Ok i'm in Richmond visiting my girlfriend and we decided to make homemade pasta. It's pretty easy. Requires semolina flour, eggs, oil and water. We made some delicious pasta and ravioli with goat cheese and vodka sauce. Was so delicious. Can anyone else share thier experiences in making homemade pasta?

4/13/2008 12:46:00 AM

We would roll our own pasta at the seaboard. We would use half semolina and half all purpose flour. A big plus is having a decent pasta roller, with a edge that cuts it as it comes out. Tasty stuff.

4/13/2008 12:56:19 AM

^yeah. we didn't have a pasta machine, so we just rolled it with a roller, then rolled it up and cut it with a knife. I wonder how hard it is to dry it out and cook it later.

4/13/2008 1:07:51 AM

Make it sorta dry. Then go ahead and portion it out, and put it in the freezer. then when you want to just drop it in boiling water. ready to go.

4/13/2008 1:11:05 AM

Does it really taste that much different than store bought pasta?

4/13/2008 1:21:40 AM

Oh yeah. Fresh pasta is delicious.

4/13/2008 1:48:04 AM

^^AHA, I feel you.

And no.

It's fucking pasta. There's a difference between fresh and otherwise with all things.

But pasta?

That's minute, and that's the point.

4/13/2008 2:17:09 AM

hahaha you're kidding right? Go to any italian chef, hell go to italy (i guess you could say northern italy more so), and they'll tell you there's a big difference between straight up fresh pasta and dried/re-cooked pasta. I've been reading up on stuff you can add to the flour mix, and many things require fresh pasta rather than dried pasta. For example you can add sun dried tomatoes, or other vegtables to the mix and it HAS to be fresh pasta to taste good. Drying out the mix would completely ruin it. The key to delicious pasta is how fresh it is, and dried/re-cooked pasta is something cooks look down upon. First thing an authentic Italian place says is "fresh pasta served daily" to insure that you're getting the real thing, and it's very easy to tell the difference.

-oh and i forgot to mention the biggest difference. fresh pasta has EGGS IN IT! So it tastes different compared to dried pasta which just has flour/water/salt. Plus you can do so much more with fresh pasta because you can add whatever you want and not worry about the ingredients drying out. I guess this all depends on what you put in your pasta though. If you're doing straight up plain pasta the only taste difference will be the eggs/versus no eggs, but if you get creative and add stuff to the pasta mix then fresh will usually work out better.

[Edited on April 13, 2008 at 2:47 AM. Reason : .]

4/13/2008 2:27:23 AM

^^
wow, come one -- fresh pasta is better than "store bought" pasta

almost to the same degree that fresh herbs are better than dried herbs

idk, perhaps you overcook all your pasta, and that's why you think they're mostly the same

because when cooked correctly (fresh pasta, of course, taking less time,) you can definitely tell a difference

and fresh is sooooo much better (imho)



think about it this way

you can buy pasta at food dog or big lots for practically nothing, boil it, done

or

you can get bread flour and/or semolina, eggs, oil, salt, and start mixing, like thousands of old ladies do daily

then working the dough, getting flour everywhere, relaxing the dough, perhaps cooking some beets, or carrots to add

then portioning it, keeping it from drying out, either rolling it out by hand or using a hand-cranked pasta machine (I've got 2)

then cutting it, or shaping it, or running it through the hand-cranked noodle machine attachment

then portioning the noodles for drying or freezing, then boiling the rest, then done

iow

why the hell would one (myself included,) go through all that trouble if dime-a-dozen store bought pasta is mostly the same?

because it's not

Quote :

"Requires semolina flour, eggs, oil and water"

I sometimes mix some bread flour with the semolina, because 100% semolina dough can be tricky to work with

Quote :

"fresh pasta has EGGS IN IT!"

not all fresh pasta contains eggs, but eggs make the dough easier to work with and the pasta taste better

if you're up for the challenge, make some eggless (vegan) whole wheat noodles (you'll need some bread flour in it)


oh and

homemade gnocchi is good too

4/13/2008 9:33:24 AM

jesus, i like the passion...fresh ftw

4/13/2008 9:37:14 AM

i need to do this. my life revolves around food (real food, not junk), but i have never done this.

however, i want to make whole wheat pasta, not white flour pasta. maybe i will make it with white flour the first time, but if i get into this, i want to do whole wheat.

i should check out the technique on the net.

4/13/2008 11:26:00 AM

retard (chill/rest) the dough before working with it (it freezes well)

you don't want to overdevelop the gluten

work in batches

if at first you don't succeed, try again

etc.


oh and,

I was gonna keep quiet about this until I open a restaurant and try it on the menu, but here it is

make some pasta with half semolina, half rye flour and a bunch of coarsely ground caraway seeds

serve it with corned beef, sauerkraut, swiss cheese sauce, BOOM! REUBEN PASTA FTW!

