Does anyone make their own pasta?

My mother has had at least two pasta machines. Both the same company. One was electric and the other was inherited from a family member (30+ years old at the time she received it).

I'll have to ask her what the name brand was/is. They were all solid constructed and easy to use.

Ha!

My mom once asked me how spaghetti is grown.

She was not known for her cooking.

For me learning to cook was a survival skill.

I've seen noodles made that way! Impressive.

Rolling dough is really an art and a hard one to master. I'm terrible at it. I would have to hire a tutor for Mo to learn it right.

I suppose I could just look for some kind of roller but the pasta cutters aren't all that expensive. I think it would be a worthwhile investment to get one for him to use. I think cooking is a good life skill and knowing how to make things from the ground up is cool.

The pasta I buy is about $5. a pound, it probably cost $1. to make a pound so an $80 pasta cutter would, theoretically, pay for itself pretty quickly.

Oh! Good idea!

Thanks tsar. Let us know what you find out.

Did she use them a lot?

That's good to know, Set.

Ok - here are some to play with, or give you some ideas to think about, with a zillion recipes out there:


I haven’t tried most of these in the Mocato but I did make some ravioli with it a while ago.

I’m using my own version of an olive oil pie crust dough for more things, making it thinner or thicker depending one what it’s for - but I’m not sure if I put it through the pasta machine yet. I think I did once, and it was fine.

I happen to not like grocery store wonton wrappers, so I play around.



Here are some ideas for rolled dough items - with or without machines

peach empanadas: http://bread-and-honey.blogspot.com/search?q=peach+empanadas

lots on ravioli: http://www.foodnetwork.com/search/delegate.do?fnSearchString=ravioli+recipes&fnSearchType=site

korean dumplings:
http://www.koreanbapsang.com/2009/09/mandu-korean-dumplings_20.html#.UQbEPY5W4dU

greek dumplings (koulakli manti): http://greekfood.about.com/od/groundmeatrecipes/r/koulaklimanti.htm

turkish cigars (sigara boregi) - they use phyllo, but, hey - http://www.deliciousistanbul.com/blog/2011/03/15/sigara-borek/

dumplings in hot chili oil -
http://www.tastebook.com/recipes/791705-DUMPLINGS-IN-HOT-CHILI-OIL

Mario Batali’s agnolotti - and he does use the pasta machine:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/mario-batali/agnolotti-recipe/index.html




My own olive oil dough (modified from one online)
This recipe works for a torta crust with a little left over:

4 oz whole wheat flour, 4.8 oz all purpose - x 1.25 = 11 total ounces flour
yesterday I used 5.5 of all purpose, 3.0 of spelt, 2.5 of whole wheat
1.25 tsp salt
1.25 tsp dried herbs
75 ml olive oil
150 ml cold water

grease pan lightly if not non stick coat

combine flour salt herbs
add oil, mix with fork
add water, mix until just absorbed
knead lightly in bowl until dough in a ball

turn dough on work surface
sprinkle little flour on the ball and rolling pin
each time you roll it, add a little four underneath and on dough if seems getting sticky
do not overwork

put dough in pan, refrigerate 30 minutes
add (my) filling bake until done at 350-375.

11 ounces of flour = 2.5 cups -
depending on my whim, I’m weighing flour instead of using a measuring cup more often than I used to.

I think this would be fine for, say, empanadas...

She made/makes homemade pasta about once a month or so.

My grandmother had a large square (about 3' by 3') of moderately heavy, high-quality linen canvas (cotton canvas will waste away in lint eventually). She used that to roll out dough, whether pie dough, cookie dough, dough for biscuits or noodle dough. She kept in a a plastic bag in the refrigerator, and when she washed it, she ironed it afterward, and then floured it before putting it away in the fridge. She always lightly floured it before using it. It made a big difference in rolling out dough. She also had a cover for her rolling pin, which looked a lot like the semi-elastic sleeves used to cover dressings in hospitals. I can't think what you'd call it.

The canvas rolling cloth is good for many things other than pasta, too. Learning to make pie dough and biscuits would be a good idea, whether you obtained a rolling cloth or not. I recommend a good buttermilk biscuit recipe which substitutes the buttermilk for the shortening. I'd say look online for buttermilk biscuit recipes with the most buttermilk and the least shortening. Buttermilk reacts with both baking soda and baking powder, and once you get the hang of it, your biscuits really rise well and are light and fluffy.

This is a good trick. I'm going to try it with bread.

Joe(Thanks)Nation

I have always had good results with it. If you get good with it, you can even start your dough with whole wheat flour, and eliminate the white flour altogether.

I wouldn’t mind learning how to make homemade pasta but I’m going to learn how to make the sauce first.

You could make perogi, pierogy, pierogy, perogy, pierógi, pyrohy, pirogi, or pyrogy, pirohi, piroghi, pirogi, pirogen, pierogy, pirohy, pyrohy or what we call them 'round here Perogies..
There may be other variations on the theme.
A dumpling stuffed mainly with potato mixed with cheddar, cottage cheese, blueberry, ground beef, onion, and my favourite sauerkraut. Make a bunch, freeze some, boil water, add salt, cook till they float, fry if you want to. Then serve them with sour cream, butter fried onions, bacon bits...a cheap, easy, carby side or meal.
This is a staple on every buffet including weddings, even italian weddings. They are part of the culture here.

Yum! I love perogi!

Especially from that little joint near Pike's Market in Seattle.

We're having fresh pasta tonight!

I went to the bank to cash in my change jar today ($355.48!!). The bank is right near this big kitcheware store so I went in to browse. They had the Atlas machine that osso recommended so I bought it.

The dough is resting right now.

Mo is VERY excited about making pasta.

I guess you would have to have a pasta cutter to make like spaghetti, I know my mom use to make homemade noodles, they were long and thick noodles and she use to make them with her chicken and dumplings.

Ok, then!

I don't suppose it will all go great right away, but it might.

My italian teacher threw together flour and and egg and mashed it about and mushed into the macchina, and then we had fettucini to go with the lobster sauce, hung on hangers, and once it dried after our grammar test, all was good.
Never even kneaded, except for something like a minute...

Have fun.

recipes will vary

A2k history -

When Roger and I were first friends and he was taking me over to Dys and Diane's, I was making some home made fettucini and nudged him to help me with it..

He later said it was the best pasta he ever had.

Of course he was being nice, but hey.

I made the long time taking recipe of Marcella Hazan's bolognese as the sauce.

Dys said he liked it but he wasn't trustworthy. Diane said later that she didn't.

Me, I thought it needed pepping up, but, I would.



Even friends vary on all this.

How do you make your bolognese?

I looked up recipes recently and saw that many of them don't include cream. I've always made mine with cream and thought it was kind of the defining factor of bolognese. A lot of the recipes I saw look like marinara. I'm confused.

Anyway...

The pasta is drying, it ran through the machine without a hitch.

I confess I used my stand mixer to kneed the dough so it was really glutinous. I don't know if I could have gotten that consistency by hand.

I think I'll make two sauces. Mo wants a tomato sauce and I want a light Parmesan lemon cream sauce since I have fish to serve with it and I can't stand tomato and fish together.

I'm really proud of Mo. He's becoming quite a good cook.

I love that it gives us something fun to do together.