170 replies to this topic

[M. Lucia]

I broke the eggs into the flour and mixed them with a fork. I encorporated the rest of the flour with my hands, though there was some leftover flour that didn't encorporate. I kneaded for about ten minutes, until smooth.

[MobyP]

Chufi - that was a great idea. I'm going to try that one myself - as I always have some peas around, and otherwise have to wait until March or April for the first good favas.

I just tried making pasta for the first time ... and I rolled it by hand.
Perhaps someone could offer some advice?

I've tried rolling it by hand a couple of times - and failed horribly. The problem is that (a) you have to be INCREDIBLY profficient - it's not like rolling pie dough, because of all of the gluten making it elastic, and (b) there's actually a trick to rolling the dough, and stretching it with your hands - in two directions - simultaneously! You can find a diagram of the method in the older Marcella Hazan books. It is very difficult to do it evenly - hence your pasta being slightly chewy. The dough is cooking at different rates. Really, you have to be a Northern Italian Grandmother to even contemplate that sort of skill level.

Once you've done it 20 or 30 times, you might just do it to your satisfaction (well, it would take me that long at any rate).

As to flour types, I find - as Sam I think mentions - that unless you have some skill in controlling it, using harder durum wheat tend to make the pasta a bit gummy. Rolling the Typo '00' dough thinly, and cooking it only for 1-3 minutes, depending on how long it's been hanging around, gives a smoother mouth feel, with a little bite to it.

What's changed for me, with experience, is that I now roll the pasta thinner, and cook it for less, than I did for the first year of my pasta making. The problem is that most of the pre-made 'fresh' raviolis (blechblechblech) and tagliatelles, papardelles etc that you buy in shops are made with a substantially thicker dough than you would want. This is purely to make them sturdier in order to stand up to the industrial process. Don't do it!

Edited by MobyP, 13 January 2005 - 01:33 AM.

[chef koo]

I would like to make use of my Kitchen aid mixer that I got for Christmas and the pasta maker that I bought a year ago.  I'm thinking pasta is on the menu for this evenings dinner.  Does anyone have a recipe that works everytime.  The last time I made fresh pasta I wasn't that impressed with the recipe, although it could have been the technique.  All help appreciated.

hi i'm new to te site. well i think that when it comes to pasta i think people are very inside the box thinkers. flour and egg is the staple. basically i simplify it down to this. if it has guten and you add liquid to it and make a dough... you can make a pasta. in your kitchen aid have you flour, durum flour, durum wheat, or whatever. and add you liquid, wether it be egg, water milk, juice, veggie puree of some sort and mix it. if it's too loose and wet add more flour, if it's too dry and more liquid.

edit: of course there are steps you can take to truly perfect it but for everyday consumption this is unnecesary.

Edited by chef koo, 13 January 2005 - 04:49 AM.

[bleudauvergne]

I would like to make use of my Kitchen aid mixer that I got for Christmas and the pasta maker that I bought a year ago.  I'm thinking pasta is on the menu for this evenings dinner.  Does anyone have a recipe that works everytime.  The last time I made fresh pasta I wasn't that impressed with the recipe, although it could have been the technique.  All help appreciated.

hi i'm new to te site. well i think that when it comes to pasta i think people are very inside the box thinkers. flour and egg is the staple. basically i simplify it down to this. if it has guten and you add liquid to it and make a dough... you can make a pasta. in your kitchen aid have you flour, durum flour, durum wheat, or whatever. and add you liquid, wether it be egg, water milk, juice, veggie puree of some sort and mix it. if it's too loose and wet add more flour, if it's too dry and more liquid.

edit: of course there are steps you can take to truly perfect it but for everyday consumption this is unnecesary.

Chef koo, It's so nice to see you here! You're right, it's so true that your ingredients can vary a whole lot and that different things are going to give you different results. Some want to master pasta making in order to recreate a wonderful pasta experience they had once. Others want to understand the nuances of the various pasta making traditions by region or all over the world (the northern Chinese do some wonderful things with pasta...), others want to make their own pasta to control the ingredients for dietary reasons (for example I was making home made whole hard wheat pasta without oil or egg while following the Montignac plan), or simply to understand the ingredients they've got in the cabinet. Still others want to get pasta quick and easy on the table! Oh you'll find all types here. We would love to hear any ideas or recipes you found particularly interesting.

[albiston]

Chufi - that was a great idea. I'm going to try that one myself - as I always have some peas around, and otherwise have to wait until March or April for the first good favas.