[Edited on April 13, 2008 at 11:37 AM. Reason : ]

4/13/2008 11:36:55 AM

I love homemade spinach pasta, and I was really surprised by how easy it was to make. I posted the recipe in the dinner recipe thread in the lounge.

Quote :

"homemade gnocchi is good too"

mmmmmm, so good

4/13/2008 12:09:41 PM

Quote :

"I was gonna keep quiet about this until I open a restaurant and try it on the menu, but here it is make some pasta with half semolina, half rye flour and a bunch of coarsely ground caraway seeds serve it with corned beef, sauerkraut, swiss cheese sauce, BOOM! REUBEN PASTA FTW! "

that is a damn good idea!

4/13/2008 12:25:19 PM

Wow yeah i'm gonna have to try that reuben idea. One of my favorite sandwiches anyway.

Quote :

"I sometimes mix some bread flour with the semolina, because 100% semolina dough can be tricky to work with"

Yeah i forgot to mention we mixed some bread flour into it too. One of the first times we did it we used 100% semolina and it was harder to work with.

Quote :

"then portioning it, keeping it from drying out, either rolling it out by hand or using a hand-cranked pasta machine (I've got 2)"

Yeah i have one of these at my apartment in Raleigh, it works wonders:



But we didn't have it last night so we rolled and cut it by hand, which worked well too.

Whole wheat pasta is delicious too. I'll have to try it without the eggs sometime. So i guess you just use more oil/water to take the place of the eggs?

[Edited on April 13, 2008 at 2:25 PM. Reason : .]

4/13/2008 2:24:36 PM

so how much bread flour do you add to make it easier to work with?
I dont know if making pasta is like baking in that things have to be exact or if we're going for like "a handful"

4/13/2008 2:29:55 PM

well i'm sure 392 could tell you better, but if you just throw everything on the table and work the dough out until it's a good consistancy it should work fine. It's not exactly the same as baking because baking involves the process of rising and all that. With pasta you're just cooking what's already there. I guess you wanna usually use 50/50 semolina/bread flour, but you can try more semilina flour and mess around with proportations.

4/13/2008 2:36:08 PM

Quote :

"i need to do this. my life revolves around food (real food, not junk), but i have never done this. "

you oughta come be one of my roommates when i get stationed back at Cherry Point, NC.

i'll cut you a deal on rent if you cook.

i also won't cut off your hands if you say something i don't like.

[Edited on April 13, 2008 at 2:51 PM. Reason : haha, OEP11 living in a house with 2 Marines and my visiting baby daughter...it'd be like a sitcom]

4/13/2008 2:51:04 PM

^^
yeah, increase mostly the water, but also a little extra oil

^^^
anywhere from 100% semolina with 0% bread flour to 100% bread flour with 0% semolina works

that just changes the nature of the dough (crumbly doughs require patience and practice)

what's important with pasta is the water/egg content and gluten development -- not as many variables as bread

4/13/2008 2:58:47 PM

Fresh pasta > Dried Pasta

4/13/2008 8:41:23 PM

a lot of the grocery stores carry fresh pasta if you don't have time to make it. Fresh is definitely better than dry.

4/14/2008 11:35:32 AM

It's just so damn satisfying after you go through it all to make the pasta.

I'm having trouble finding fresh pasta recipes online that actually involve infusing stuff into the pasta. My pasta maker came with a recipe book but it's in Charlotte, and i remember it having various recipes which involved working stuff into the actual dough and then cooking it. I guess basically seasoned or flavored pasta. I even remember seeing a recipee for pasta with bits of cocoa or chocolate in it and my favorite; with bits of sundried tomato in it.

[Edited on April 14, 2008 at 3:55 PM. Reason : .]

4/14/2008 3:53:29 PM

try the following singly or in combination:

oregano
basil
parsley
rosemary
(above four fresh or dried, nice either way)
(mixture of above four would be nice)
sundried tomatoes
salmon
fresh/dried mushrooms (NOT canned)
olives
pesto
chilli peppers
bell peppers
cumin
eggplant
cilantro

etc

4/14/2008 4:32:54 PM

This thread inspired me to make some homemade pasta last night. I found a simple recipe (eggs, flour, salt, oil) and made it. I learned a few things:
1. Make sure you have a rolling pin. If you try to roll with a glass, you won't get it thin enough.
2. Thick pasta is TOO chewy.

That being said, it's pretty easy, and I can imagine it would taste good if you made it right. I have a question, though: what are the advantages of using semolina flour?

4/15/2008 9:12:13 AM

commercial pasta is made with semolina.

semolina comes from durum wheat, which is a hard wheat, as opposed to regular wheat flour, which is made from soft wheat.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semolina

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durum_wheat

Quote :

"Durum is the hardest of all wheats. Its high protein content and gluten strength make durum good for pasta and bread. It is not, however, good for cakes, which are made from soft wheat to prevent toughness."

[Edited on April 15, 2008 at 9:33 AM. Reason : ]

4/15/2008 9:32:04 AM