Fresh/Stuffed Pasta & Gnocchi--Cook-Off 13

[Chufi]

Chufi, looks great! What would one now do with that basil-pressed pasta? Cut it? Into... papardelle?

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The pic I saw in the magazine had very large ravioli, with a small basil leaf pressed into the top sheet of each one. Sounds like a very fiddly thing to get right though.

[Susan in FL]

Because I had a lot of pasta left over, I decided to try something I once saw in a magazine: press leaves of basil between two pastasheets.

I think the leaves I used were much too big, also you have to be very careful not to roll them out too quickly or they will tear (as you can see mine did).  I think this might work best for some kind of open ravioli or lasagne, where you can get a good view of the pattern on the pastasheets.

Has anyone ever tried this?

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Russ and I tried that, only it was sage. To be honest... I can't remember much detail about making it other than it turned out well! It was so long ago that we were on our pasta making kick. We cut it into wide ribbons.

I'll probably be trying so hard for whatever we make to turn out well in this cook-off, that it won't be as good.

[Smithy]

I've seen that pressed-leaf trick before, possibly in the same magazine. I think it's also used in From Simple to Spectacular. I ooh and ah over it, but haven't tried it. Yours looks great!

I'd think you could cut the finished stuff strategically enough that you'd have a centered leaf over something like a raviolo (if I have the right term), or else leave the pieces whole and use them in a lasagna. I still have to try the stuffed pasta, so I'm nowhere near your expertise. It sure looks pretty!

I am very encouraged by the comments that the pasta-making process gets easier with practice. Tonight I'll start getting that practice, I hope.

[slkinsey]

WRT pressed-herb pasta: The best thing to do, IMO, is to keep it whole as lasagne and serve it with a little butter and cheese. That way tou get the full visual and flavor impact of the herb. Lasagne aren't only for baked dishes.

Depending on the herb, I'd recommend blanching/shocking it before incorporating it into the pasta this way. Otherwise something like sage is likely to be unpleasantly hard and/or fuzzy compared to the tender pasta.

[Chris Amirault]

I am very encouraged by the comments that the pasta-making process gets easier with practice.  Tonight I'll start getting that practice, I hope.

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I hate to say this because I really try to keep costs down, but there's another way that it got easier for me: that KitchenAid pasta attachment. For the life of me, I couldn't figure out how to use that Atlas hand-cranked machine with only two hands. Indeed, I needed four in my house: one to stabilize the machine (the clamp didn't work with any of the surfaces in my kitchen), one to crank, one to feed the dough, and one to remove the pressed dough or cut pasta. Now I only need two hands -- and that machine can roll far more quickly than I ever could with that crank.

[Pasta traditionalists committed to fork-blended eggs slowly incorporating a mound of flour atop the clean counter should turn away now.]

I also find that the KA works very nicely for the initial dough blending and kneading. Plunk down your two cups of flour with a pinch or two of salt and blend for a bit. It'll make a slight well in the center, into which you break the three eggs. Then turn the paddle on low to beat the eggs and then incorporate flour into them. As they start to bind and create little nodules of dough, turn the speed up; when it's starts to ball, switch to the dough hook and knead it for a few minutes. I always take it out for some hand kneading before letting it rest, but it works like a charm.

I have found that I make this more often, and thus practice more, thanks to the KA attachment; screwing up and starting over isn't as big a pain in the butt as with the hand-crank machines.

[Sartain]

My dough was really sticking to everything! it would get stuck to other pieces ofdough and there was no way to pull them apart. After getting a little more liberal with the flour it still was sticking...

Kris:

I am normally not one to argue with Mario , but I think if your dough was sticking to everything a bit more flour was necessary. Also, when you are rolling it out, a judicious use of dusting flour wouldn't hurt either. I sometimes dust my hands with the flour (a la gymnists before they mount the instrument) and then just lightly sweep the rolled dough, fold, and roll again.

