Adventures in Pasta Making

My Christmas gift to myself this year was a pasta maker. It's a purchase I feel good about because I eat a ton of pasta, and now I know where all of the ingredients came from. Also, I can make pasta in bulk and have it on hand for a 10 minute dinner anytime. I was a little apprehensive at first because I've never made pasta before, but it could not be easier. I got my pasta maker on overstock.com for $36.00 with shipping, which is a pretty good deal for the quality. I've come to the conclusion that it's just a grown up version of the Play-Doh Fun Factory.




Making pasta really is a lot like playing with Play-Doh. Using the flour bowl technique to mix up the ingredients is probably the funnest way to go and it feels more authentic. Basically, you mix your flour (or flours if you're doing whole wheat pasta) with a pinch of salt. Then, make a bowl in the middle with your fingers and throw in a splash of olive oil. Put the eggs in one or two at a time and stir them up.



When they're all in, go to town kneading it all together with your hands. You'll end up with a dough ball that might be kind of ugly, but it will be fine in the end. Cover the dough and let it sit for 30 minutes before cutting it into three pieces. Flatten the pieces out so that they will fit into the pasta maker and roll 'er through. The flattened piece of dough can either be used for making ravioli or for slicing into linguini and spaghetti.

The pasta recipe I've been using calls for 1/2 whole wheat flour and 1/2 white flour. I had an unsuccessful attempt at using 2/3 wheat to 1/3 white and the consistency was like Play-Doh that has been left out over night. Moral of the story, never go full wheat. You can also add beets, spinach, mushrooms, and sundried tomatoes to the mix to make colorful flavored pasta.

Once the pasta is all sliced up, it's ready for drying. I think it's unnecessary to buy a drying rack. John and I just rigged up a string in the corner of the kitchen. It's literally just two nails and a piece of wrapping ribbon, but it works.



There are going to be pieces of pasta that either fall off the string and break into little pieces or won't fit on the string to begin with. Throw these ones in a bowl to dry-they're good for things like no chicken noodle soup (or chicken noodle soup if you're into that.)
This pasta maker can also be used to make sugar cookies and fondant, which will come in handy if you're like me and you want to work for Charm City Cakes someday. Also, I think that homemade pasta would be a great gift. Maybe a combination of beet and spinach pasta around the holidays, in a nice basket with a ribbon...
That was my Martha Stewart moment for the day-and yes, everyone's getting homemade pasta from me next Christmas.