One of the big things I’ve been hearing about the Real Food Challenge is the desire to make homemade pasta. I’ve been making pasta at home for 6-7 years. It’s my go-to quick meal when I’ve got company coming. Fresh homemade pasta is so delicious you don’t really even need to make a sauce for it. I often simply toss fresh pasta with some good flavorful olive oil and grated cheese, sometimes I throw an egg in there as well to thicken it up a bit. It’s quick, easy and best of all – people think it’s wonderful. They’re super impressed with homemade pasta not realizing it’s actually quite quick and easy to make.
It does take a few tries to master it though, rolling the dough can be a bit of a challenge until you get the hang of it. I’d highly recommend buying a pasta roller, it will come in handy not just for rolling/cutting pasta, but also for rolling out crackers & flatbreads. I bought a cheap one at a kitchen outlet store, I paid less than $20 for it, but I’d recommend investing a heavier duty model, like this one that gets great reviews at Amazon. I’m hoping to upgrade to one of these soon, mine’s not super great quality often pulls the dough in crooked, which is frustrating. Of course you don’t need a machine, plenty of people choose to do all the rolling by hand. I like using a machine.
Pasta is generally made from 2-4 ingredients. I’d recommend starting with basic egg and white flour pasta (some recipes also call for salt and olive oil, some don’t). You can use whole grain flour, but it makes the process a little more difficult and the end product different. I’d definitely recommend starting with white flour pasta until you’ve mastered pasta making and then move on to other flours and flavors. Paul Bertolli has a bunch of great ideas for using different kinds of flour (even chestnut flour) in his book Cooking by Hand. I really like making spinach pasta (as you can see by the photos) and cracked peppercorn pasta.
Pasta dough isn’t difficult to make, but there’s definitely a learning curve. You don’t want to add all the flour called for in the recipe or your dough might be too stiff, which makes it frustrating to work while rolling. I usually save out at least 1/4 cup of flour and often more when mixing up the initial dough. You want the dough to be smooth and slightly tacky, not tough and dry. I like to lightly dust my work surface while rolling it out, this helps incorporate the final flour into the dough, but keeps the dough smooth for easy rolling. You also don’t want your dough to be too soft, or it will be difficult to roll and cut in the machine. After making it too dry once and too wet once, you’ll figure out what the perfect balance is.
Rolling out the dough is fairly easy if you’ve kept it soft enough. Divide the dough in half and roll it out into an oval that’s about 1/2-1/4 inch thick. Then you’ll put it through the rollers on the widest setting. Do this with each piece. Then fold dough into thirds like a letter, roll to thin again and put through the machine. Do this 8-10 times until the dough is smooth and not too soft & tacky. After making pasta a few times you’ll get a feel for what’s the right texture for the dough.
After you’ve run the dough through the machine 8-10 times at the widest setting you’re ready to start thinning the dough. I usually roll each piece through then adjust the rollers. As the piece gets thinner it will get longer and longer and can become a bit unruly. Feel free to cut down to a more manageable size. I usually keep mine in one piece until I want to cut it, then I cut into shorter pieces. It’s a personal preference thing really, whatever you feel comfortable doing. It may be easier at first cutting it into shorter pieces, then as you get more comfortable with the rolling process you can keep the pieces long. Roll them to the desired thinness, I generally roll mine down to the thinnest or the second thinnest setting.
Next you’ll cut the pasta into whatever shape you want. You can make ravioli by using the sheets, you can cut them into spaghetti, thin or thick. I usually make thin spaghetti or fettuccine. Occasionally I make ravioli, but I find cutting the pasta in the rollers to be so quick and easy and I’m usually short on time.
Some cookbooks will tell you hang the pasta to dry on a rack, I never do. I usually toss mine with a little flour to keep it from sticking together if the water isn’t ready yet. Check it every so often, by tossing a bit to make sure it’s not sticking together. Feel free to dry it a little if you want, I just never wanted to buy a drying rack and I don’t really have room in the kitchen for it.
I won’t reinvent the wheel and add a pasta recipe here (perhaps later when I have some time I’ll do a post with my favorite recipes), there are tons on the web:
All Recipes – Making Fresh Egg Pasta
All Recipes – Video tutorial on making fresh pasta
Epicurious – Fresh Egg Pasta (this is very similar to my usual recipe)
Jaime Oliver – Fresh Egg Pasta
Have you ventured into making your own pasta yet? How’d it go?
Any tips & tricks for the rest of us?
Susy can also be found at Chiot’s Run where she blogs about organic gardening, local eating and all kinds of other stuff, like sugaring your maples.
Hi!