I would also go with a harder (higher protein) flour next time. I usually go with anywhere between 33% - 50% semolina to all purpose flour. At culinary school, Chef taught us the stiffness test: after you have kneaded the dough, flatten it (or a portion thereof) out into a flat disc. Place this disc horizontally on the side of your outstretched index finger. If the sides of the disc droop, then you need to knead it some more. If it is stiff enough to retain its shape, then wrap it up and let it rest, it's good to go.

Last night I made some agnolotti stuffed with a roasted garlic, roasted eggplant and ricotta mixture that has a dab of vanilla, and served them with a sage butter sauce. They were pretty tasty, but I might take the pasta dough all the way out to the last setting next time (I stopped at the next-to-the-last setting).

editted for spelling...

Edited September 8, 2005 by Sartain (log)

[little ms foodie]

I saw the herb leaves in pasta on iron chef recently. I think they used them for ravioli- beautiful!

[Mottmott]

I am very encouraged by the comments that the pasta-making process gets easier with practice.  Tonight I'll start getting that practice, I hope.

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I hate to say this because I really try to keep costs down, but there's another way that it got easier for me: that KitchenAid pasta attachment. For the life of me, I couldn't figure out how to use that Atlas hand-cranked machine with only two hands. Indeed, I needed four in my house: one to stabilize the machine (the clamp didn't work with any of the surfaces in my kitchen), one to crank, one to feed the dough, and one to remove the pressed dough or cut pasta. Now I only need two hands -- and that machine can roll far more quickly than I ever could with that crank.

[Pasta traditionalists committed to fork-blended eggs slowly incorporating a mound of flour atop the clean counter should turn away now.]

I also find that the KA works very nicely for the initial dough blending and kneading. Plunk down your two cups of flour with a pinch or two of salt and blend for a bit. It'll make a slight well in the center, into which you break the three eggs. Then turn the paddle on low to beat the eggs and then incorporate flour into them. As they start to bind and create little nodules of dough, turn the speed up; when it's starts to ball, switch to the dough hook and knead it for a few minutes. I always take it out for some hand kneading before letting it rest, but it works like a charm.

I have found that I make this more often, and thus practice more, thanks to the KA attachment; screwing up and starting over isn't as big a pain in the butt as with the hand-crank machines.

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On my death bed, they will wrench my KitchenAid and Cuisinart processor from my right and left hands as I try to take them to the great beyond. How did people cook and bake before them? I'm not a gadgety sort of person with these exceptions. The pasta rollers are terrific. I can't imagine pasta making with the fiddly dance of the hand cranked machine. I tried it once. You might want to try using the processor to make your dough. I find it even quicker and easier than the KA - and it cuts down on the flour storm when I'm careless with the switch.

I made some lovely delicate ravioli using the royal all purpose (dump in a heaping cup of flour, a drop or two of olive oil, and 2 eggs, then pulse - works like a charm). This produces a slightly moist dough, so I have no qualms in liberally dusting while I run it through the rollers. I think Kristen's dough problems may have resulted from a too moist dough. My only problem is that I like ravioli with very thin dough, but then it sometimes tears while cooking. I plan to try the 00 flour I've just bought to see how that compares.

This week I made a simple filling of freshly made Italian deli ricotta and some duxelles, When I make ravioli, particularly in summertime, I prefer a simple dressing. This time I used some lemon infused Nunez oil (it's organic) and sprinkled it with chives from my garden and a dusting of pepper and Maldon salt. I also like brown butter and sage with home made pasta, but I'm cutting back on sat fat.

The fun of ravioli is the endless variations possible.

[edsel]

Because I had a lot of pasta left over, I decided to try something I once saw in a magazine: press leaves of basil between two pastasheets.

I think the leaves I used were much too big, also you have to be very careful not to roll them out too quickly or they will tear (as you can see mine did).  I think this might work best for some kind of open ravioli or lasagne, where you can get a good view of the pattern on the pastasheets.

Has anyone ever tried this? ←

When I dusted off (literally) my pasta machine on Sunday, I was planning on doing exactly this! I wonder if we read the same magazine article. I was thinking that I got the pressed-herb idea from a cookbook by Jean-Louis Palladin, but I just looked through the whole book and didn't see it.

