We've talked a lot about homemade pasta here on The Kitchn, but I had never made homemade pasta noodles myself. Well, that has changed, and now I'm wondering: why did I wait so long? I did have one secret weapon, though: my Italian mother-in-law. To see what I learned from her about homemade pasta, read on!
When my husband and I were married, we received a wedding gift certificate to a major cookware shop, and I wanted to use it on something we'd both enjoy. A pasta maker was the obvious choice: he's a pasta fiend. Also, his parents were due for a visit, so we figured they could show us the ropes.
My mother-in-law's family is from Southern Italy, and her mother made fresh pasta all the time. It wasn't a gourmet indulgence or special project: it was a daily rhythm of life. Her mother would make huge batches and dry the noodles, then store them in jars or freeze them. Needless to say, there are quite a few pasta essentials she passed along from that history of family pasta-making.
We used the basic recipe Emma shared here:
• Weekend Project: Make Pasta! - Here are our notes on a double-batch of this 3-egg pasta.
1. It is all about the dough.
The biggest thing I saw as she worked with the pasta is that it's all about the dough. If you have a smooth, well-worked dough, it's a cinch to roll it through the machine. In fact, that part was ultra-easy. We didn't need any extra flour or time to roll it through. If the dough is strong and supple, you don't even need to re-fold it back on itself as you put it through the machine.
So, how do you get that kind of dough?
2. Kneading is essential.
She worked that dough for at least ten minutes, kneading it and working it over and over again. She broke it in pieces and showed it to me halfway through, and it still had big air pockets (see above). It also still had crumbly bits of unworked flour sticking to the outside. When the dough was finished, on the other hand, it was completely smooth and elastic to the touch.
This is the hard work part! If you work that dough until it's completely smooth to the touch, the rest of the project will be easy. And how do you know when it's ready? Well, she said it was all in how it feels — I guess I'm going to need a few years of practice to acquire the instinct!
3. Don't let the dough dry out.
After the dough is kneaded smooth, separate it into a few small balls. We did a double batch so she cut it into 8 portions. She kept each portion covered with a clean kitchen towel while rolling out the first ball of dough. She showed me how to roll the ball into a small oval no wider than the pasta machine. It's important to work quickly, because dry dough is harder to work through the machine.
Also, the dough is hard to roll out at this point, which brings us to the next tip:
4. Pasta-making is better with two (or three, or four) people.
This was a group effort! My father-in-law stepped in to roll the dough portions into ovals, while my husband helped feed the pasta through the machine. It takes two to roll the pasta through the machine, especially as it lengthens. It helps to have one person holding the top of the dough sheet, and another to grab it as it comes out.
We ran the dough through the machine about six times, starting on the first thickness setting, and skipping one or two on our way up the sixth. We kept the noodles slightly thicker to stand up to the robust tomato sauce I was cooking. We finished them up with the fettuccine cutter on the other side of the machine.
I grabbed the "little ribbons" as they came through and immediately shook them into separate strands and laid them flat to dry. You have to shake them free of their clumps right away or they'll dry together.
5. Making homemade pasta is very easy, and very fast.
I couldn't believe how fast it was to make up this huge double batch of pasta. From the time we started to the time we were completely done, with noodles drying all over the house, it was barely 45 minutes. The pasta also cooks faster, of course: these thick noodles took only about five minutes.
It was so worth it, and very cheap, too. My husband and I want to get this good at making pasta; maybe we'll start stocking up on it!
See also: How to dry pasta without a pasta rack!
More on homemade pasta:
• Weekend Project: Make Pasta!
• Kitchen Equipment: Choosing a Pasta Maker
• On Making Your Own Pasta
• Look! Patricia's Homemade Pasta Project
(Images: Faith Durand)
(Originally published March 9, 2009.)
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Not having a pasta machine or a place to set one up puts a hinder any my pasta making plans. I'd like to see a post on someone making pasta without a machine, and see how that is.
Mooie_ziel, it can definitely be done! Pim did a post on her blog: http://www.chezpim.com/blogs/2009/01/pici-with-pork.html
Ooo, this can go into my "when I'm done studying" project list. I kind of want to try the little twist type pasta rather than noodles so I should be able to skip the machine.
I'm really enjoying this website that I religiously follow via Rss !
This post is great especially because I was just given a pasta machine, great timing!! :))
Thanks!
OneWallKitchen, thanks!
I love to do this with family & friends when they visit. People who haven't done it before are always surprised at how easy it is and how delicious the fresh pasta tastes. Alice Waters pasta/pizza/calzone cookbook has a lot of tips & variations.
I wish I had the skill & patience to roll & cut by hand as I have seen people like Lidia Bastianich do on TV, but still am happy to have the machine!
So, wait; she didn't let the dough rest between kneading and putting it through the machine? All the recipes I've seen require a 30-45 minute rest before putting it through the machine....not doing that would make it MUCH faster...
@Ru, no - I asked about that too, and she said that they had never done it. I have been meaning to do a little research on that and why recipes usually call for it.
I lost the vice for my pasta machine, so now I just roll it by hand. It's not all that much work to do it by hand, and I actually find hand-rolling easier than trying to use the pasta machine solo.
How timely! My boyfriend and I have been making homemade pasta a few times in the past week. We have an inexpensive pasta machine that I bought some 20 years ago, and hadn't used in quite a while. I've been perfecting a vegan pasta recipe using egg replacer, and it's been turning out better than egg-based pastas that I used to make. For handmade pasta (without a machine), mooie_ziel, I would check out Mollie Katzen's "Enchanted Broccoli Forest" cookbook. She explains how to do it, and I've always found her diagrams and explanations very easy to follow.
i miss her.
i bow at the feet of my kitchen aid mixer and pasta attachment...my fella isn't so helpful in the kitchen, so cranking the pasta machine was rendering me helpless. the mixer attachment turned this giant project into something i can easily do once a week...I don't even make extra to freeze because I love making it fresh weekly now!
the attachment is a bit of an investment ($100 ish) but SO WORTH IT if this is something you're into.
Hubby and I made pasta years ago when we had more free time on our hands (i.e., pre-child) and from what I remember it was fun AND easy. The only *negative*, if you can call it that, was the fact that we didn't have enough places to dry the pasta. I remember pasta drying from hangers in the strangest of places throughout our kitchen/house.
Good post- and as for resting the dough, that would be a bad idea here. It's the gluten in the flour that gives the dough the resilience it needs, and you gotta work it to build it up.
So what DO you do if you have to make it solo???
I've made it many, many times by myself, without a machine. Just roll the dough out by hand...takes a bit of work, but I find it theraputic. With proper dough it doesn't take too long to roll it out. Then just cut it by hand--a simple way to make fettucine or linguine is, after rolling it out, to roll it up jelly-roll style, then cut it like you're making cinnamon rolls (use whatever thickness you want)...unravel each strand and let it dry. That's how my Sicilian grandmother taught me. I have a pasta machine as well (and old one from Italy), but don't use it too often, I prefer the method I just described.
bohemiangirlpdx -do you mind sharing your recipe for vegan pasta? I'm dying to make some but every recipe I've seen has eggs (which confounds me as I can find a lot of dried pasta without it).
Just dust flour on your countertop and use a rolling pin. Works for me just fine.