A great stuffing is pea, spring onion and lettuce, pureed together, with maybe some parmesan added in. The sweet pea and the slightly bitter lettuce balance each other's tastes nicely.

I've tried rolling it by hand a couple of times - and failed horribly. The problem is that (a) you have to be INCREDIBLY profficient -

....

It is very difficult to do it evenly - hence your pasta being slightly chewy. The dough is cooking at different rates. Really, you have to be a Northern Italian Grandmother to even contemplate that sort of skill level.

Plus you really need to develop the muscles needed to roll the dough by hand. Those Northern Italian ladies, who work as sfoglina -- she who rolls the sfoglia, i.e. the pasta sheet-- have biceps a body builder could be proud of. I tried to roll pasta myself under the supervision of one of those ladies once: let's just say that after a while she moved me by side saying I was too scrawny... an adjective nobody had ever used referring to me in the last 20 years .

[Luckylies]

well, this thread inspired me to read Moby's course and that inpsired me ...



they are GREAT. the sweetness of the peas, the saltiness of the cheese, and the soft chewy firmness of the pasta... mmm..
(one thing though.. be prepared to take out the vacuumcleaner when you're done.. I had semolina everywhere)

Chufi - WOW! Gorgeoous and delicious too I'm sure!

ditto, those look excellent. how do you form your ravioli. I've been having a terrible time of it. I looked at moby's lesson too, yet my ravioli always come out misformed. also i waste alot of dough.

[Chufi]

A great stuffing is pea, spring onion and lettuce, pureed together, with maybe some parmesan added  in. The sweet pea and the slightly bitter lettuce balance each other's tastes nicely.

ahh, that is a very good idea. Because mine really were very sweet - they needed a lot of salty pecorino to balance the sweetness. It would be better if the balance was already more in the stuffing.

Luckylies, about how I shaped the ravioli, these things are so hard to explain in words. I recommend you check out Moby's course mentioned upthread, where you see it all explained in beautiful pictures.

[slkinsey]

A great stuffing is pea, spring onion and lettuce, pureed together, with maybe some parmesan added  in. The sweet pea and the slightly bitter lettuce balance each other's tastes nicely.

Great idea. What kind of lettuce? And do you puree all the ingredients raw, or par-cooked?

[albiston]

A great stuffing is pea, spring onion and lettuce, pureed together, with maybe some parmesan added  in. The sweet pea and the slightly bitter lettuce balance each other's tastes nicely.

Great idea. What kind of lettuce? And do you puree all the ingredients raw, or par-cooked?

I often use Romain, it really depends on taste though. You want something that has a hint of bitterness, maybe even a bit more than that just as long as it does not become too much.

Peas and lettuce are braised together: I first make a little spring onion soffritto, add the chopped lettuce and shelled peas (OK, I'll admit it, more often than not frozen ones) stir a bit then add some white wine and maybe a little chicken stock. When the peas are done, I strain most of the liquid out, puree everything with the stab blender, add some parmesan to taste and adjust the consistency with the leftover liquid if needed. You could strain everything through a tamis if you wanted an even smoother filling.

I usually serve these with crispy pancetta or diced prosciutto and butter.

[MobyP]

That's a very serious and, as far as I can tell, completely original approach. I'll try it soon.

[albiston]

That's a very serious and, as far as I can tell, completely original approach. I'll try it soon.

Moby,

completely original it is not. I got the idea from Gualtiero Marchesi, one of the most important Italian chefs of the 80s. He mentions the idea in a book of his about gastronomy: no recipe whatsoever, though coming up with a satisfying one was much easier than I thought.

Let us know how they come out.

[slkinsey]

I often use Romain, it really depends on taste though. You want something that has a hint of bitterness, maybe even a bit more than that just as long as it does not become too much.

Sounds like curly endive or escarole might work. I've often found that they stand up to braising well.

[Chris Amirault]

Bumping this up to ask about saucing your fresh pasta. I'm trying new recipes for sauces for fresh linguini and/or spaghetti (when I have more time, not a work night, I'll be filling ravioli or tortellini). What are people's tried and true recipes? Feel free to include everything, from basics to more involved.

[peppyre]

I made one the other night that was fantastic. Thinly slice garlic, shallots, red wine....reduce, throw in 2 garden fresh tomatoes diced, dried thai pepper, fresh corn, prawns, red pepper, capers, and fresh basil. Tossed with capellini, it was light and flavourful. Sprinkle with Parmesan and it was wonderful meal.

