Two questions about making fresh pasta?

[ncage1974]

1) Do you let your pasta dry? I don't know if you are supposed to let it dry out or if that will form a skin over the pasta and make it not taste very good

2) Those of you make pasta by hand. How thin do you usually go with the setting (1-7 on most i think). I found out 7 is way way to think for just about everything. 4-5 is maybe perfect for everything?

thanks,
ncage

 

[Alix]

Hi there. You CAN let the pasta dry if you wish, they sell drying racks for that very purpose. You can just lay it out on clean tea towels though if you don't want to go to that expense. You can use it fresh, or dry it for use later. I prefer mine fresh.

And the thickness depends on what you want to do with the pasta. I make my canneloni about a 5, and have done other things at a 6. I agree though, I think 6 and 7 are too thin for much.

Hope that helps.

 

[kadesma]

When I make my pasta I use 5 most of the time,after cutting I alwasy let it sit for an hour of so before cooking..I always make a lot so that half of it can be frozen..What I do is get a cookie sheet, and dust it with rice flour, I then just take a mall handful of the pasta threads linguini or fettucine and make a nest on the cookie sheet set haging end of pasta down on sheet the coil the rest into a nest.Sprinkle with a little more rice flour, and place in freezer til frozen, then take off sheet and put into freezer zip bags.
If cooking that day, I do air dry a little sprinkle with some rice flour and cover to keep it from getting to dry and breaking..I find this elps cut down on the pasta sticking together when placed in the water.
kadesma..

 

[-DEADLY SUSHI-]

Its better that you DO let them dry. Hang them on racks for at least an hour. It will help to get rid of a 'dough' or flour taste. They SHOULD hang for four to 5 hours though.

 

[Shunka]

I still roll my pasta dough out by hand; so I'm not much help as to what # to use on a pasta machine. I let my pasta dry for at least an hour like the others have said.

 

[VeraBlue]

What timing! I just came up from making roasted carrot pasta. I made it into fetuccine and make the pasta at 3. I do ravioli at 5-6. When the dough is as moist as this is, (because of the carrots) I like to let it dry a bit, for an hour or two before I boil the water.

 

[Katie H]

I do mine at about 5 or 6. The other settings seem a bit too thin for my purposes. As for drying, until Buck made me a pasta drying rack, I used to rest a clean broom handle over the backs of two dining chairs to dry my pasta. That's what my Slovenian grandmother used to do when she dried her homemade pasta.

 

[amber]

I've made lasagna noodles on a 4 setting and then let it dry for about 3 or 4 hours before boiling.

 

[Aria]

I usually use the 5 setting. And yes I do let dry. I use a small new wooden
close drying rack for just that purpose. Careful when removing...NOT too dry or they tend to break if you "yank". I bring the drying rack close to my water on a boil and drop from rack to pan.

 

[ncage1974]

thanks everyone

thanks everyone for the great replies as usual. I bought some porcinis. I have never ate them before. I looked for a recipe i could make and found a cream sauce with porcinis in it. I think cream sauces always are better with fresh pasta. I made my pasta with a setting of 4. Turned out pretty good. Here is the recipe i used:
Fettuccine with Porcini and Pancetta Cream Recipe - CHOW.com

I made some minor modifications. I used bacon rather than pancetta. Pancetta is so hard to find around here and 1/4 pound is like $6. I drizzled white truffle oil over the pasta after it was done....YUMMMM!!!!!!!!

 

[Aria]

We learned number to set our pasta machine. We learned to dry the pasta.
Can we now share some pasta recipes for the pasta machine.?

 

[philso]

the fun thing about fresh pasta is that it's so easy to get creative without any recipe at all. maybe the first 1 or 2 times you try, you might follow a recipe to get an idea about how firm or soft a dough to aim for. probably a good basic ratio would be 1 part liquid to (almost or about)4 parts flour.

for an eggless pasta i'd use :
1 c water
1 or 2 T olive oil
3 1/2 to 4 c flour - about half semolina going in first, if you have it

for an egg pasta, replace half or all of the water with eggs.
4 large eggs
1 or 2 T olive oil
3 1/2 to 4 c flour

the fun part is replacing part of the liquid with a puree of something, as vera has done with her roast carrots. just about anything you can think of will make a great pasta. try running something like these through your food processor (or somehow reduce to a pulp): cooked pumpkin, roast garlic, cooked and well-squeezed spinach, sauteed mushrooms, roast/ grilled bell peppers (red or yellow are nice, char the skins directly over your burner and remove), artichoke hearts or asparagus (you'll likely need to press these throw a seive to remove the fibers), etc.

or just add something like the following: black pepper & lemon zest, finely milled or chopped fresh herbs, pesto, tandoori paste( i did this once, served with sliced grilled chicken breasts, sauteed yellow summer squash, and feta piled on top), curry powder, fenugreek, caraway, anchovie paste, sun-dried tomatoes, dried varietal mushrooms, etc. just make sure everything is very finely chopped, milled, or reduced to a paste.

if you do these, you'll just need to eyeball the amount of flour you use. too much and the pasta can tend to crack when you roll it.

for nice pastas like these, i like to keep the sauce, if any, simple and light: a quick little saute of something (maybe zucchini, tomato, panchetta, etc.) finished with a dry white wine or a cream reduction. or just tossed with a good olive oil is very nice too.

go wild is what i suggest. it's hard to go wrong with fresh pasta!

(just be careful not to overcook. it's done in a flash)

 

[Aria]

ncage 1974...Thanks for the Chow site. philso, thanks for the great directions on the homemade pasta.

 

[ncage1974]

ncage 1974...Thanks for the Chow site. philso, thanks for the great directions on the homemade pasta.

Ya i like chow.com. I don't remember how i found it. The site has some very excellent pictures and some good recipes. The articles are very good too. They don't have a lot of recipes but what they have seem very good.

Ncage