What happened to my pasta dough!?

[pleiades]

So I had a bunch of people over for post-Turkey day dinner. I planned on making fish ravioli. Everything was proceeding as planned, but then I began to make my pasta dough and....well, it just didn't. Just didn't come together, wouldn't knead properly, ripped apart between the rollers. That was with some older All Purpose. So I tried again with Semolina (also kinda old). Same thing. So I figured maybe my free range eggs were off or something. I know they weren't really, but I was getting desperate. I had 9 people waiting for dinner. I tried making pasta the oil and water way. Nothing doing. Now I am getting exhausted after kneading 3 failed batches, so I gave up and used the shrimp sauce I prepared over box pasta.

What the hell happened? Even the first time I ever made pasta in my life it went fine. It just isn't that delicate procedure! Was it my flour? Was it the temp of the eggs? Was it bad luck? I've made my own pasta dozens of times and never had this happen.

I have about $45 worth of homemade fish ravioli filling in the fridge today, so I am off to the store to get new flour and try again.

I'm just so frosted about last night, I would appreciate any insight as to what happened. It's one thing for a dinner party meal to go down the tubes because I may have gotteni n over my head, but to be undone by something I do so often and have NEVER had aproblem with gets my goat.

(Luckily, the meal still went fine, since the sauce had whole shrimp in it and was still yummy)

[essvee]

Sounds like either the dough was a bit too dry, or you didn't knead it long enough, or both.

[chefreit]

Next time have a couple of packages wonton skins as a back-up plan.

These work just as well. Also in this case you could have prepared the pasta dough (in flat round disk or sheets) the day before, or week before, for that matter, then thaw when needed, this way there are no surprises. We used this method for stuffed pastas at Italian hotel I at worked in Portonovo, Italy and it worked just fine.

[iriee]

did you let the pasta dough rest after you mixed it? how did the dough look and feel after mixing it? i've made dough with older flour with no problem so i wouldnt think it was the flour. a recipe i use and allways works is: 5 whole eggs,,5 yolks,,and 18-20 ounces of all purpose flour. try it out! good luck next time!,,,by the way what was in your filling that cost $45??? beluga??

[pleiades]

about to try again now...

Beluga? no no it's just that there is a LOT of it, since I had to feed a bunch of folks. Salmon and Red snapper about 3 pounds total, plus some pureed shrimp.

[Malawry]

If the dough rips when going through the rollers on the first or second setting, it's probably not kneaded enough. Finish pulling it through the rollers. Set it on a floured surface and rub the top with flour. Fold in thirds and use the palm of your hand to compress the layers together firmly. Put through the rollers again on the first setting. Repeat if it's still ripping and anything other than smooth and supple. This is basically using the machine to knead your dough.

Resting the dough after making and before rolling is also important, as somebody else suggested.

[pleiades]

*head hung very, very, low*

Well, I figured out what went wrong last night.

The brain works in funny ways sometimes. Last night I just got into this mental loop of folding the dough tri-fold for the 1st roller.......and then doing it again and again for every roller!!!!!

I dunno what I was thinking. What a waste. Oh well. So anyway tonight I made the ravioli; they are fantastic. Finished them with a simple sage butter and served up with Neyers Carneros Chardonnay 2000.

Still, I'm pretty embarassed.