I often make my pasta too and I love to make ravioli. I used to get frustrated with the ravioli because:
a) It’s hard to get sheets with consistent widths to make your ravioli when you’re just learning to roll;
b) I could never get a nice uniform shape and size when cutting them or scooping the filling;
c) They’re just plain time consuming.
A good friend recommended a ravioli mold like this one:
Norpro Ravioli Maker And Press
It’s one of the best tools I’ve ever bought. This thing churns-out consistent, professional-looking ravioli in a flash. It’s worth every penny. Even better, you can simply pop them into the freezer on a tray and move them to a bag or container and have frozen ravioli ready to cook on a weeknight or when company pops-in.
I make ravioli occasionally, I kind of like the handmade look of them in different sizes. I usually take one sheet and fold it in half over the filling instead of trying to put two sheets together.
I even have the pasta attachment for my Kitchen Aid and I still haven’t tried it. I’m too nervous, even though you make it look easy!
This is so cool. I have not even considered making my own pasta…we don’t eat if very much around here, but this has me intrigued!
Suzy
I’ll be making pasta again this weekend- will probably do spinach spaghetti since i have so much spinach ready to eat in the garden right now.
This was my first attempt: http://anaustinhomestead.blogspot.com/2010/03/pasta-first-attempt.html
The raviolis were sooooooo good. Will definitely do them again for company.
I’m so excited to have learned this skill – it really isn’t all that hard, and when you have a surplus of eggs being laid everyday it is nice to find alternative uses for them that are this delicious!
Thanks for reminding me to add spinach next time (ps do you blanch it first or just chop it fine and mix in when you mix the dough?).
You blanch it first and use fewer eggs. The recipe I use calls for 1 lb of spinach stems removed and blanched. I chop finely and mix with 2 eggs. Then I add to roughly 3 cups of flour.
Making pasta has been one of my goals for a few months now, but my husband has been working evenings and it seems like a lot of work for just me (even though I can freeze/dry the extra). This week I invited a new friend over for a fresh pasta dinner as motivation, so this post was timely for me. =)
A little scared of pasta, but the challenge has me thinking about homemade noodles, specifically spaetzel.
I am so sold on a pasta maker now. Next month, “Artisan Bread..” _and_ a pasta maker!
Perfect timing…I am planning on making pasta tomorrow. We’ll see how it goes!
Good luck!
Yeah I needed this post…my new past roller has been in the amazon box for a few days now. I will definitely be giving this a try this weekend! Thanks Susy.
Great post! I hang my pasta to dry on clothes hangers. I hang one hanger on the handle of a kitchen cabinet, then hang several on that one. Then I drape the pasta over the hangers to dry. I make several pounds of pasta at once and freeze it for “convenience meals” so having it dry for a bit first helps avoid it sticking too much.
Keep an eye out for pasta machines at yard sales – I see them often. Seems a lot of people buy them with good intentions, but don’t use them and sell them for cheap.
I’m craving pasta now – thanks!
A note on using spinach – I chop my spinach finely when it’s raw and freeze the excess. Once it’s been frozen and thawed, it makes great pasta without blanching.
Tried it once, total failure. I think the dough was too moist, the noodles stuck together. My daughter-in-law makes excellent pasta and yours looks so good, I need to give it another try.
Yes it is a learning curve to figure out how wet/dry to make the dough. I have found that spinach dough is often a little wetter than plain egg dough and the texture is slightly different.
Bravo for spreading the fresh pasta word. Fresh spinach pasta is simply delish. I also like making its red equivalent, using a little tomato paste (from a jar not a tube).
Is that the Imperia pasta machine you’re using? Bomb-proof, what a machine…!
Not sure what it is, I don’t think it’s a name brand, just a cheapo I bought for less than $20 at an outlet store.
I just started making my own pasta for the last few months and just love it. I am looking to make my noodles more interesting and flavorful, so I will definitely want to try the tomato paste. What is the ratio of tomato paste with eggs and flour?
I’d add one or two Tablespoons of tomato paste and one less egg in this recipe. Then adjust flour as needed for dough to be the right consistency. You can also try adding cracked peppercorns, we’re particularly fond of them added to the noodles.
Wow! What perfect timing. I just borrowed my mom’s pasta roller. I’ve been wanting to make pasta for some time now.
Quick question… if I want to add some Whole Wheat flour, would you recommend I use W.W. pastry flour, White W.W. flour, or regular W.W. flour? I keep a crazy amount of flour around but I have a hard time knowing which one is best for things I’ve never made before.
Thanks for this post!!!
I’d try with some white whole wheat or pastry flour first and wouldn’t add more than 1/3 whole wheat on your first batch. If that’s good then I’d up it to 1/2 whole wheat.
