The Fresh Pasta Topic

[Shelby]

Me..I usually make an eat..but pasta dough you can wrap it..hold it in frig or freeze it..I personally don't roll and or cut it dry it and hold it..like box pastas

How long can it stay in the fridge?

Every time I've made it, I go ahead and roll it all and cut it and then I have a heck of a time finding a place to store it. Plus, a lot of it ends up broken.

[nickrey]

I think Paul is referring to only rolling and cutting as much as you want and refrigerating or freezing the dough. As it has fresh eggs in it, it is probably better frozen if you are not going to use it within a few days.

[Paul Bacino]

Yes...I would only store it for two days...I'm off on Fridays so I make what we want for Friday night...that is rolling and cutting just for that night...then plastic wrap the rest ...I didn't roll

[Jmahl]

Lasagna made with handmade egg pasta with a basic meat sauce. oh, so good.

[radtek]

That looks like a gut buster! Trying to count the layers... Nine?

[JoNorvelleWalker]

By happenstance I made fresh egg pasta last night for the first time in about fifteen years. I dug out my Cuisinart extrusion pasta maker (same unit as sold as Simac). The hard part was locating all the pieces, and then cleaning them. I used 300g semolina and three large eggs. Worked perfectly. I slightly over cooked the pasta though, but I still have more in the refrigerator.

[bhsimon]

Would pasteurizing the eggs sous vide have any impact on how long the fresh pasta can be stored in the fridge?

[rotuts]

the final product would no longer be pasteurized, so Id go from there.

[bhsimon]

the final product would no longer be pasteurized, so Id go from there.

So it would be necessary to pasteurize the finished pasta. They do that in Italy, so I've read. It might not be worth the effort in a domestic situation; just make some more!

[rotuts]

or freeze it in a SV bag?

[bhsimon]

or freeze it in a SV bag?

That's a very cool idea. Has anyone tried this? Is the pasta damaged during the sealing process?

[rotuts]

I do this all the time with 'artisanal' fresh pasta I get in Cambridge MA.

I dont plan to use it that often, but get a supply when Im there and proportion it into SV bags and then freeze for later use.

I do use the thicker 3.5 mil bags so no freezer burn in the freezer

Id guess if you do this with home made fresh pasta, let it dry a little, and use something like fine cornmeal or what ever to lightly dust the strands before you bag.

Edited December 12, 2012 by rotuts (log)

[FrogPrincesse]

I do this all the time with 'artisanal' fresh pasta I get in Cambridge MA.

I dont plan to use it that often, but get a supply when Im there and proportion it into SV bags and then freeze for later use.

I do use the thicker 3.5 mil bags so no freezer burn in the freezer

Id guess if you do this with home made fresh pasta, let it dry a little, and use something like fine cornmeal or what ever to lightly dust the strands before you bag.

I also freeze pasta frequently - homemade or purchased artisanal pasta in its original plastic packaging. For homemade ravioli or cavatelli I freeze them in a single layer on a large tray before I transfer them into small ziplock bags in individual portions. It works great.

Edited December 13, 2012 by FrogPrincesse (log)

[radtek]

I've been making a lot of pasta lately- primarily ramen noodles but whipped up some egg-based pasta as well for a comparison.

My method is the 100g per egg of either bread or all-purpose flour. My research leads me to believe this is durum wheat anyway, so to buy semolina to be "authentic" is perhaps a waste of time. However, I do happen to buy s coarser version of semolina. It is used the same way but to get rid of the coarseness or grittiness an overnight rest in the fridge is usually required.

I actually prefer to use less liquid in each batch to get a crumbly dough that just comes together short of plasticity. It gets formed it into a ball, wrapped in cling-wrap and stored in the fridge overnight. I then pull it out and divide into individual servings and re-wrap. This dough will keep all week or longer especially if it contains no egg. The rest allows for the moisture to proliferate and the dough becomes plastic but short of being sticky. I can then run the dough sheets through the cutter and have little fear of it sticking together and no extra flour is needed. I can roll them out as needed or these noodles can be stored in the fridge for quite some time without becoming gooey. I lay the cut pasta in plastic containers and they go straight from the fridge to the boiling water.

Cooking time is about one minute longer.

