Homemade pasta

[Sway]

Morning,

We bought a shiny Kitchenaid the other week - yesterday brought the free pasta maker currently bundled with them...

I love Italian, but have never made pasta - any tips? Either for pasta itself or a whole meal.

Cheers,

Sam

[Pferdestarke]

YouTube chefsteps pasta.

I think you'll find they use the same attachment.

[21TonyK]

100g strong plain flour
1 egg
Big pinch salt

Mix to a dough, if you need to soften it run your hand under the cold tap and just shake the excess water from your hand into the bowl a fraction at a time until you get a smooth paste. Work into a ball and wrap in cling.

Rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes then kneed again before running through the machine on ever decreasing settings of thickness.

After you have done it a dozen times you will get the feel of it and not need to weigh or check things.

"It just happens", its just about the simplest thing you can make but its all down to the flour moisture and the egg.

Once you get the basics sorted you can play around with using more yolks than egg white (for filled pastas), flavourings etc

[944fan]

There is a recipe in one of the Gordon Ramsay books which makes a really nice rich pasta. Uses a lot more eggs and a lot of egg yolks but is very nice. Takes a while to dry though and sticks together.

Once you have made your own pasta you wont want to eat the ste they sell in a super market ever again.

[ChrisnChris]

Strong flour like bread flour I assume. Do you ever use pasta flour.. 00 I think it's called?

[944fan]

Yes always use 00 flour.

Don't use strong flour. That has higher gluten to handle the rising action in bread. Will be too heavy for pasta

[Sway]

Cheers chaps. Been out all day so gonna give it a try tomorrow...

I balked at the price of the kitchenaid itself, and couldn't believe they quoted the pasta machine at iirc 70 quid!

Yet, like the machine itself, upon inspection the quality and weight shine through.

Gonna look forward to a nice traditional carbonara for dinner tomorrow!


Be glad to hear of any recommendations for the other accessories they do...