I've seen that pressed-leaf trick before, possibly in the same magazine.  I think it's also used in From Simple to Spectacular.  I ooh and ah over it, but haven't tried it.  Yours looks great!

I'd think you could cut the finished stuff strategically enough that you'd have a centered leaf over something like a raviolo (if I have the right term), or else leave the pieces whole and use them in a lasagna.  I still have to try the stuffed pasta, so I'm nowhere near your expertise.  It sure looks pretty!

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That's exactly what I did back when I saw the technique in that magazine (Bon Appetit? Saveur?) One time I made "open" (unsealed) ravioli with a lobster mousse from the Palladin book. Another time I did a sort of "soup dumpling" (xiaolong bao?) with tiny cilantro leaves pressed into the pasta. I shaped them like pillows rather than the usual twisted-up shapes so that the leaf would show through.

One trick to getting the herb to show up nicely is to pass the pasta through the machine twice after you imbed the leaf. You need to use a tiny leaf - the smallest sage or cilantro leaves work, as do tiny sprigs of chervil.

Roll the pasta down to the thinnest machine setting. Lay a sheet out, position the leaves spaced at regular intervals, lay another sheet over the top, and press the sheets together. Run through the rollers again. Cut the the sections apart and run through the rollers with the pasta turned 90 degrees from the original direction. As the pasta goes through the rollers the leaf gets stretched and spread apart, so what starts out as a tiny leaf becomes noticeably larger after it goes through the machine. Rotating 90 degrees spreads the leaves in both dimensions.

[Smithy]

I am very encouraged by the comments that the pasta-making process gets easier with practice.  Tonight I'll start getting that practice, I hope.

←

I hate to say this because I really try to keep costs down, but there's another way that it got easier for me: that KitchenAid pasta attachment. For the life of me, I couldn't figure out how to use that Atlas hand-cranked machine with only two hands. Indeed, I needed four in my house: one to stabilize the machine (the clamp didn't work with any of the surfaces in my kitchen), one to crank, one to feed the dough, and one to remove the pressed dough or cut pasta. Now I only need two hands -- and that machine can roll far more quickly than I ever could with that crank.

[Pasta traditionalists committed to fork-blended eggs slowly incorporating a mound of flour atop the clean counter should turn away now.]

I also find that the KA works very nicely for the initial dough blending and kneading. Plunk down your two cups of flour with a pinch or two of salt and blend for a bit. It'll make a slight well in the center, into which you break the three eggs. Then turn the paddle on low to beat the eggs and then incorporate flour into them. As they start to bind and create little nodules of dough, turn the speed up; when it's starts to ball, switch to the dough hook and knead it for a few minutes. I always take it out for some hand kneading before letting it rest, but it works like a charm.

I have found that I make this more often, and thus practice more, thanks to the KA attachment; screwing up and starting over isn't as big a pain in the butt as with the hand-crank machines.

←

On my death bed, they will wrench my KitchenAid and Cuisinart processor from my right and left hands as I try to take them to the great beyond. How did people cook and bake before them? I'm not a gadgety sort of person with these exceptions. The pasta rollers are terrific. I can't imagine pasta making with the fiddly dance of the hand cranked machine. I tried it once. You might want to try using the processor to make your dough. I find it even quicker and easier than the KA - and it cuts down on the flour storm when I'm careless with the switch.

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I don't have the KA pasta attachment, but I do have an electric motor that turns my Atlas machine. It was well worth the $50 I paid for it, for all the reasons you cite above. How DO people do that with only 2 hands?

The machine fits on the side where the crank normally goes. It has 2 speeds. I got some more practice last night (see below) but so far I still can't see using the higher speed.

Edited to add: Chris, note the cutting board used atop my counter. That's how I managed to get the clamp to work. It really requires a thick surface, doesn't it?

Edited September 8, 2005 by Smithy (log)

[Smithy]

That's exactly what I did back when I saw the technique in that magazine (Bon Appetit? Saveur?) One time I made "open" (unsealed) ravioli with a lobster mousse from the Palladin book. Another time I did a sort of "soup dumpling" (xiaolong bao?) with tiny cilantro leaves pressed into the pasta. I shaped them like pillows rather than the usual twisted-up shapes so that the leaf would show through.

