Kitchen Collection [7]

Yesterday's post was about making fresh pasta, so today's edition of Kitchen Collection will feature the pasta machine.


As I said, this manual model was a birthday present from Ken about five or six years ago (or was it longer ?). We remodeled our San Francisco kitchen and had installed a large granite-topped island. Perfect for making pie crusts and... pasta !

My first attempts were pretty feeble, but perfectly edible. Like with pie crust, practice gives you a better feel for what the dough should be like and how the machine behaves. Yesterday's dough was the best I think I've made. I suspect the reason is that I used the dough hook on the Kitchen Aid to knead the dough rather than doing it by hand. I believe the dough got a better kneading that way - I'm not so patient in the hand-kneading department and tend to stop too soon.

Also, I think that letting the dough rest in the fridge helped, too, just like I do when making a pie crust. At any rate, the dough rolled perfectly and cut easily. No sticking, no unevenness.

I read on some blogs and forums that people swear by motorized pasta machines. They say it frees up your other hand making it easier to manipulate the pasta sheets. Well, again, I say that practice reveals the best method, and I have no trouble getting into a groove with the hand-crank model. I'm really encouraged to make pasta more often !