Pasta machine Rice, Pasta and Vegetables Discuss Pasta machine in the Brick Oven Cooking forums; I also have an older Atlas. I use my cordless drill to drive it, mostly in homage to Tim "the ...

[christo]

I also have an older Atlas. I use my cordless drill to drive it, mostly in homage to Tim "the toolman" Taylor and to irritate my wife.

Homemade pasta night is always a good night.

Christo

[dmun]

when rolling your pasta through the middle thicknesses of your machine, pinch the ends of your sheet together to make a complete loop (like a belt sander) and use your free hand to keep it aligned while you continue to crank. Saves from having to reload the machine each time.

What a great idea! I'm going to try that when I get the machine out again.

[ThisOldGarageNJ]

I use my cordless drill to drive it, mostly in homage to Tim "the toolman" Taylor

hey christo, I find that funny because I've used my cordless to power whatever hand crank devices I have..... Now they all have the handles cut off so I can attach easily... Glad to know Im not the only Rube Goldberg/Tim the tool man

Mark

[egalecki]

Hey, which bit do you use for the drill? I did see a motor for the old girl, but a drill would be kinda fun...

[Stan]

I know this is a late response, but I wanted to chime in.

Your recipe is too wet. As previously mentioned, make pasta by the etto (100 grams of flour). In fact, you'll have even better luck making pasta by the egg. Simply use a handful of flour per egg, and then stir the eggs and a pinch of salt until the egg takes all the flour it needs to form a sticky dough.

Then, clear the excess flour and start kneading. There's really no better way to do this than by hand. The warmth from your hands helps loosen the dough. As you knead, keep incorporating flour until it's no longer sticky. It takes a while, but eventually the dough will stop sticking. It will be stiffer than pizza dough by an order of magnitude, but not so stiff that it's unworkable.

Knead until the dough takes on a soft, satiny sheen. It can take 10 minutes. It can take 20 minutes. Just keep going. After the dough gets that soft sheen, cover it and let it rest around 30 minutes.

After the rest, use your roller. Since you've already kneaded, you won't need to knead Just use a little bench flour to keep it from sticking, and roll through the casters to your desired thickness.

Regarding dough stiffness... The pastas I've seen made in places like Bologna and Modena are not stiff when kneaded; they're supple. These pastas are rolled with a long rolling pin (materello) and not pasta machines. I used to make my dough with a recipe, and it was quite stiff. After I learned to roll pasta in Emilia Romagna, I moved to the concept of letting the eggs dictate the recipe. All you need for soft, supple, extensible pasta dough are the best eggs you can find, AP flour, and a pinch of salt. It's the hand kneading that makes all the difference.

Stan

[GianniFocaccia]

Stan,

Thanks for sharing. I'm going to try the egg-centric method. I have always placed my barely kneaded pasta dough in the refrigerator to rest and end up with a silky smooth, relaxed dough that I then knead as much flour into as needed. Looking forward to seeing the results of the room-temp rest.

John

[Pdiff]

Originally Posted by GianniFocaccia

Stan,

Thanks for sharing. I'm going to try the egg-centric method. I have always placed my barely kneaded pasta dough in the refrigerator to rest and end up with a silky smooth, relaxed dough that I then knead as much flour into as needed. Looking forward to seeing the results of the room-temp rest.

John

Room temp resting is the way to go. I think it is similar to autolyse in bread making ... the gluten develops and the dough relaxes.

I only use the main sheet roller on my machine anymore. I used to use the linguine/spaghetti and ravioli attachments, but they were more hassle than help. Now I simply roll up the floured sheets and chiffonade for string noodles or layout sheets and hand make ravioli. Much less cleanup ;-) . The large sheets, down to setting 6, make great lasagna too.

Pdiff

[GianniFocaccia]

Gratzi, Pdiff! I hear a lasagne calling my name...

[Pdiff]

Originally Posted by GianniFocaccia

Gratzi, Pdiff! I hear a lasagne calling my name...

Then let it call a little louder :-) This is my fav recipe. Lots of thin layers. I believe this is in his Molto Italiano book too.

Mario Batali's Lasagna

The Rouxbe.com site is great too.

Pdiff

[GianniFocaccia]

Ooohhhh, I like this! The spinach pasta looks excellent!