One trick to getting the herb to show up nicely is to pass the pasta through the machine twice after you imbed the leaf. You need to use a tiny leaf - the smallest sage or cilantro leaves work, as do tiny sprigs of chervil.

Roll the pasta down to the thinnest machine setting. Lay a sheet out, position the leaves spaced at regular intervals, lay another sheet over the top, and press the sheets together. Run through the rollers again. Cut the the sections apart and run through the rollers with the pasta turned 90 degrees from the original direction.  As the pasta goes through the rollers the leaf gets stretched and spread apart, so what starts out as a tiny leaf becomes noticeably larger after it goes through the machine. Rotating 90 degrees spreads the leaves in both dimensions.

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I'm puzzled by "unsealed" ravioli. Didn't it dump all the contents out into the pot as the ravioli cooked? Am I misunderstanding you?

I like that trick. I can see why you'd need tiny leaves, though. With big leaves I'd expect either the leaf or the pasta to tear with that treatment.

[Smithy]

Hey Kristin -

C'mon in, the water's fine!

Last night I got that extra practice I'd hoped for. I carefully read MobyP's instructions and followed them nearly to the letter, with much better success than my previous attempts using pasta instructions from other sources (including the Atlas pasta maker instructions). One difference was that I used unbleached pastry flour (King Arthur, protein content unknown but doubtless low) and forgot the semolina except as a dusting flour. It all worked well - I will use this recipe again - and I learned as I went.

I used my bread bowl so the egg yolks wouldn't go all over the floor, and basically pretended I was a food processor: that is, instead of all that neat stirring and whisking, then adding salt, etc. I just broke up the eggs well and started stirring. When it started coming together I began to knead it by hand in the bowl, then turned it out onto the bread board with semolina to keep it from sticking. After some 8 - 10 minutes it was smooth, elastic, and felt well mixed. I let the dough rest in the refrigerator, wrapped, per instructions.

While the pasta was resting, I skinned and deboned some frozen smoked cisco I had left over from a recent smoked fish tasting adventure. Cisco is a small freshwater fish, rather bony, pretty fishy. I decided it's generally like anchovy in terms of strong fishy salty flavor, although not as oily, and that it needed anchovy-compatible flavors. Into the food processor went sundried tomato pesto, walnuts, a touch of olive oil, and parmesan cheese. After a bit of whirring I adjusted all with a touch of lemon and salt. Capers might have worked too, but I forgot to try them.

Lesson 1 (I've made this mistake before): with the full recipe of dough, cut it into 8 pieces instead of 4. Otherwise, that strip gets much too long to be manageable by the time it's down to the thin roller setting.

Note how sheer but sturdy the pasta is. Note how elegantly the excess drapes over the pasta machine. You can see the nicely rolled pasta laid out, fading into the background, but I had to cut off a bunch of the excess (not enough hands) and reroll it. In the future, I'll cut the dough into 8ths in the first place and figure on using two.

Lesson 2: I should have stopped with Atlas Level 7 instead of going on to 8. By the time I was putting my layers together, the thin dough was tearing. You can just see a small tear on the right.

I compensated by doubling the pasta on most of the ravioli. Purists may cringe, but it worked for me.

I cut them out with biscuit cutters...

...and poached them in a mixture of chicken stock and water (I needed more, in a bigger pot)...

...and then came to my next question: how, how long, and where does one drain these delicate beauties? A colander didn't seem quite right, but that's what I did. Answers, anyone?

Dinner: ravioli stuffed with smoked fish, tomato and walnuts, tossed with butter and the cooked-down poaching liquid. Garlic, herbs and/or olive oil would have looked better, perhaps tasted better, but it was getting late. This was still good.

I shall now start kicking myself, per MobyP's instructions, for not doing this sooner.

Hey, I have the leftover dough in the refrigerator. Can I freeze this stuff?

Comments and questions welcome. This was fun, and I'll be doing it again soon.

