Pasta the second

[kaberett]

... happened earlier this week! Via the medium of improvising the recipe somewhat (I decided to make twice as much as last time, i.e. 500g of flour, but then there was only 50g remaining in the bag and it seemed pointless to leave it there...) I reckon I ended up overworking the dough somewhat, so it was less tasty than last time, but I looked at how it was behaving, worked out what was wrong, trusted my gut, and fixed it. So that felt pretty good.

(The recipe I am cribbing off is of course the Guardian's How to make the perfect..., minus the semolina because I haven't got any in and I'm a little dubious about the textural effects.)

This time I made fettucine as recommended by the instruction manual for the machine, instead of getting distracted, and while the dough was easier to handle through those cutters on thickness 6 we think we'd probably rather make it one narrower and therefore a little less stodgy. I used half of the dough on this, and hung half of that up to dry.

The other half I wrapped in clingfilm and dumped in the fridge, to see what would happen. I took it out a bit early the next day to warm up a little; I subsequently made Rather More Interesting tortellini than the previous batch, having got A to bring home spinach in addition to ricotta, and cooked that up with garlic and nutmeg. Half of them we ate; half of them I froze on a baking sheet and then transferred to a tub to be Future Food. (Hurrah that the solution to "I can't brain food, let's just do some filled pasta" is now not "buy filled pasta from a supermarket", which my paranoid student-finance hindbrain finds Very Difficult, but "get the actually nicer home-made stuff out of the freezer which as a bonus doesn't involve interacting with people".)

Skill acquisition:

• First time around, I definitely needed about three hands to manage anything at all, and A got roped in a lot. This time around I'd got the hang of flouring the pasta adequately that I could fold it on top of the attachment and not need to handle it much while feeding it through, and not having it pleat as badly during said process. All-in-all much faster and smoother and less flustering, go me. I was at some points handling sheets of pasta as long as I am tall. It mostly didn't go horribly wrong. I am pretty impressed with myself.
  
• Getting the hang of tortellini! Turns out that (a) I want to roll them up even more than that, and (b) I really do need to make the proto-tortellini sheets slightly on the narrow and rectangular side of square. On the upside, one standard tub of ricotta and one slightly-large bag of spinach is a good quantity.

So that's eight meals for (2x4) out of 500g pasta flour (60p) and ~6 eggs (~£1), and next time I will try to get the quantity of eggs closer to correct. I am pretty pleased.

In conclusion, the pasta machine gets to stay.

Comments

[angelofthenorth]

Oooh that sounds like tasty possibilities...

[pseudomonas]

Have you tried making pasta without the machine? (I lack one, and my kitchen does not want more Stuff)

[kaberett]

I have not; I gather the difficulty is rolling it out thin and even enough, and having sufficient space for the sheet you're working with. For tortellini, my machine apparently ends up with the pasta at 0.8mm thickness.

I have seen a variety of "and you have to roll the pasta out like THIS" pages, but have not actually delved particularly into any of them.

Would be fascinated to read about your adventures!

[sporky_rat]

Yes, making food when you have the extra ability for when you don't is a gift to future!Kab.
It usually is to future!Sporky.

[kaberett]

(Ate future food tonight, after getting back from Cornwall. Was good.)

[sporky_rat]

Hurrah for past!Kab making things good for now!Kab!

[alatefeline]

Nom nom! I am now tempted to attempt to pasta.

Though the whole 'gluten free', 'doesn't own a pasta machine', and 'not a very skilled cook' things may interfere. But the idea of frozen homemade filled pasta as a mealternative for no-brain days sounds excellent.

Thanks for sharing. :)

[kaberett]

The friend who tempted me into getting a pasta machine routinely makes it gluten-free for their partner; I have requested their recipe. <3

(They seem to show up for ~£15 in charity shops around here, but that's not necessarily of much use to you...)

[alatefeline]

Awwww <3

Actually, that is helpful, it's a reminder that I *can* check places like a thrift store if I decide I want to get one (and find room in the kitchen, tbh)...

Thanks!

[kaberett]

Friend sez:

hello yes! I use whatever commercial gf white flour blend I have, usually dove's farm, with a heaped teaspoon of xantham gum. roughly 1 egg to every 100 grams flour, with extra yolks if it's too dry. I usually add a lil splash of olive oil as well which is Not Canon but I find it helps make it smoother/less sticky. it's not perfect and falls apart if you put it through a machine past setting 5, so makes quite a thick pasta, but pretty decent for something made with easy supermarket ingredients :-)
oh and salt ofc

The thing with small kitchens IS, I think, that I'm actually really appreciating having lots of work-surface to wrangle it with much more than the actual space taken up by the machine is a problem. MMV, especially if you have a large-ish dining table, though!