Let's talk pasta.

[wildeyed]

Do you make your own? If so, what device do you use? I have seen a hand cranked pasta maker for about $20. I have also seen one that is an accessory to my Kitchen Aid stand mixer and several other fancier electric models. Does anyone know the pros and cons?

Also, do you think there is a big difference between pasta brands? I have been buying an imported Italian brand at the Costco, but I used to just buy the grocery store brand. I think the imported tastes better, but maybe they just have a prettier box.

And finally, has anyone ever had decent whole wheat pasta? Usually I prefer whole grain, but I find ww pasta vile.

[madinmaryland]

1. My wife and I tried whole wheat pasta a couple of times

but it was just disgusting.

[Stinky The Clown]

2. Pasta .... Macaroni ... . Maccherone ...... the essence of life!

Well ...... maybe not the *essence** of life ..... but damned close! :-)

First a word about fresh pasta vis a vis dry pasta. They are considered to be different things. One is not thought to be better than the other. They're just ... different products. Dry pasta has little or no egg and is made with something between a 50/50 flour/semolina mix to 100% semolina. Fresh pasta usually has all eggs or a little water and mostly eggs. Please keep this in mind .... they are different products.

You asked about brands of store bought pasta. We prefer Barilla. Second choice is DeCecco. In Italy, DeCecco outsells Barilla, but only by a little. There are many, many other brands. Most of the imported stuff is pretty good. I have found few of the domestic brands to be very good. Ronzoni is one. The rest seem to be inferior in taste ... and they also seem to go from pre-al dente to mush in a heartbeat. I avoid them.

Now ....... Making pasta starts with the dough. I use a very simple recipe.

***********
3 to 4 cups unbleached all purpose flour (if you live in the south, use bread flour)
5 large eggs
salt to taste (assume about 1 tsp for the first time you try this)
Small amount of olive oil (maybe a tsp or so)

Pour 3-1/2 cups flour right onto your counter (or on a large cutting board if you're a neatnick).

Form a well in the middle (think volcano shape)

Put the eggs, salt, and olive oil in the well. When you add the salt, kinda sprinkle it around so it isn't in a lump.

Now break the eggs and use your hands to start to mix them. When they're kinda mixed a bit, start pulling the flour into the eggs, a little at a time. This will start as a real sticky mess. Have faith.

Keep pulling the flour in until you have a nice dough. If it seems sticky when all the flour is in, add a little more flour.

Note, this step only serves to get the dough started. In the end, the dough will still be a bit sticky, but will hold together and pull any bits of dough into itself as you roll it on the counter.

Roll the dough into a ball and place a bowl over it to keep it from drying out. Allow it to rest for about 20 or 30 minutes.

Divide the dough in two and flatten it. Cover one piece and run the other one through the widest setting on your pasta maker. Fold it half and run it through again, still on the widest setting. Do this at least six times, until the dough is nice and smooth (maybe like a soft buttery leather feel). Repeat with the other piece of dough.

Once you get the hang of this, do some research for variations (and there are many), like adding spinach or basil or tomato or squid ink or whole wheat or ... or .... or .....

Okay, so now you have pasta, but have to form it into something .....
***********

There are many handmade macaroni shapes that can be made without the pasta maker. Pappardelle is a very wide, flat noodle. Maybe an inch wide. Cut it from a flat sheet with a pizza wheel. Don't worry about getting the width even. The unevenness is part of the charm of hand made pasta.

Tagliatelle is the same thing, but at about half the width.

You could also make various shapes. Some easy ones are farfalle and orchiette, but making them is a topic for another time. (Sparkly, Jr. is hands down the fastest Farfalle Fabricator I have **ever** seen!)

The easiest thing to do with the dough, however, is to roll it out on successively thinner roller settings (you have to cut the ribbons in half a few times ... they can get very long). Then, when it is on setting 2 or 3, run it through the cutter to get the width you want. (I find setting 1 to be too fine for anything I like, but that's just me.)

***********
Handling fresh pasta is also an issue that ought to be addressed. If left alone in a heap, it will try to revert back to the dough state .... a sticky lump. As you cut each sheet into, say, linguine, flour the pasta before you put it down on the side. I usually sprinkle a bit of four on each cutting, toss it a bit, and then kinda roll it into a **very** loose coil. And don't stack one coil on another. Let it all stay in little piles on a cutting board.

***********
Cooking fresh pasta is very quick. Get the water on a rip roaring boil. Salt it generously. Add the pasta as quickly as possible (an important step with fresh pasta as it cooks soooooo fast). The pasta will initially sink. In a few seconds (maybe a minute or so) it will start to float. When most of it is floating, taste a bit. It should be al dente. Total time ... 2 minutes or so. But let your taste be your guide. You may like yours a little more done than I do.


***********
Okay ..... pasta makers. I have a hand cranked one, a motor for the hand cranker, and I have the rollers for the Kitchenaid. The Kitchenaid rollers, although a bit pricey at about $100, are well worth it if you make much pasta at all. They make the whole process much easier since you have both hands free. The weight of the machine is enough to make a stable platform.

I've had the hand cranker for years and years and it works well enough. The motor got added maybe 10 years ago and that made it easier ...... but you still have to clamp the machine down.

I'd say the Kitchenaid is the way to go. But that is really because of the convenience and ease of use. All three (hand cranker, motorized hand cranker, and Kitchenaid) will work just fine.

I still keep the hand cranker, however, because I also have a ravioli attachment for it and there is none for the Kitchenaid (at least as far as I know).


