I have always heard that freshly-made pasta was awesome, and incomparably better than store-bought.
So, with the handy new pasta maker attachment to our Kitchenaid mixer I made some homemade pasta (using one of the recipes in the pasta maker booklet)
After I was done making them and cooking them, I sat down to enjoy a great meal, miles above what I had been used to with the store-bought pasta. Unfortunately, it was very ‘meh’. Not bad, but also not great.
Maybe it was the recipe I used, or maybe it was the flour I used ?
What has your experience been with home-made pasta?
I, for one, don’t care for fresh fettucine or linguine, but I do like fresh lasagne and ravioli.
Also keep in mind that when you make fresh long pasta like fettucine and linguine, you’re supposed to let it dry a while before you cook it, otherwise it has no texture at all. I mention this in case you went from pasta roller to pot and wanted to try it again.
I once watched Jamie Oliver on TV whip up some pasta dough, cut it into noodles with his big knife, and decided to try it myself. Looked so easy, but that dough was stiff and hard to work with! I didn’t have his muscles, and after a lot of effort, the result was same as OP’s - meh. Just OK. It was useful to know how to do it though, in case we were snowed in and had no Ronzoni in the house to go with the sauce.
I suspect some of the fresh pasta hype is just that - hype. Yes, arguably it’s better but it’s not the ecstatic experience some of the TV cooks make it out to be.
Personally, I don’t see it as that much better. For me, it’s not worth the bother of making my own so I stick to store brand dry pasta in a box. I’m sure I’ve just proved myself a heathen to the food snobs. Eff 'em.
Bottom line - eat what YOU like. If you prefer dried pasta out of a box you bought at a store go for it. If you want to have another go at making your own, go for it. Don’t get too hung up on what other people like.
It isn’t just a matter of fresh versus dried either. There are some expensive dried pastas available as well. My ex-wife’s family imports and distributed them. Most of them really are good and you would be able to tell the difference if you had them. Some of it is just really fancy shaping and coloring but there is also premium boxed and dried pasta that only takes 90 seconds of boiling to cook. Those are different than the cheap stuff you get in most supermarkets. It wouldn’t make a big difference with regular spaghetti sauce but it does if you make a light sauce with things like seafood, herbs, or mushrooms. I don’t know any accomplished Italian cooks that regularly make their own fresh pasta but you can buy it in some places in Boston and Providence. I don’t think the fresh aspect is the most important thing though.
One isn’t really “better” than the other. They’re different beasts. Fresh pasta is usually made with eggs, while dried pasta is usually not. They taste different. The texture is different. Fresh pasta tends to go better with butter and simple cream sauces. Dried pasta tends to pair better with olive oil, and heavier tomato sauces. I tend to like the flavor and texture of eggy noodles, so I’m a fan of fresh pasta, but it’s silly to say one is better than the other.
There are small packets of ‘fresh’ pasta sold at the grocery store in the dairy case, very expensive. But the difference in texture and taste is amazing! They’re very nice for a special meal with shrimp, designer mushrooms, asparagus and such. The dried stuff in the box is fine for feeding a mob of hungry schoolkids.
I disagree. I think fresh pasta is hands down better than dry. I have found tha dry pasta is very hard to get to true al dente–its either under cooked or a bit mushy. Fresh–at least home made–pasta is almost always firm but not chewy.
I have a few hints that may help. First, I’m a heathen–I add salt to my flour before I mix in the eggs. I know all the “real” cooks say salt the water–not the pasta, but this works for me. I use a little less salt than I would for the same amount of flour in bread. Secondly, I used to make it on my stand mixer. It usually was too wet (if the dies in your pasta cutter don’t separate adjacent strands–i.e. if they remain connected, your pasta is probably too wet) and consequently wasn’t all that good. I started doing it the old fashioned way, a pile of flour on the board with aforementioned salt, eggs in a well in the middle (3/4 c flour per egg). Beat the eggs and gradually pull in flour from the edges. As it begins to get grainy, add water about a tablespoon at a time until you have a firm (almost hard) but slightly sticky dough. Then knead it for about 5 minutes (if you’re not tired at the end, your dough was too soft). Let it rest under a bowl for 20 minutes, then run through your pasta maker, multiple times, folding the dough in thirds before running again, until it is smooth–about 7-10 times. then reduce your pasta machine setting until it is slightly thinner than you want the cooked pasta (the pasta will puff up in water slightly. To cook, boiling water, toss in the pasta in. Wait for it to float, then leave it in for about 2 more minutes, stirring to make sure all pasta is cooked evenly (when it floats, its NOT done–again in my opinion)
For a sauce, I roast about 4 big cloves of garlic in foil (cloves, a bit of olive oil wrapped in foill and tossed in my toaster over at 350 for about 15-20 minutes), let them cool then squish them into a paste. Put a couple of pats of butter in a pan, melt, add about a cup and a half of half and half, stir in the garlic paste and whisk. Then this comes to a simmer reduce the heat and let it simmer for about 5 minutes whisking every now and then. Then whisk in a handful of parmesean, toss the cooked pasta into the sauce–AMAZING.
I do think that the difference is more apparent when you use a light sauce. If you’re dousing the pasta in a heavy marinara or alfredo sauce, then you aren’t going to notice it as much as you will with just some garlic and olive oil.
I do think that fresh pasta needs to dry for at least a few hours before you cook it. At least, that’s how I’ve always done it.
Meh - I do both depending on prep time for the entire meal. Pasta is just the carrier for the other tastes which overwhelm IMHO the inate pasta flavor. It’s more getting the texture right and the size and shape in tune with whatever you’re serving with it. The sauces, meats, seafood, cheeses, veggies all seem more “tasteworthy” regarding the meal.
Kinda like grits, pancakes, mashed potatoes, and other starches that need something added to them (red-eye gravy, yum). I do not include wall-paper paste (poi) in the starch group as nothing helps there (my wife’s from Hawaii and would kill me if she followed my posts).
Something you might try sometime, when you make pasta, is instead of using a really bold flavored sauce with a cheese or tomato base, just use some olive oil and some seasoning. I do that every once in a rare while when i want a change of pace.
We experimented with making our own for a few months. Different flours, different recipes and shapes, letting it dry first or not, kneading by hand or not, at the end the only time we ever make pasta is if we’re making a huge sheet and cutting by hand for ravioli. Nothing else we did made a noticeable difference, regardless of how we served it.
So I’m glad we played around with it, and I’m even more glad I don’t have to make it fresh.
Maybe true, but let’s face it, sometimes the fun in making your own food from scratch isn’t that it’s better, it’s that you made it from scratch. Like, if you had to fend for yourself in the wilderness, you could catch and kill whatever animal we make pasta from, and prepare yourself a delicious Fettuccine Alfredo so you won’t starve.
Aglio, olio, peperoncino is my “go to” snack or quicky meal staple. Sometimes just butter and some grated romano or parmesian is fine. Just the pasta type doesn’t really make a big difference.
I don’t think it’s a matter of not noticing the difference, it’s a matter of having a different preference than you do. Someone else might prefer the texture of dried pasta, for example.
It’s like saying cucumbers are better than pickles and you don’t see how anyone can try both and not notice the difference. Of course there’s a difference, it’s just that a pickle-lover might prefer pickles to fresh cucumbers.
It’s not. It’s a different flavor (eggs!!!) and different texture than dried. Like I said above, one is not better than another. They are different foods. I like both, although a fresh pasta in a very simple sauce (hell, just butter and some cheese, for instance) is sublime.