I’ve experiments with using whole wheat and have never really been satisfied with the results. I would like to experiment with lentil flour our real semolina flour when I can find it.
Don’t use pastry flour, whether white or whole wheat. The thing that makes it “pastry” flour is its lower gluten content – and you want the gluten to be as high as possible when making noodles. The gluten is what makes noodles stretchy. Without it, they crumble and boil up into a gluey mess.
Thanks for the tip Emily. I usually use high gluten flour for my pasta, works beautifully. I’ve never attempted to make whole wheat pasta.
I’ve made pasta a few times now. I started using my mom’s pasta machine (See Becky’s comment above…we’re sisters!) but now I am just rolling it out with a rolling pin. I miss the machine!!
And I found a collapsable wooden clothes drying rack at a yard sale for about $2! It’s perfect for drying pasta. I’ve found that it gets incredibly brittle when dried though, so I let it dry on the rack until it’s not tacky anymore, then I kinda curl it up in little nests.
Thanks for this post!
Becky – I’ve had plenty of success with whole wheat pasta. I use Golden Buffalo, which is close to a pastry flour. If you use anything that’s stone ground, etc. the larger flecks of wheat will make the pasta tear as you roll it, so you want something with a pretty fine grind.
Exactly, I would recommend sifting out some of the bran if you’re using home ground or stone ground whole wheat flour.
I’ve been thinking about it for a while but, as above, figured it was too big a job to do myself on a weeknight. One of these weekends I’ll give it a go – when I’m not so darned busy (this spring is crazy for me).
Once you get the hang of making pasta, it really is a quick meal! I’m amazed at how quickly I can whip up a batch of pasta now, especially since it’s so delicious topped with just oil & cheese you don’t even have to make a sauce if you’re busy. It’s become one of the quick meals in my collection.
oh wonderful. I really have been wanting to do this. I saw a pasta roller at a garage sale and another lady snatched it before me. Darn. so I keep an eye on craig’s list and at other garage sales. BUT soon I just might break down and buy one new. Thanks for the information on the one you recommended. Thank you for all the information too. Emily in So. TX
I made pasta for years but now that I buy my grains from local farmers and grind I can’t get it to come out. Anyone on this thread successfully make whole grain pasta? I have emmer, kamut, white hard and red hard wheat and vital wheat gluten. I’d love to figure this out because I really miss it and I never have white flour on hand since I don’t shop at the store. Not sure how to sift out bran since I grind on the finest setting possible. Everything seems to pass through my sieve. I’d love to make nettle pasta! And Susy not hanging pasta would be huge for me since I have a large hairy dog with huge whomping tail that circles the chairs which I use to hang the pasta on to dry. She either licks it or knocks it off with that tail, both are nasty to think of when eating. I love how you just make piles on the table – so smart!
[…] that the tortilla recipe I found will be the only wheat tortillas ever allowed in our house. After Susy’s post about pasta we tried another recipe which went over well. I will be investing in a pasta roller if I continue to […]
You really make this look so easy! I have had the same exact pasta maker for a whole year and never had the guts to use it. I do have a question for you? How do you clean yours? Our pamphlet says to not wash – but then, doesn’t that make for bacteria to grow on it?
BTW, your spinach pasta is gorgeous! I love how adventurous you are with mixtures – have you ever tried Kamut Khorasan Wheat flour? I think that would be what I would start with.
To keep the pasta maker clean, I wipe with a slightly damp towel after each use. It really only gets dusty with flour since the dough isn’t really wet. If any pasta does get stuck in the rollers (sometimes tiny bits), by the next time you pull it out it’s dried and falls out. It’s too dry of an environment for bacteria to grow, so no worries about that.
I haven’t tried that kind of flour, must search it out next time I’m in Cleveland.
Great article. I use the KitchenAid pasta roller that affixes to my mixer. It’s a breeze. I also make the pasta in the food processor which turns out great. After cooking the spinach, cooling it and squeezing all the water out of it, I put it in the food processor with White Whole Wheat flour and blend it for 20 seconds or so. (1.5 cups of flour and 8 oz spinch). No need to chop the spinach by hand. I then mix 3 eggs with a tsp of kosher salt and a Tbsp of Olive oil and add through the shoot while the machine is running. Always err on the wet side as you can always add more flour. When most of it clumps together scrape it out onto a floured surface and kneed for 30 seconds and form into a ball. Wrap in plastic and place in fridge for 20 or more minutes. Remove, then quarter and start the rolling process. I made my own hanging rack out of 2×4’s and string. Not for drying but to have a place to place all the pasta while I’m making additional batches. I’m getting hungry just talking about it.