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You are here: Home / cooks' tools / Pasta Making In 2009 101

Pasta Making In 2009 101

March 22, 2009 By Laura 17 Comments

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Introducing my new favorite appliance, the Kitchen Aid pasta roller.

I’ve had this since last Mother’s Day but have been waiting for the new kitchen to try it (what? You think I should have been able to find noodle drying space with no counters, 2 toddlers and 3 dogs?). I actually did not originally want it for noodles–I wanted it because I saw these crackers that Susan over at Wild Yeast made with one. Wow. I am terrible at rolling dough evenly and thin–what a revelation.

But before using it for crackers, I wanted to try it with pasta.

I am planning to try to make my grandma’s Beef and Noodles recipe soon for my Grandma’s Recipes event and homemade noodles are a must for that recipe. Grandma of course hand rolled and cut them–and was justifiably proud of her consistently thin egg noodles. So proud that I bet she would have rolled her eyes at using a roller. But I am not so proud (or good at rolling dough!) and so I settled for handcutting them after rolling them for Grandma’s handcut noodle look.

I also made a spaghetti that the kids requested. The handcut noodles went into the freezer pre-drying and we had the spaghetti for lunch. I tossed them in garlic sauteed in extra virgin olive oil and peas, and they were excellent. I can hardly wait to try more unusual pastas–and Susan’s cracker recipe.

The dough starts out dry and crumbly, as you can see.

After squeezing and kneading it forms a ball. Unlike handmade pasta, this is not intensely kneaded–the roller does it for you. You place the dough through the thickest setting (see photos below), several times, folding it inbetween.


Ta Da! Now you can either leave as is for lasagne, hand cut or shape, or put it through the roller for fettucini or spaghetti.

(Thanks to my mom for helping me get over the hump and actually use the machine and also for holding the pasta while I photographed it).
Basic Egg Pasta Dough
 
Print
Closely adapted from the Kitchenaid pasta roller attachment manual.
Author: TheSpicedLife
Ingredients
  • 4 large eggs
  • 1 tablespoon water
  • 3½ cups (440 g) AP flour (whisk to break up lumps before measuring)
  • ½ t salt
Instructions
  1. Place eggs, water, flour, and salt in mixer bowl.
  2. Using the flat beater, mix for 30 seconds on speed 2.
  3. Switch to the dough hook, and knead for 2 minutes also on speed 2.
  4. Dump the dough onto a clean surface, as shown above. Use your (clean!) hands to bring the crumbly dough together and knead for 1-2 minutes, during which time the dough will come together in a ball.
  5. Let the dough ball rest for 20 minutes.
  6. Divide dough into 4 pieces before running through the pasta roller.
3.4.3177

Filed Under: cooks' tools, misc, pasta Tagged With: D.I.Y., homemade pasta, kitchenaid attachment, noodles, pasta, pasta roller

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Comments

  1. noble pig says

    March 22, 2009 at 11:20 pm

    My pasta roller is still in the box..I need to GET IT OUT.

    Reply
  2. Elyse says

    March 23, 2009 at 1:36 am

    Pasta rolling seems like so much fun! Glad you finally got a chance to play with your new toy!

    Reply
  3. Jackie @ PhamFatale.com says

    March 23, 2009 at 2:20 am

    @Cathy from NoblePig: I’m with you. My Kitchenaid attachments are still in the box since I got married (almost 5 years!) Thanks Laura for sharing, it gives me motivation to make my own pasta.

    Reply
  4. Springtime says

    March 23, 2009 at 5:37 am

    I want one too!!!

    The pasta looks delicious, and it looks such fun making it!

    I think I may ask for one for my birthday…

    Reply
  5. Nina Timm says

    March 23, 2009 at 6:13 am

    There are few things as rewarding as making your own pasta….well done!!!

    Reply
  6. Susan/Wild Yeast says

    March 23, 2009 at 9:50 am

    I love my pasta roller! Can’t wait to see the crackers.