***********
Another neat little pasta maker is a Cavatelli Maker



http://www.villaware.com/products_item.asp?itemid=34

This makes a nice, firm, chewy pasta from the same dough as above. Do not confuse it with Gnocchi .... they're not the same at all. Gnocchi has many more ingredients and is much closer to a dumpling than a true pasta.

Nothing could be easier than this little gem. You roll your dough into a rope about the diameter of your little finger and feed it through the machine. Out come the fully formed and ready to use cavatellis! It is a REAL snap to make. (Note: there is a dried macaroni shape also called cavatelli, but it is NOT the same as this ... just a similar shape.) The machine is a study in old fashioned simplicity. A little wood roller and a little cutter/feed arm. It goes "clack - clack - clack" as you use it. Kids seem to be fascinated by it. Big kids are, too!


***********
Pasta extruders are a whole other category. Kitchenaid makes one that is based on their meat grinder. There are also free standing units that mix and extrude in two steps of the same process. I have both the Kitchenaid version and a free standing version. In the end, I use neither one. I also don't suggest them to anyone.

They work just like the huge industrial pasta makers - but with one fatal flaw which I will address in a bit. The pasta dough is made to a lighter consistency and kept looking like wet sand. It is never lumped into a dough ball or allowed to rest. This dough is forced through a series of tiny holes in a "die" at the end of a tube. The dough goes through these holes and comes out as a shape. The shapes can be tubular (ziti, penne, etc.) or partially round shapes (shells, etc.). In general, the home machines make it this way and produce what they say they will ......... but.

But ..... the industrial machines use bronze dies. The home machines use plastic (nylon?) dies. The bronze dies are very precise. The plastic ones are not. The bronze dies get quite hot from the process (there is a great deal of pressure involved). As a result of getting hot, they literally dry and sorta "cure" the pasta as it goes through. The plastic dies simply cannot do this. If you run one, after a while you'll see lots of condensation on the die, where the pasta is coming out. The pasta itself is too high in moisture and seems almost soggy. It simply isn't the same. If you want shaped pasta, buy the dry. Or buy a small industrial unit!

This little jewel makes about 7 lbs per batch and will set ya back $3800!



This one is billed as a home machine, but it is truly a copy of the commercial units. It will get yer wallet for $1600.



This is a true home machine and costs $299 retail. Overstock dot com had this for $199.



I suspect the difference in materials and purpose (seriousness) is obvious to everyone.

So, just don't bother with this kind. There's plenty of other (better) ways to get good pasta!

Now go make some pasta! Enjoy the fruit of your labors!

Pasta comes as close to a mother's hug as any food there is! La pasta è l'amore! Pasta is Love!

[NMDemDist2]

3. everything I ever wanted to know about pasta! My MIL gave me a cool

trick this weekend. She uses her food processor to make the dough and after it's rested, she rolls it out to the thickness she needs then rolls it up like a pinwheel (as you would do making cinnamon rolls), slices it rolled, then unrolls it and lets it dry a bit before cooking.

it made so much sense to me how she gets a fairly uniform width on her homemade, hand cut pasta.

just wanted to share that little tip :)

[Stinky The Clown]

4. Yup, a food processor is one way to make the dough

But I think the recipe needs a bit of adjustment. You can also use your Kitchenaid (or Wolfgang's SuperKong Mixer like you have!) with the dough hook. In the end, I find the 100% hand method easiest and most successful. It is fully tactile so you can "read" the dough ... and it is easy to clean up!

As to the rolling ..... uhuh. That's what Gramma did. Once a week. She made a huge batch of dough, rolled it out by hand (it was literally so big it hung over the sides of her kitchen table). She then put it on a bedsheet she had specially for pasta, and laid that on her bed for a few hours to semi dry. Then she cut it into pieces about 12" x 24", rolled those up, and cut them with a knife. She then unrolled each one by hand and let them dry more. Then they stayed in the cellar and she used some each night for the primo piati ..... or as the entire meal.

[wildeyed]

6. That would be a good technique for me to try until I can buy a pasta

machine. I would like to get the feel of pasta making before I buy yet another gadget.

[wildeyed]

5. Thanks H2S

That should get me started! :)

[Lugnut]

7. I have a neat little machine

Just like the picture at the bottom of your post. I just put all the ingredients in the hopper and let it do it's thing.

I've made several different shapes of pasta and it's very good. It has a much lighter texture than pasta from a box.

[eleny]

8. I've got one, too

I picked it up from QVC many years ago. It's not like the dry brands H2S mentioned. My favorites, too! But the ones from the machine are passable. I made quite a few dessert type pastas such as lemon flavored that was good with cottage cheese. And the spinach pastas we made were pretty good. But anything is good with pesto sauce on it. We used to make "green dinner". Green pasta with pesto, green salad and bread broiled with some pesto on top.

I found that the machine was really good for mixing ground beef with the rest of the ingredients for making meatballs. Cold meats always makes my hands ache. But my meatballs were too tough if I didn't work the ground meat enough. So I enlisted the pasta machine and it mixed the heck out of the meat, eggs, breading etc. I let it extrude with the bagel die and only had to shape the meatballs.

I think that the lower priced home machine is still pricey. But I bet that the little kids would like it since it puts on quite a show if it has a clear mixing container.

[Stinky The Clown]

9. Meatballs through the bagel die ... very clever!

What a great idea! Adaptive Reuse at its finest! Who'da thunk it? :hi:

[Lugnut]

10. I'm not wild about pesto

I've only ever made regular pasta with mine.

Making meatballs in the machine is just pure ingenuity. :D