Making your own pasta isn’t as difficult as you think. While it isn't as convenient as cooking with store bought pasta, making your own pasta can allow you to get creative with shapes and can often be a healthier option. It’s also a great way to impress guests. Below is a simple guide on just how to make your own pasta.
What is pasta made of?
Traditionally, pasta is made from ground durum wheat, water and eggs. This is mixed to create a dough, which is then rolled and shaped. Olive oil and salt may also be added for flavoring.
It’s possible to make pasta from other ingredients. Those with gluten tolerance or those that want a healthier carb alternative can use rice flour or lentils instead of wheat. If you want a vegan option, it’s possible to trade out eggs for semolina flour.
How to make pasta dough
To make pasta dough, pour the wheat flour into a bowl or onto a board (for the purpose of this recipe, we’ll say 600g of flour). Then crack 6 eggs into the middle of the flour. After this, begin mixing the flour and eggs together to form your dough. You can do this in a blender, do it with a hand mixer or do it with your hands.
Once the dough is formed, you’ll need to knead it. This helps to form gluten strands that give the pasta its strength. The dough will start off flaky but after kneading it the dough should start to look smooth like clay. You can find guides on how to knead dough online.
Rolling and shaping the pasta
When it comes to rolling and shaping pasta, the best solution is often to use a pasta maker machine. Such machines can help roll pasta to the right thickness as well as shape pasta in some cases (such as forming spaghetti noodles).
Of course, you don’t have to use a pasta maker. Using a rolling pin and cutting tools you can create the shapes you need. Lasagna noodles are the simplest to make by hand and are a great option to start with - check out this recipe for lasagna with homemade noodles. Tagliatelle is also very easy to make by hand. The likes of spaghetti could be a bit more fiddly, and of course more intricate pasta shapes are even more challenging. An advantage of shaping pasta without a pasta maker is that you can get creative with whatever shapes you fancy. Just try to keep them even so that you can cook them all together to the right consistency.
Useful tips for DIY pasta
There are a few tips that could help when making your own pasta:
After kneading the pasta dough, consider leaving it for an hour before shaping it. This should make it smoother and easier to work with.
When making ravioli, you’ll want the pasta to be thinner. Ideally, it should be thin enough so that when you place it on a book you can just about see the words through it.
If you prepare too much pasta, don’t worry - fresh pasta can be stored in a freezer to be cooked at a later date.
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