaPro are all good manufacturers of manual pasta makers. I personally have used the Atlas pasta machine for many years with absolutely delicious results.
If you are going to mix the dough by hand, start by placing the flour in a large bowl and make a well in the center. Crack the eggs into a smaller bowl and beat them lightly to break the yolks. Add the oil and water and mix well before pouring the liquids into the well in the center of the flour. Continue to mix with a fork or a wooden spoon until the dry ingredients are moistened and begin to clump together. Now roll up your sleeves and get ready to get your hands on the dough to finish the mixing.
Put a small bit of flour on your hands before touching the dough so it doesn't stick to your fingers. Begin kneading the dough in the bowl by taking the dough from the sides, folding it onto the center, pressing down and out with the palm of your hand and repeating the process. Rotate the bowl as you are kneading to make sure that all of the dough gets folded and pressed into itself. When the dough becomes one clump and is no longer sticking to the sides of the bowl, turn it out onto a lightly floured board and continue kneading for 2 to 3 minutes. The dough should be soft and elastic, smooth and shiny.
The dough should be smooth and shiny on the outside, soft throughout with no lumps, and it should be stretchy. If the dough seems too sticky or hard, you may want to adjust it with small amounts of water or flour until you get the right consistency. All pasta dough benefits from resting before rolling it out. Let your dough rest for about 30 minutes at room temperature, during which time the dough will soften and relax.
Divide your dough into quarters and work with one piece of dough at a time. The general idea is to start rolling the dough through the thickest setting on your pasta machine, gradually decreasing the setting to roll a thin sheet of pasta. If you are making raviolis you will place the filling on one sheet of pasta, cover it with a second sheet and then use a pastry wheel to cut between the ravioli squares. All pasta maker machines come with some attachments for cutting the pasta into other shapes like tagliatelle and tagliolini. Some of the electric ones will also provide an extruding attachment for making rounded shapes like spaghetti and capellini. You can even cut the sheets by hand into strips that are 1 1/2 inches wide, like papardelle.
After you have cut and shaped your pasta, the pasta needs to dry out a bit before it is cooked. Dry the pasta at room temperature on a lightly floured board or baking sheet. The flour helps keep the pieces of pasta from sticking to each other and helps seal the noodle. If you have made more pasta than you need for the meal you can freeze it on a baking sheet and then put the frozen pasta into freezer bags or containers for future use. If you just had a ravioli making party, you will be able to enjoy homemade raviolis any time. Pasta also dries well, although you will still want to cook it us within a couple of days because your dough does not have preservatives in it. Long pasta shapes can be dried in little nests or you can use a pasta drying rack, which allows you to dry the pasta as long threads.
Homemade pasta has a rich, delicate flavor and a softer texture than commercially processed pasta. It is made with fresh ingredients and they say that the good energy that goes into the making of the food you eat is healthier for you. Once you have eaten a dish or two of your own pasta and had the pleasure of making it with family or friends, you will realize that you want to make fresh pasta a regular event in your kitchen. Now that's comfort food. Start your own family tradition of making pasta together and create some special family memories. - 29955
About the Author:
Making fresh homemade pasta has been a Lauder family event for years. Kids, grandkids, friends and neighbors all take a hand in making the dough and gathering at the table to feast on the results. Watch a video on rolling dough through a pasta machine on Geri's website, browse great cookbooks and select a pasta machine for your next family pasta party.