I can't help but laugh thinking about the time corn-meal was used by mistake instead of the coarse semolina. A mix up with the bulk bags. This resulted in what seemed like normal pasta dough. Once cooked it was significantly different in color and taste which alerted me to my error but was actually a decent pasta- which may be helpful to those with gluten allergies.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Since posting above earlier this month I have made two more batches of 300g semolina with three large eggs. After I reduced the cooking time I could not ask for better. I store the cut and floured pasta in plastic bags in the refrigerator.

[basquecook]

I often stick left overs in pasta or ravioli or lasagna even.

I had some left over roasted salmon from my daughters dinner. So, I mixed the salmon with some marscapone and stuffed in ravioli.

A little thyme, a little onion, butter and pasta water. Not bad for leftovers.

[rotuts]

I used to do this back in the day when I make my own ravioli.

the most sensational ravioli I made ( guests loved it as did I !) was left over BBQ (0ven) chicken wings from a fine but old book: The Frog Commissary Cookbook, sadly now lost! a fine place in Phil., PA

it has about 18 ingredients, +/- but all were on one's shelf! you just striped off the meat and skin ( which was crispy ) and used that as a filling.

sad I don't have this book any more!

Edited December 17, 2012 by rotuts (log)

[Kerry Beal]

I used to do this back in the day when I make my own ravioli.

the most sensational ravioli I made ( guests loved it as did I !) was left over BBQ (0ven) chicken wings from a fine but old book: The Frog Commissary Cookbook, sadly now lost! a fine place in Phil., PA

it has about 18 ingredients, +/- but all were on one's shelf! you just striped off the meat and skin ( which was crispy ) and used that as a filling.

sad I don't have this book any more!

Looks like you can pick up used copies for less then $3.

[LindaK]

The talk about Piedmonte's version of fresh pasta, tajarin, in the discussion about Northern Italian cookbooks forced me to pull out my pasta machine and crack some eggs. I used the ratio of 30 egg yolks per kilo of flour, which I know is on the low side, but I only had a dozen eggs.

It made a small batch of spectacularly delicious pasta, which I topped with lamb ragu. A nice new years eve dinner!

Here's the pasta drying, golden from all those good eggs

my badly shaped nests

the final dish. Wonderful!

[FrogPrincesse]

Beautiful!

[basquecook]

I had leftover roasted pork shoulder in the fridge. So, not wanting anything to go to waste, I made up some pasta to freeze. I ground up the cooked shoulder, added some parm, some egg.

Nothing fancy but, it beats throwing it out. I don't throw anything out really. I placed the agnolotti or whatever shape you want to call these guys on a plate in the freezer. once they froze, i transferred to a larger container.

Edited January 3, 2013 by basquecook (log)

[Merkinz]

I need help with some home made pasta (hopefully quickly too as I'm cooking it for guests tomorrow night!).

My problem is that, relative to dried pasta, it ALWAYS ends up kinda sticking to itself so when you stick your fork in to lift up 4 - 6 strands you always end up lifting up half the plate or at least a large tangled stuck together mess.

How do I get it to be a little more 'slippery' per se?

My usual technique is to cook the fresh pasta for 30 - 90 seconds in boiling, salted water. Remove and drain in a colander then dress with sauce / oil / butter / pesto ... always the same issue.

Note I've experimented with the following and all yielded the same 'self sticking' results to some extent:

- Traditional pasta dough recipe

- Modernist Cuisine pasta dough with xanthan gum

- Modernist Cuisine At Home pasta dough with high dosing of vital wheat gluten

- Excessive dressing with oil or buttery sauce

Help me!

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I use a Simac pasta machine (circa 1985). The ingredients are just flour and eggs. I only get the sticking problem when the pasta is extruded wet from too much egg. Maybe try thicker shapes of pasta?

[Ashen]

with fresh pasta I usually go straight from the boiling water to the hot pan with sauce in it to dress it.. I use a steel spaghetti server like the ones here https://www.google.ca/search?q=SteeL+Spaghetti+Server&client=opera&hs=lIt&channel=suggest&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=5tzgUZv5K8GSyQGG2oHIDA&ved=0CEoQsAQ&biw=1887&bih=932 for the thinner stranded pasta, a scoop strainer for things like gnocchi or other shapes and tongs for thick stranded pasta

[Shalmanese]

I always used to make my pasta dough way too wet. The dough should be pretty stiff and barely stick together when you first knead it. Let it rest for 20 minutes for the moisture to absorb and you have a great pasta dough. Boil it in plenty of water so you dilute the outside starch and then move it to the sauce ASAP so it doesn't have time to stick together.