I just finished making up a small batch. Cut it into fettucine, tossed with a basic tomato-garlic sauce and parmesan cheese. The simple things in life are sometimes truly the best!
This is about my fourth time making it after several years of saying that I would. But this summer I found a very good pasta maker at a thrift store for about $5. Spending $40 bucks on a decent machine that I might not use was one thing that kept me from starting, but for a fiver? Deal! And now that I got it, I pull it out about once a month. Its definitely a labor of love though since I can buy a pound bag at Trader’s Joes for less than a dollar, but I’m trying to buy only penne, shells, and other shapes I cant make yet.
But I am in love - mixing the eggs and the flour just so without breaking the well, then kneading it, feeling my wrist get tight, then loose, then tight again. Rolling it out with the machine, trying carefully not to tear it, amazing myself when I dont. Putting the water on to boil, and making the sauce while it dries. Then cutting it, adding it into the water, then tossing it with the sauce. Then cheerfully eating it with a nice glass of wine, feeling quite pleased with myself. It definitely helps end the day on a good note.
I love to cook, and usually enjoy my own efforts, but feasting on a plate of homemade pasta takes me to a whole new level of transcendence.
So does anyone else make their own pasta? Please share your stories - for better or worse.
AP
By the by, my basic recipe is a combo between Batali’s and Alton Browns from the Food Network site - 2 cups all-purpose flour, 2-3 eggs, tablespoon or two of olive oil, (salt, optional). Makes 2 servings. Since I only cook for myself and maybe one other on occasion, thats all I need. I still need to try making it with real semolina and see how that comes out.
Yes, isn’t homemade pasta one of the best things to make yourself? What a difference from dried pasta!
I like to make it, too. Then I started using semolina flour for long pasta, and that was another step up in quality. And when pasta’s that good, you don’t want to mess about with overly complex sauces because you want to taste the essential noodly goodness.
I haven’t made much recently due to having a kitchen without much storage space. I getting a bigger kitchen and making pasta again is something I’m looking forward to.
Dry pasta is great, but there are some dishes for which fresh is better. And there’s a real satisfaction element to making it from scratch.
A suggested direction: filled pasta. I have a ravioli tray, but you could easily do it without. Take thin sheets and seal around delicate fillings like crab that don’t last long enough to be commercially available.
It’s been many years. I went through a home made pasta phase. It was definately fun for a while but a lot of work. I think an electric pasta maker would be good instead of the hand cranked job (dang, it was a lot of work to figure out the right consistency and keep rolling it through).
I’ve made it before without a machine. It was good, but a pain in the ass.
Recently, I made gnocchi, and that was pretty fun and delicious.
So, the question is: does an automatic attachment for pasta-making for a Kitchen Aid mixer make the drawing process not a total pain in the ass?
I like spending time in the kitchen (even wasting time), and making pasta is just the kind of thing I’d do, but the attachment is like $100. Pretty sizeable risk if it’s still a P.I.T.A. We really don’t have a get set up for one of the hand-crank rollers.
My mom makes it on the handcrank pasta machine. (Holy crap, it comes in red!) Usually lasagna noodles, and occasionally ravioli, for which she gets to use the fun rolling pin.
Seconding the ravioli - smoked chicken & mushroom ravioli is my speciality. But plain strips are good too.
I plan to try a marbled version (plain/spinach) soon - I’m hoping to produce an effect like <url=http://www.polymerclaycentral.com/cyclopedia/4colormg.html>mokume gane</url>
When I make homemade pasta, our sauce of choice is this:
Creamy scallop sauce (for two people)
While the pasta water is coming to a boil, cover the pot with a big pasta bowl. Into the bowl, put a big pat of butter, 1 finely minced garlic clove, half a pound of scallops cut into smallish bite-sized pieces, salt and a pinch of cayenne pepper, and 3/4 cup of heavy cream. Let that mixture sit and poach over the boiling water a bit. The scallops should start to firm up and the garlic will mellow out as it poaches.
Remove the bowl, cook your homemade pasta, drain it and dump it promptly into the cream mixture in the pasta bowl. Toss it about, and don’t worry if it looks a bit soupy at first. It will thicken a little as it is tossed, and by the time you bring it out to the table and serve it up, it will have thickened more.
This rich but delicate sauce seems to perfectly complement the goodness that is homemade pasta.
Great suggestion. I made four-cheese* tortellini for my second attempt, and those came out great, but it did take longer than I thought, so a few did become ravioli toward the end.
gigi, yeah, mine is the hand-cranked version. An electric one would be nice down the road, but I love the cranking part right now - helps burn off some of the calories that I am in the process of making. And I hope to get one of those rolling pins you linked to for Xmas. See if one of my siblings come through. (Crossing fingers…)
Another direction I want to have fun with is making flavored pasta like spinach or sun-dried tomato.
One reason I love pasta so much is that it’s great year-round. Making light delicate strands of linguine or angel hair in the summer for a pasta primavera, or heavier, hearty raviolis or tortellini to get through the colder months.
*Ricotta, mozarella, parmesan, and asiago.
I’ve never had a machine, but I love making my own pasta. I like to experiment with different ingredients, and different cooking techniques. One of my most popular was beet pasta, and butternut squash pasta (with a little curry powder mixed in)–so, magenta and orange–for ravioli, one color each side. Then I stuffed with dried pear, candied ginger, and pistachios, deep fried, and offered with habanera yogurt as a dip.
It’s also fun to use a sheet of fresh pasta as a wrap, and then back. I made fennel pasta and wrapped it around some salmon, baked it, served with a sauce made from the ginger and rice wine baste.