not so successful

[aryanhwy]

So, when people make home-made pasta on TV, it's not as easy as it looks. At least, I'm now convinced that you do need a pasta machine to make it, because you're not going to be able to roll it thin enough by hand.

It was an interesting experiment, but I think for now I will stick with store-bought pasta!

Comments

[jpgsawyer.livejournal.com]

Depends on the pasta you want. I am not convinced that Lasagna pasta needs to be made in a machine but it does help. The trick is to roll out a small amount at a time and to roll that out.

Egg and flour never failed me when I was making pasta regularly. I should get back to it again as I do like a good home made pasta.... and I loved doing it but only when in company and with a glass of good red wine.

(Why didn't I think of my machine when I couldn't make lasgana due to
a lack of pasta last time.....)

Still I agree shop bought pasta is pretty good.

[aryanhwy.livejournal.com]

Egg and flour was what I tried; 9 oz flour, 3 egg yolks, 1 egg, 2 T olive oil, and the recipe said "add a little water if you need it". I hate instructions like that because it never tells you how to recognize when you need it, or how much "a little" is. I think I ended up adding 6 or 7 tablespoons, one tablespoon at a time.

If I try this again in the future (and sucker that I am, I'm sure I will), I'll try your suggestion of rolling out only a little bit at a time. I also think that if I had my marble rolling pin here, instead of just my wooden one, that would probably also help.

[jpgsawyer.livejournal.com]

Hmm I found something like 100g of flour and one egg worked every time. You want to look for an elastic doe with a slight shine on the outside but it should be quite dry too.

Don't add oil or anything else... a little (ie less than a teaspoon) if it won't go together but that should be it.

Then take a small amount at a time and roll it out! This should make enough lasagna (which can be cut into tagliatelli) for two people.

[s10clee.livejournal.com]

you could just roll it to the thickness you want the width to be and then slice it the width to the thickness you want. In other words think 90 degree roll....

[aryanhwy.livejournal.com]

That would involve being able to cut things with precision...with me and knives, I'm pretty confident that I can roll something out thinner than I could cut it! :)

[mariedeblois.livejournal.com]

I'm there with you. I've only done it once or twice, but it was rather easier with a machine and a second person (unless you're Cthulhu or Krishna and have some extra hands).

[(Anonymous)]

I'm not sure how you cut your pasta, but when Grandma Rose made noodles, she would roll it out thin, and then fold it up so she had a roll of dough to cut. She could get pretty fine "Sunday" noodles that way.

Mom