[DaleJ]

Glad this was resurected. I notice that I was a contributor and would like to update my "recipe". The past few batches of fresh pasta have been made with no bench flour. I have maintained the 2 to 1 ratio of unbleached flour to cake flour, added two eggs and whizzed in the FP. While operating, I have added water almost by the drop to form a very stiff mix. Then cover the mass with a bowl for ten or so minutes. The first cranks in the manual machine produces a crumbly product, but bu the third or fourth pass it becomes more pasta like. Then, as before, I do two passes per setting and one at the last. Hang it on the back of a chair for fifteen or so minutes and pass it through the rollers.

There now is no cleanup at all.

[Sackville]

I have a recipe for Crab and Prawn Ravioli in a Seafood Bisque that I learned to make during a Leiths course. It is wonderful, if time-consuming.

[LindaK]

With filled pasta (meat or cheese), I am still enamored of the simplest recipe of all, butter with sage. I'd seen this simple "sauce" mentioned for years and only tried it after reading in Matt Kramer's cookbook "A Passion for Piemonte" that it is his wife's favorite sauce for his homemade pasta.

It's not much of a recipe--melt good unsalted butter, add lots of fresh sage cut into chiffonade, cook over moderate heat until it just reaches the point where the butter starts to brown, add cooked pasta, toss to evenly coat, plate, top with a bit of grated parm. A friend added an inspired addition--a garnish of a fried whole sage leaf. You can do them well in advance, it makes for a great presentation and is DELICIOUS.

[Chris Amirault]

I made a pretty simple "carbonara" (in the Calvin Trillin, not-trying-to-be-authentic-anything mode) from Boar's Head bacon, shiitake, sugar snap peas, bit of garlic, cream, and parm reg, using a very black peppered fresh spaghetti. Plopped a fried egg on top of the whole business, too, just to be sure that we had all of the different animal fat bases covered.

[Campofiorin]

Here is the recipe I use. 3 cups of semolina, 4 eggs, 2 tbs of olive oil and abour 3-4 tbs of water. You can either knead it by hand in a bowl or do it in the processor. Tried it for the 1st time a couple of weeks ago and worked pretty well. Makes a very tasty pasty.

[Jeebus]

The recipe I use is

1 3/4 cups AP flour
9 egg yolks
1 tsp milk
2 tbsp olive oil

I also do it by hand the old fashoned well way. I find food proscessor doughs way too tough, but know many chefs who swear by it.

[AlainV]

Bumping this up to ask about saucing your fresh pasta. I'm trying new recipes for sauces for fresh linguini and/or spaghetti (when I have more time, not a work night, I'll be filling ravioli or tortellini). What are people's tried and true recipes? Feel free to include everything, from basics to more involved.

Fresh raviolis with ricotta and spinach filling with a simple cream and spinach sauce. Very tasty.

[Mottmott]

This summer I started making fresh pasta and love it. I'm especially keen on ravioli as one can just invent fillings depending upon what's on hand. Also, for live alone cooks, they're perfect as they freeze so well. It's lovely having these little quick dinners waiting in the freezer next to a pouch of homemade soup. A salad, good bread, and you can have a great meal in minutes when you don't feel like "cooking."

First, when I make ravioli, unless it's a simple cheese filling, I like to keep the "sauce" simple and complementary to the filling. For example when I made beet ravioli, I tried it with the poppy seed and butter sauce I've seen several recipes for - bleh. How annoying are those little seeds! But then when I used an infused lemon olive oil a few drops of lemon juice, and some herbs (chive, I think), it was just right. The subtle lemon fragrance and the sharpness of the juice
countered the sweetness of the filling.

Many fillings don't require a "recipe" as such for the home cook. Professionals may need them for consistency, ordering, etc. But for home cooks some tasty leftovers can be inspired fillings. When I had some leftover braised short ribs, I sauted up some shallots mixed in the shredded ribs, a little of the juices, maybe deglazed along the way with some wine. Again a simple oil, herb, and cheese was enough to enhance the ravioli. Today, I have some leftover raddichio and onion that I cooked up last night as a pasta condiment. It was a little bitter, a little sweet. My guess? it will make a really neat filling with a little oil, cheese, and herbs over it. And of course, add almost anything to ricotta that's flavorful (duxelles, incredible) and you can make stunning ravioli.

At home, I think ravioli offer a wonderful way to experiment with try out flavor combinations. That said, I'm always open for others' recipes. The peas above sound very tempting.