    Reply
  7. Brittany (He Cooks She Cooks) says

    March 23, 2009 at 1:13 pm

    I need one of those. A friend gave us an old electric one that ended up not working the other day…We found this out after I had made the pasta dough, so I spent the next hour trying to roll the stuff out myself. Not as easy as pie dough, I’ll tell you that much. I rolled and rolled, but our noodles still came out too thick. Oh well. Guess we should invest in this KitchenAid…

    Reply
  8. Brittany says

    March 23, 2009 at 1:15 pm

    Oh, and how do you like being part of Foodbuzz? I haven’t decided whether we should join or not.

    Reply
  9. Laura says

    March 23, 2009 at 1:24 pm

    Brittany: I’ll tell you the very notion fo trying to roll out pasta dough makes me shudder! I cannot emphasize how easy this was–my mom had the old KA attachment and it did not work very well. This was astounding. And no I am not being paid by KA. 😉

    Re: Food Buzz, at the risk of outing myself as a total idiot I don’t think I understand how to use it completely effectively. But if it gives me even enough money to say pick up a brand new cookbook instead of a sale/used one, that will make it worth it to me. I am still figuring out the site itself.

    Reply
  10. Grace says

    March 23, 2009 at 2:59 pm

    kudos, kudos, and kudos to you! pasta-making is something i’ve never attempted. awesome results, laura!

    Reply
  11. HoneyB says

    March 23, 2009 at 3:47 pm

    How cool is that! Now I need to get me a pasta maker. lol.

    Reply
  12. Amy says

    March 23, 2009 at 9:47 pm

    Looks like fun!

    Reply
  13. vincent says

    March 24, 2009 at 2:34 pm

    Hello,

    We bumped into your blog and we really liked it – great recipes YUM!!! YUM!!!.
    We would like to add it to the Petitchef.com.

    We would be delighted if you could add your blog to Petitchef so that our users can, as us,
    enjoy your recipes.

    Petitchef is a french based Cooking recipes Portal. Several hundred Blogs are already members
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    To add your site to the Petitchef family you can use http://en.petitchef.com/?obj=front&action=site_ajout_form or just go to Petitchef.com and click on "Add your site"

    Best regards,

    Vincent
    petitchef.com

    Reply
  14. Vicci says

    March 24, 2009 at 8:39 pm

    Laura,
    Now that you’ve mastered the “plain” pasta, you can really wow people and make striped pasta from both plain and spinach doughs. 🙂

    It is seriously fun. Let me know if you want the (really simple) directions. It looks best for stuffed pastas like ravioli. I cut it into 3″ x 2″ rectangles, placed a dab of ricotta filling in the center, rolled it into a tube, then twisted each end– pasta “candy”!!! Looked great with a white sauce at Christmas.

    Reply
  15. Robin Sue says

    March 25, 2009 at 8:49 am

    Great post! Love homemade pasta- it is the best!

    Reply
  16. Kristen says

    March 25, 2009 at 10:28 pm

    I am terribly jealous – I’ve been wavering back and forth on the pasta attachment for years. I love homemade pasta!

    Reply
  17. Jessica604 says

    March 26, 2009 at 12:26 pm

    I love my pasta roller! …well, I love pasta period, but after having fresh pasta (chicken noodle with FRESH noodles, fresh ravioli, fresh noodle snippets in soup), I am finding it hard to go back to packaged pasta.

    My boyfriend actually laughed at me when he saw me stock up on *gulp* Michelina’s one afternoon (they were supercheap!).

    Reply

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Hi! I’m Laura and I am a recovering history major who has re-channeled all of my passion for learning about the history of different countries to learning about their food culture. That doesn’t mean every dish on here is strictly authentic, but it does mean that even my adaptations are not undertaken lightly. My goal is to show you–by doing–that these dishes are possible in your kitchen. Including desserts because I have quite the sweet tooth! Read More…

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