I’m not too big on kitchen gadgets that do only one thing, but if I had to narrow down my few appliances, the last to go would be my gen-yoo-wine hand-cranked Italian pasta machine. I got it at a yard sale many years ago, before the cooking craze had hit America. I think I spent $3 on it, and it is still in its old Italian cardboard box.
Making pasta is fun. You get to get a bit of exercise kneading out the simple dough, and running it through the machine is a bit like playing with one of those old Play-Doh factories. And there’s no comparison between fresh pasta made at home and that which comes in those little plastic coffins in the supermarket.
And at first, I thought it was too much of a pain to use, because the dough would stick in the machine. However, now I’ve worked out the bugs and the machine doesn’t even need cleaning after use except to dust off any flour left on it.
Who else makes their own pasta here? Got a recipe for a ravioli stuffing?
I make my own pasta. The Italian cardboard box finally gave up the ghost last month and I had to toss it. Now the pasta machine sits naked on the shelf.
I’ve never made ravioli, but I’d like to try!
I made ravioli a couple of times; turned out okay, if a little ragged. But I rolled out the pasta by hand, dammit! :mad:
I make pasta quite a lot. I don’t use a machine; I taught myself to hand-stretch it by following the drawings in Marcella Hazan’s Classic Italian Cookbook.
I like it better that way. It’s a tad thicker, more rustic and less egg noodle-y. The sauce sticks to the pasta better too.
I’ve made my own pasta, too, with and without pasta machine. I’d give you my recipe for ravioli filling, but I kinda just make it up as I go along, and it’s never the same way twice.
Incidentally, my first pasta machine was purchased for use with polymer clay, and I am not ashamed to admit that I was enjoying playing with it so much that the following words actually escaped my lips: “Look how cool this is! It rolls out sheets of clay like they’re NOTHING! You know what this would be good for? Pasta!” Until the last word of the sentence was out of my mouth, I had no idea how idiotic I was being.
I make my own pasta, and I’ll bet we have the same Pasta Queen[sup]tm[/sup]. Try making thick noodles for chicken soup or Beef Stroganoff. Mr. Strand won’t have them any other way. It’s the best!
I think everyone has the same Atlas Pasta Queen. Unless they are REALLY lucky and have the wonderful Kitchen Aid stand mixer dealybob with all the attachments. I want one of those SO badly.
Oh, LifeOnWry, that was the best!
We so enjoyed making pasta on that silly thing that I finally stuck clay in it when no one was looking! What fun!
I was not connected to the beading/clay community and a total ‘outsider artist’ when I tired this. Now I gotts go find another pasta machine at a yard sale.
Right on cue, today’s “Good Eats” episode was all about ravioli-making. His stuffing recipe: meat loaf recipe with a bit of added parmesan and balsamic vinegar. That one sounds like a winner.