Edited September 8, 2005 by Smithy (log)

[edsel]

I'm puzzled by "unsealed" ravioli.  Didn't it dump all the contents out into the pot as the ravioli cooked?  Am I misunderstanding you?

I like that trick.  I can see why you'd need tiny leaves, though.  With big leaves I'd expect either the leaf or the pasta to tear with that treatment.

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It's been so long I can't remember if I steamed the mousse sandwiched between the pasta squares. Maybe I cooked the pasta separately. The soup dumplings were sealed, of course.

With sage leaves, the leaf actually does tear a bit as the pasta is stretched going through the rollers. It developes a sort of lacy look. I don't remember the chervil or cilantro doing that. If you start out with a big leaf you'll wind up with really big sheets of pasta since everything stretches wider going through the rollers. That would probably be fine for lasagna.

[Susan in FL]

Nancy, thank you ever so much for the details and pictures, especially the "lessons." That really helped me a lot. Maybe this weekend...

[Charlie O]

I was inspired by this thread to make gnocchi for the first time last night. Having a bit of time on my hands, I tried cooking the potato in two different ways.

For the first way I boiled and then peeled them (though I might have left them in a little too long because I was distracted by the cricket).

The second way I tried was to bake the and scoop out the insides. This was more work but seemed to give a lighter mixture (though this could just be imagined - I didn't control any of the other variables such as amount of flour etc).

For each batch I riced the cooked potato, letting the steam escape by laying it out on a wide board, and then mixing in a small amount of flour and an egg to give a mixture I could roll out. I then rolled them on the back of a fork.

While I regularly make pasta, I was surprised how easy this was... and so nice too

[Smithy]

That looks really good, Charlie O. While I'm on a pasta kick right now (glad you liked it, Susan!) I may be trying potato gnocci soon myself. Your photos and comments are as encouraging as Susan says mine were!

[EdtheMLB]

For the life of me, I couldn't figure out how to use that Atlas hand-cranked machine with only two hands. Indeed, I needed four in my house: one to stabilize the machine (the clamp didn't work with any of the surfaces in my kitchen), one to crank, one to feed the dough, and one to remove the pressed dough or cut pasta. Now I only need two hands -- and that machine can roll far more quickly than I ever could with that crank.

I saw this on Good Eats w/ Alton Brown and I've tried it myself. Try clamping your hand cranked pasta maker to an ironing board. Its the perfect length for the sheets of pasta. I just lay a bed sheet on the board before clamping so no flour remains to ruin my work shirts later. I also found that the clamp requires a thick surface so I used 1) folded newspaper or 2) small piece of wood.

Edited September 9, 2005 by EdtheMLB (log)

[daniellewiley]

For the life of me, I couldn't figure out how to use that Atlas hand-cranked machine with only two hands. Indeed, I needed four in my house: one to stabilize the machine (the clamp didn't work with any of the surfaces in my kitchen), one to crank, one to feed the dough, and one to remove the pressed dough or cut pasta. Now I only need two hands -- and that machine can roll far more quickly than I ever could with that crank.

I saw this on Good Eats w/ Alton Brown and I've tried it myself. Try clamping your hand cranked pasta maker to an ironing board. Its the perfect length for the sheets of pasta. I just lay a bed sheet on the board before clamping so no flour remains to ruin my work shirts later. I also found that the clamp requires a thick surface so I used 1) folded newspaper or 2) small piece of wood.

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I love this idea!!!!!

[Smithy]

Tonight's experiment: pasta stuffed with crab cake mixture.

I mixed up some crab cake, er, mixture based on a recipe from Frank Stitt's Southern Table. The general ingredients were crab, lemon juice and zest, bread crumbs, shallot, other seasonings, and egg. I made a few adjustments to his recipe - more lemon, a touch of vinegar, some chives - no doubt to compensate for the fact that I was using cooked shredded crab from a foil pouch instead of really good stuff. By the time I was done messing with it, the mixture tasted pretty good. I whirred it to a fine grind in the food processor.