I haven't yet tried any dessert ravioli, but it's on my radar.

Edited to add an afterthought: I'm trying to control the amount of fatty meats, such as beef, that I eat. But I don't care to give them up altogether. A few ounces of meat filled ravioli does not seem as meager as, say, a 3 ounce piece of meat might appear on the plate.

Edited by Mottmott, 10 October 2005 - 06:57 AM.

[Paul B]

I don't have a food processor (it broke and it was so much trouble to clean I never replaced it) so I use a bread machine to make pasta. Here's the deal: I put three eggs, a tsp. of oil, and two cups of regular flour into the bread machine. Start the machine on the dough cycle, keeping the lid open. As it churns the stuff around I add a bit of water and occasionally push any stuff stuck in the corners towards the middle with a spatula. Soon enough it starts to form a ball. Once it's nice and firm, I turn off the machine, take the dough ball out and let it sit until it's time to run through the pasta machine. Works a charm.

[Saffy]

I do a little of both, some by hand and some in the food processor. I strart it off in the food processor until it starts to ball up a little, then I kneed by hand. I also roll and shape the pasta by hand , papardelle being the most common since it is easiest to cut by hand.

I also love to make gnocci by hand.

I don't find the pasta chewy .. I do roll it very thin though ..

I LOVE homemade pasta but it is very time consuming.. in my opinion worth the wait!

[Jmahl]

Been making pasta for over ten years. Basic recipe - 3 cups semolia, 2 eggs, egg shell of water knead in KA with paddle until ball formed. Divide into three, roll in hand machine, folding and rolling, until smooth -- reduce down to desired thickness, layout on folded table cloth to dry - turn some. Cut and cook in lots of salted boiling water. Never sticks, rustic, toothsome takes 15 - 20 minutes to got it in the pot.

If you want green posta add some spinich to the KA while kneading - or anything else. Sometimes I add black pepper or fresh oregano.

Enjoy

[SethG]

I just want to add another voice in favor of hand rolling. I don't own a pasta machine. I am by no means large or muscled, and I have no problem rolling it out myself into sheets I can see through. After trying it once, I scrapped my plan to buy a pasta machine, as I see no need for it.

I also knead my pasta dough by hand, but I can see why a person might save time by using the food processor. As with bread, however, I find I only get the feel I want-- and an accurate judgment of the firmness of the dough-- if I knead it by hand.

[anzu]

This question is inspired by eating bigoli during a recent trip to Vicenza.

Has anyone tried making extruded pastas at home?

I have an Indian sev press (this functions basically the same as a cookie press, but the patterns in the molds are all vermicelli/pasta shaped in varying sizes). Sev is (usually) made from a besan (chick pea flour) dough that is pushed in long strands directly into hot oil. The same press is used for making rice flour noodles, and also falooda - thin vermicelli made from cooked cornstarch that are pressed into iced water to set firm.

One thing I notice with all the doughs used with the sev press is that they are not going to have any gluten. The difference in dough quality makes me uncertain as to whether it can be used for extruding pasta - would there be too much resistance from the dough?

Adding to my doubt is the fact that a friend from Vicenza has a bigoli press at home (which I haven't seen). She says it's huge, and that a lot of energy is required to extrude the bigoli. Because of this, I'm wondering whether the sev press (or my hands) would be sturdy enough.

I could of course simply experiment, but I'm worried that I might break my press or injure my hands if this turns out to be a bad idea.

Has anyone tried anything along these lines?

[JohnRov]

When I am making a bunch of fresh pasta like I do when I make lasagne, should I roll all the sheets out and then cook and assemble at once? Or should I cook them as I roll them and then throw them in and leave them in a ice bath? My current: roll, cook, shock, assemble two/three sheets, repeat process seems pretty inefficient.

Or does it matter?

[DTBarton]

I haven't had any problem making fresh pasta a few hours ahead of time, I don't think you need to cook it as you go. It doesn't dry out enough to notice, from what I've seen.

I do toss the pasta with a little corn meal to keep it from sticking together.

When my grandmother made homemade noodles (she didn't call it pasta!) she hung the long, hand rolled noodles all over the kitchen to "dry". They were delicious.

[chromedome]

I usually cut mine to length and let them dry to the leathery stage before cutting and/or cooking them. A little bit of flour, semolina, or cornmeal tossed with the noodles after cutting will keep them from sticking together.

I haven't tried freezing the uncut sfoglia yet, but probably will sometime soon. If it works well, it will be a big timesaver for me.