Freezing Fresh Pasta Dough

[pedie]

Since our trip to Italy I have been giving my manual pasta machine a real workout and we are enjoying wonderful homemade pasta. To save myself time, I would like to make a large batch of dough and freeze what I am not using right away. My question to those with more experience than I:

Can I freeze the dough just after it has been kneaded but not rolled into thin sheets...just as a ball of kneaded dough? Or does the dough have to be rolled into flat sheets first?

I have successfully frozen the flat sheets, but would prefer to freeze the ball of dough and roll out on the day I want to prepare it.

Any comments or suggestions?

[_john]

yup, I do this all the time. Knead and portion your dough. flatten into disks, individually wrap, freeze, and then stick the bricks in a freezer bag. when you want to eat fresh pasta put a brick in the refrigerator for 24 hours. If I thaw on the counter top sometimes there is weeping and I worry about food safety.

The trick to freezing things that are moist is to minimize surface area. Less surface area means less oxidization and less freezer burn. I keep frozen pasta dough for up to six months, but it never lasts that long.

I freeze other noodle doughs as well. Soba, udon, somen. All of which can be made with a pasta machine.