Pasta Makers-specifically making extra long spaghetti.

Cafe Society
#1

About 15 years ago I introduced my parents to the world of long spaghetti. A door which I wish I had never opened. It was an innocent dinner and I was coming home from break in college and they wanted to have a meal together and asked me to bring the noodles. I stopped off at a local italian deli and found extra long spaghetti (about 20"). Ever since then, there is no substitute. For a while, they were able to satiate their pasta lust by driving there. Then they retired to Arizona (and subsequently re-retired to Florida). This has involved me picking up the pasta and shipping it to them at a large cost, doubling the original cost of the spaghetti.

Well, they’re retired and have nothing better to do but complain so I figured that a pasta maker would give them something new to bitch about.

All of that said, I started looking for pasta makers and am not sure about a couple things.

  1. How hard is it to make spaghetti, especially extra long spaghetti?
  2. What other equipment would be needed? I’m seeing drying things, but would they be good for extra long?
  3. I’m not sure if she has a Kitchenaid Mixer or not (there appears to be an attachment).
  4. Special flour or other atypical ingredients needed?
#2

I make pasta pretty often (once or twice a week). Long spaghetti wouldn’t be any harder than shorter spaghetti, other than being slightly less convenient to work with.

Making it is easy. I have a little hand crank machine. I don’t think you need any other equipment, other than a bowl. I never use a drying rack, and although I have a kitchenaid mixer, I prefer making pasta in a bowl.

“My” recipe (learned from a local restaurant):
2 cups flour (00 is preferred if you can find it, but I never can and just use whatever)
1 egg
7 egg yolks
tbsp or so olive oil
tsp or so salt

Put the flour and salt into a bowl, mix them up, and make a well in the middle. Add the eggs and oil to the well and beat them. Gradually incorporate flour into the egg mixture with a fork (and then your hand when it gets too stiff for the fork) until you have incorporated most of the flour and have a nice dough ball. Let it rest for a while (10 minutes to an hour, depending on how much time you have).

Then it’s just a matter of rolling it out. I usually take it to the second thinnest thickness setting on my machine. Run it through the cutters to make spaghetti. 20" spaghetti would be nothing…I’m sure if I really wanted to I could make it three or four feet long, but I’m not sure I get what the point is.

Boil for about a minute or two. Easy peasy.

#3

Thanks a lot! As for the point? They love love love to twirl. No, I don’t get why either. I usually break regular pasta in half before I dunk it in the water anyways.

Any recommendations for the pasta maker?

#4

I have this one: http://www.amazon.com/CucinaPro-150-Imperia-Pasta-Machine/dp/B0001IXA0I

I’m happy with it, but I’ve never used any others, so I may not know what I’m missing :slight_smile:

#5

Thanks again! I’ve ordered that one for 'em. :slight_smile:

#6

At the risk of derailing the thread, has anyone tried using one of these with gluten-free flour? The pre-made rice-flour pastas are okay but expensive.