The pasta dough was left over from my attempt 2 nights ago. It's been sitting in the refrigerator, wrapped tightly in Saran Wrap. Rolling went smoothly. In accordance with my lessons learned last time around, I cut each dough quarter into two pieces, so I was working with 1/8 of the original recipe at a crack. That made the dough MUCH more manageable as I got it rolled down to the thinner levels. I also took a note from the previous lesson and only rolled it to level 7 on my Atlas, instead of level 8 as recommended.

I tried two shapes, and if I'm reading my book right, they qualify as pansotti (pot-bellied dumplings) and cappellitti (little hats). Please correct me if I'm wrong. Here's how they looked before cooking:

Into the boiling water they went. They were well on their way to being cooked before I remembered that the instructions said to simmer, not to boil. I don't know whether that mattered. They never stuck together.

As before, I didn't have time to do an interesting sauce, so the cooked pillows were tossed with melted butter, and then given a grating of freshly-ground pepper and salt. I didn't even think of cheese! I thought of herbs, but couldn't be bothered. Behold: crab-stuffed pasta tossed with melted butter.

Here's a closeup, so you can see what the interior looked like:

The flavor and texture of the stuffing were good. I was pretty happy about that.

The sauce wasn't bad but could have been better. What would y'all have done with that, both for flavor and for looks?

Now, here's the kicker: the pasta was tough and, well, doughy. It wasn't bad where it encased the crab mix, but those long triangle points were a bit much. It wasn't quite as noticeable with the hat shapes. I have 3 guesses as to why the pasta was different than last time around, since it was from the same batch. I may find the answers through experimentation, but I always favor the lazy approach: if someone already knows the answer, please help me out!

Guess 1: Pasta dough likes to rest a bit, but not for 48 hours. It got too tough. I did notice, when I got it rolled out to the final setting (7), that it contracted slightly on the board when I laid it out. I didn't see that the other night.

Guess 2: I really did need to roll the pasta out thinner, to level 8, even though I might have had to double in some portions because of tearing.

Guess 3: The shape makes a difference, and the round pillows I made the other night didn't have large enough expanses of sealed pasta (as with tonight's points) for me to detect the toughness.

What do you think?

[MobyP]

You guys are doing great stuff. This is really riding a bike. It seems ridiculous and impossible at the beginning, but after 2 or 3 tries, you just won't remember what all the fuss was about.

I've played the "chasing the Steve McQueen-like egg as it makes a break through the neutral Switzerland-like mounds of flour while being chased by the insidious nazis" many times. Nothing quite like cleaning eggy-dough gloop out of the cracks of your wooden floor. Then I realised that I wasn't an italian grand mother, despite my penchant for sack cloth, facial hair, and over-sized black dresses, and these days I use a big bowl.

As for dough thickness, with experience you can start setting the machine to increasinly thin settings - but don't be too hard on yourself. Or, alternatively, go and buy some industrial 'fresh' ravioli from the store and place it next to your own. It will taste like shoe leather, and be at least twice as thick. Really, you'll feel good about what you're doing, and it will save you hundreds of bucks in psychoanalysis.

[Smithy]

You guys are doing great stuff. This is really riding a bike. It seems ridiculous and impossible at the beginning, but after 2 or 3 tries, you just won't remember what all the fuss was about.

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I'm starting to believe that!

As for dough thickness, with experience you can start setting the machine to increasinly thin settings - but don't be too hard on yourself. Or, alternatively, go and buy some industrial 'fresh' ravioli from the store and place it next to your own. It will taste like shoe leather, and be at least twice as thick. Really, you'll feel good about what you're doing, and it will save you hundreds of bucks in psychoanalysis.

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That's good encouragement, and I already believe you. Even with my cavils about the dough thickness and toughness, I went to bed last night thinking that this was STILL, by a long shot, better than anything I've ever bought fresh in the grocery store. And as for those dried tortellinis, stuffed with dried pesto or chicken or whatnot: well, they've just been relegated to camping food.

I still have some specific questions that haven't been addressed. I logged on this morning planning to go over to the Q&A session and repost them there, but hey - since you're looking in, MobyP, and I raised them here, I'll repeat them here first.

