Home made pasta

[mumofjust1]

I'd really like to try making home made pasta - any tips?

Never done it before, do I have to have a machine? How difficult is it?

Thanks :)

I don't have any advice, I just wanted to say I think you are very brave :)

Please let us know how it goes :)

If you have Four On Demand, look for Simply Italian. she shows how to make and hand roll pasta including simple shapes and coloured pastas.

A brill little show.

Basically, one portion of pasta is 100 grams of flour and one egg. knead, roll out, cut, and boil.

She also shows some great sauces etc and what the best shapes for sauces are

it's very time consuming and messy but easy to do and sooooo satisfying

you can roll it out using a rolling pin, but i like gadgets and love my machine

DH bought me a pasta machine for my birthday. (I was desperate for one!) the bastard thing is now shunned to the top cupboard where I swear to god, it looks down and laughs at me!

I have found making pasta really challenging. I don't know how all the TV people make it look so easy. My machine just wanted to eat the pasta dough! I'm a pretty good cook (IMO) and we cook every day (yes there are fish fingers, potato stuff and beans in the house for emergencies!) but pasta is my nemesis! I've tried a few hints, tips, ideas etc and get the roller thing out to try again every few months or so but nothing as yet!

Please let me know how it works for you!!!
GOOD LUCK!

I love making pasta! I have a machine now but used to just roll it out by hand, though tbh that was only really good for lasagna/things like parpadelle because I could never get it as thin as I wanted for e.g. ravioli.

Tips:

1. As above use 1 egg for every 100g of flour. If it seems a little dry add a tiny bit of olive oil/water. Add S&P/paprika/whatever you like to the flour for seasoning.
2. Use a HUGE amount of flour for the rolling out/cutting stages of the process. Your pasta will almost certainly be covered in it when it goes into the water, but that doesn't matter.
3. If rolling by hand, when you think you've got it thin enough, roll some more! It bulks up a lot as it cooks.
4. Home made pasta is much more delicious and much more filling than shop bought. You don't need a whole lot to go with it - a little pesto or tomato sauce or just herbs and olive oil go a long way.

Have fun!

You can make pasta dough in a bread machine but it's therapeutic doing it by hand. I use pasta flour which is finer than plain but Antonio Carlucchio says plain is OK. Here is a link to his recipe.

Carluccio's pasta dough recipe

I like Simply Italian on channel 4. Not that I'd try making the pasta, because while it seemed quite easy, I am constantly struck by how much space you need in the kitchen to layout fresh pasta.

I made it years ago and have to say it didn't taste any better than bought pasta, so not worth the effort.

Thanks so much!

I'm definately going to give it a go, but if I buy a pasta machine I just know it's going to end up gathering dust!

Will check out the links above and update if I have any success!

Thanks again