I am a difficult person to buy a Christmas gift, that I will admit. As you all know I am not into consumerism, and only buy practical, long lasting items that will help us on our sustainable journey. It must be either organic, fair trade, ethical, second hand or renewable or just damn useful. So it makes it really hard for others to buy for me.
Well I am happy to say that Kim’s present ticked the boxes this year (as always). She bought me a pasta machine which is a great addition to our kitchen. I love fresh pasta, and if made with local ingredients even better.
So today, we made spaghetti! Here is me and my father with the pasta machine testing it out.
The recipe was extremely simple.
Place 250gms of white flour and 250gm wholemeal flour (local) in a bowl, make a well and crack in 5 eggs (home grown). Mix with a fork until most of the moisture is absorbed them kneed with your hands. The dough should not stick to your hands, and should be even in consistency. This took about 5 minutes.
Once the dough was nice a firm, I cut off a small piece and ran it through the machine as per the instructions to clean off any excess oil, which I threw away.
Then we cut off a third of the dough, and ran it thought the machine on no. 1. We ran it though at this setting 5 times, adding a little flour each time, then folding the pasta in half, and back through again. It becomes very pliable.
Then we ran it thought once on no. 2 setting, then once on no. 3 setting. It was about 3mm thick and about 90 cm long. Just right for lasagne, but we didn’t rest on our laurels.
The manual suggested that we cut the sheets into 25cm lengths, but from trial and error we chose to make them about 45cm or about 15 inches. Then we swapped the handle over to the spaghetti cutter and run a sheet through it.
It took two of us to make it work. We got better at it as we progressed, and ended up with some very nice spaghetti. We found the first run of 25cm too short.
Kim and Norma (Dad’s partner) sat at the kitchen table, pulling the strands apart and laying them on a tea towel to dry. However, this is where we came unstuck. We put too much on top each other and only the top dried sufficiently to be used in dinner.
The spaghetti that did dry cooked to perfection. I bought about 6 litres of salted water to the boil, threw in the pasta for 3 minutes, and it was done. I served it with a home made Bolognase sauce which has the following home grown ingredients in it, onions, garlic, basil, oregano, and zucchini.
Everyone said that it was the best and freshest pasta they had ever tasted, and I commented that it was a true family affair. What other food do you know that could bring everyone into the kitchen to help out?
Tomorrow, I will grab an old broom handle out of the shed, sand it down and then oil it with olive oil. I will use this as a drying rack between two chairs and hang the fresh pasta over the pole. This way it should all dry evenly and be just right.
What a great present! Thanks Love x.
We use an old wooden drying rack (the kind one uses for clothes). It has been oiled and allows us to make quite a bit of pasta at a time. Lasagna sheets, linguine, and ravioli….
very cool, ive got one ive had for a few years, use it heaps. partner made me a tree recently for drying but before that i just wedged a wooden spoon under the microwave to sling the pasta over. my recipe is 1 cup of flour and 1 egg, i mix it up in the breadmaker, add a bit of water as it goes to get right consistency(plenty for 2 people). also use round fluted cookie cutter to make ravioli. very very easy, cheap, and damn useful!. oh yeah if you run a few slices of stale/or fresh bread thru the spag cutter and leave to dry it makes nice breadcrumbs
Like T/H/M I also use an old clothes airer to dry our noodles. I’ve had this airer for ‘yonks’, since my kids were babes. (the eldest being born 58 years ago) I cover the rails with some old sheeting as the wood is cracked. I find the sheeting makes it easier to move the pasta both while wet(to separate it and to gather it into the bins) Pick up both ends of the sheet, lower one end and slide the dried pasta into the container. This way I find that an overnight drying time is sufficient. Dont forget, if using this method to place an old bed sheet on the floor,under the airer, to catch any that break off during the drying.
Homemade pasta is the BEST.
don’t forget to let the dough rest for an hour or so before rolling out, if it dries a little, use a little olive oil… and it doesn’t need to be dry before cooking…
Just my humble thoughts to a very clever Guy !
I found an electric pasta machine many many years ago at a yard sale. I never used it since I was always working,but now that I am retired and reading of so many others trying new things, I may hunt my machine up and give it a try.I’ll try Brendie’s recipe. That sounds easy enough.
Isn’t making pasta a fun activity. I, too, use a clothes drying rack to dry the pasta. It’s really hard to buy the prepackaged stuff once you have mastered homemade!
Merry Christmas and I agree that this gift was perfect. On my list of things I would like to achieve this coming year. You make it sound quite simple and fun. Cheers, Wendy
Wonderful! She’s a keeper, that Kim of yours!! And isn’t your Dad a handsome man too…
If I could come up with a good Gluten Free recipe for home made pasta, I would have a manual pasta machine in a flash!
My sister gave me her pasta machine years ago. I don’t know what she was thinking, her loss, my gain.
I love fresh made pasta. I never truly realised how bad the store bought stuff was til I started making my own.
I’ll be expecting a flood of pasta recipes in the near future 😉
Hi Gav – How long will spaghetti keep for if you make it and dry it yourself?
Just curious, because a spaghetti machine is something I’ve thought about getting.
Nothing better than home made pasta! We all adore it. So many possibilities of shapes and sizes.
Excellent present I say.
Hi Gavin, I bought a clothes airer from a garage sale, gave it a clean up and I have the one with the plastic coating, easy to oil and wipe down. I hang all my pasta on this to dry, you can get a heck of a lot of spaghetti to dry on one airer.
Love making my own pasta, just need more hours in the day…lol!
Enjoy the making and the eating.
Millie xx
I just leave the sheets of pasta laid out on the bench to dty turning over once. Then just before I want to start cooking I either put them through the cutters on the machine or more likely roll them up and just cut really thick pasta. I also much prefer pasta made with muscovy eggs than chicken eggs.
What a fantastic response. Thanks!
I have read all your comments and love all of the tips and tricks you have provided me. It certainly helped when I made ravioli on Wednesday. Much more successful and I dare say I will get much better with practice.
Now that I have listed making pasta as one of my goals for 2011, I will have lots to say about this simple to make food this year. Stay tuned!
As for Leanne’s question about how long spaghetti will keep for, at this stage I am not sure, but will let you know after a little more research.
Gav x
This is a handy post for me Gavin.
I got one of these for my birthday recently and haven’t used it yet. This post has me inspired now, I have two clothes drying racks to use so I will give it a try.
Thanks for the recipe…