1. How, and for how long, does one drain these beauties? With store pasta I'd just empty the pot worth into a colander and let it drain. I'm afraid these are too tender and/or will stick, although they haven't shown signs of doing that yet. I've been handling them gently (fish out one at a time, set lovingly in the colander) but they aren't sitting long enough to drain well. Am I babying them too much?

2. Why did the dough seem tougher the second try than the first? It was the same batch. Here are the (known) differences between the uses:

- Dough used the first night had maybe 45 minutes to rest, wrapped in plastic in the refrigerator; leftovers sat wrapped in same plastic another 48 hours

- Dough not rolled out as thickly the second time (1 gauge thicker on Atlas);

- Pillow shapes different, so second night's pasta had more unfilled dough than first night's.

Enquiring minds really want to know, and all that. I noticed that the dough was more elastic - that is, shrank slightly after rolling - the second time. Maybe the gluten had developed more. I used pastry flour (low protein).

MobyP, your course and Chris, this thread have really fired me up. I had some wonderful stuffed pasta last weekend that I want to try duplicating. Thank you so much.

[Chufi]

The sauce wasn't bad but could have been better.  What would y'all have done with that, both for flavor and for looks?

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Because there were chives in the stuffing, I think melted butter with snipped chives and lemon juice would have been nice. They look great though!

Now, here's the kicker: the pasta was tough and, well, doughy. 

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My first guess would be that the dough had been around too long. But also, maybe you did not cook them long enough? I know fresh pasta does not need to cook very long but I have found that they always take longer than you think. I keep testing them while tey're cooking, because the amount of time they have to cook seems to vary a lot.

You guys are doing great stuff. This is really riding a bike.

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But, far, far more addictive. I just made a batch with pressed parsley leaves for tonight's dinnerparty. Stay tuned...

[Smithy]

The sauce wasn't bad but could have been better.  What would y'all have done with that, both for flavor and for looks?

←

Because there were chives in the stuffing, I think melted butter with snipped chives and lemon juice would have been nice. They look great though!

Now, here's the kicker: the pasta was tough and, well, doughy. 

←

My first guess would be that the dough had been around too long. But also, maybe you did not cook them long enough? I know fresh pasta does not need to cook very long but I have found that they always take longer than you think. I keep testing them while tey're cooking, because the amount of time they have to cook seems to vary a lot.

You guys are doing great stuff. This is really riding a bike.

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But, far, far more addictive. I just made a batch with pressed parsley leaves for tonight's dinnerparty. Stay tuned...

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Thanks Chufi. That raises a related question: how does one know when these things are done, and what happens if they're overcooked? In other words - when in doubt, is it better to leave them in longer or pull them out early? I kept trying to finger them (ouch!) or poke the edges, but really was guessing about the "al dente" feel.

The snipped chives are a GREAT idea. I thought they needed something green.

Looking forward to your photos and results!

[MobyP]

Thanks Chufi.  That raises a related question: how does one know when these things are done, and what happens if they're overcooked?  In other words - when in doubt, is it better to leave them in longer or pull them out early?

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I used to pull one out after a couple of minutes, and nibble a corner to see - but no matter how I judged it, at the end I wasn't getting the mouth feel I was looking for. This was solved by almost halving the cooking time. If they're fresh, and thin, it's sometimes as little as 2 or 2 1/2 minutes. My basic rule is to pull them out at least 30 seconds before I want to. Also, I lift them out with a spider and place them straight into a warmed bowl, or into a saute pan with the melted butter. What you should never do is drain them like regular pasta in a collender - they're too fragile, and you'll end up covering them in the left over semolina flour which you used to dust them after construction.

[Mottmott]

Hey, I have the leftover dough in the refrigerator.  Can I freeze this stuff?

Comments and questions welcome.  This was fun, and I'll be doing it again soon.

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I'm sure everyone was so in awe of your wonderful pix that they missed your question about freezing the dough. I'd like to know, too. Sometimes, I'm just too tired or out of time to do the whole batch at once.