A couple of weeks before Christmas, in 2013, my kids were at the mall Christmas shopping, and I received a text from the youngest. "If we buy you a pasta maker for your mixer, will you make us pasta?" LOL! In 2011 , the kids all went together and bought me my first Kitchen Aid Mixer, I think they realized that worked out pretty well for them, and wanted to add to their investment. :-)
I have the old 3 piece set. When I went to look at the price, 10 years later, I see they have a 3 in one! This would be SOOOO much nicer! The most time consuming part of this is switching the attachment. Unless you roll it really thin with a rolling pin, you will want to run it through the "sheet" attachment first, then through the noodle cutting attachment.
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Basic Pasta Recipe
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4 eggs
3.5 cups of flour
1Tbsp water
1 tsp salt
3 T olive oil
For the flour -it's recommended to use half semolina flour, and half regular white flour. Someday I'm going to try the Semolina, but I have only ever used plain white flour, because that is what I have on hand here.
I don't believe I've ever used a full 3T of olive oil. I drizzle it back and forth across the flour and eggs in a zig zag pattern... randomly, as I do most things. I often omit the water completely - I add that later only if needed.
And then you can add all sorts of seasonings!
Sage, thyme, parsley, cilantro, chives, rosemary, tarragon, basil, and oregano all work well. I don't typically measure when I cook, so I google the amounts recommended, for those of you who like measurements. :-) "Mix ¼ cup of finely minced herbs and 1 or 2 crushed garlic cloves in with the eggs and gradually work the four into the egg mixture."
Want to add color?
The ratio to keep in mind is 1 cups of flour to 6 T of liquid.
When adding vegetables (typically roasted and pureed) you may need to decrease the number of eggs (2 or 3 instead of 4) and skip the olive oil and water completely.
Another basic suggestion is to just two eggs, and 1.5 T olive oil. Then add 1/4 cup of one of the following:
- Basil (make a pesto without the nuts)
- Beets (use the juice, or roast and then puree)
- Spinach (cook first, or use frozen, pureed)
- Peppers (roast and puree)
- carrot juice (or roast and puree carrots)
- tomato paste
- pumpkin puree
It's impossible to have exact recipes - it will depend on how much liquid is in your additives. You can always add more flour, or another egg, as needed.. but start with a good basic pasta recipe, get a feel for the texture, and then just replicate that as much as possible when using additives.
I dump my flour on the counter, make a hole in the middle, then dump my eggs, salt, and seasoning in the middle. I do not add water right away - sometimes I don't need it. That seems to vary based on the eggs that day. Mine are probably not as consistent as store bought eggs, I have a wide variety of layers.
This side of my kitchen is so dark, for photos. Apparently when they added this "new" part of the house in the 1960s, they were not concerned with Instagram ready backgrounds.. LOL! Someday I'll redo the kitchen. Some day. [The stone from the barn is carved with the date of 1839 - we assume the original part of the house was built around the same time, but I haven't gone to the courthouse to research it thoroughly yet. It's on my to do list.]
Scramble the eggs in the center, then use your hands to work the flour into the eggs.
I have no photos of the dough being worked together, because my hands were WAY too messy to use my phones camera. :-)
After it's mixed well into a ball of dough, you are supposed to wrap it in saran wrap and let it sit for 30 minutes. This allows the gluten to do its thing.
Full disclosure, I never do this. I SHOULD. But I'm always in a rush.
Split the dough in half, or even into fourths, and roll it out into strips, using a rolling pin. Theoretically you could roll it thin and cut it using a knife. But I just roll it into a rough strip - nothing perfect, just thin enough to run through the sheet attachment on the kitchen aid.
I'm not cleaning up the crumbs for photos. Here you get the reality - I'm a farm wife, not a food blogger. And I was in a hurry to get this done before book club. LOL!
The first time you run this through, you may have holes, or jagged edges, especially if you did not let it sit for 30 minutes like you are supposed to. :-) It may be a little bumpy and rough. Don't worry. Fold it in half and run it through again - feeing the new piece in from the middle fold first. I typically run mine through 3 times in total, to get a nice smooth strip of pasta dough.
Then I switched attachments, because I have the old version, and ran it through the thicker noodle cutter, for a fettucine style noodle.
I have often just tossed this right into the pot of water and cooked it, immediately after making it. But this time I was headed to book club, so I threw it over a pasta drying rack.
I have had this rack a long time, and I have no idea where I got it. There is a similar one, and many other options, on Amazon. https://amzn.to/3L3stSM My criteria was simply that it could fold up and be put away and stored easily. A rack is NOT necessary. Put a piece of parchmant paper over the back of your kitchen chair, and you can use that instead. Or lay it flat on a silicone mat or cookie sheet.
You can completely dry it this way. OR - you can let it rest, then freeze it.
Just choose your serving size, and kind of twirl that amount into a loose "nest". Flash freeze on a cookie sheet, then place in a zip lock bag or freezer container. Do not thaw the pasta when you cook it - just plan on cooking it a bit longer than fresh pasta.
Pasta Names & Sizes:
Spaghetti: 1/16 inch
Linguine: 1/8 inch
Tagliatelle: 3/16 inch
Fettucine: 1/4 inch
Pappardelle: 1 inch
I find that fresh pasta soaks up a lot more sauce than store bought dried pasta.
I also use the same basic recipe to make ravioli
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Old Photos I'm keeping here for the memories
From 2013
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My first batch of pasta, using the KitchenAid Pasta attachment
In 2013. This original post is so old that I actually watched a Youtube Video to learn how to use the kitchen aid attachment. :-) [Ten years later, I almost never watch a video, for anything. I lack the patience for them]
Attach the roller. Turn the dial to 1. Run the dough through. The first time, sometimes the first two times, I got a crumbly strip. Fold in in half, run it through again. By the 3rd time it looks pretty good, but I did each one 4 times.
The first time through
The fourth time through (I had my son hold this one so I could get a pic)
Then move the dial to 4 or 5, and run it through a 5th time. The higher the number, the thinner the pasta.
Then attach the cutter and run it through to cut it. I originally planned to just make lasagna, but since I had this all out, and I really wanted to try it, I made noodles for lunch - Fettuccine size noodles that I tossed with melted butter and parmesan cheese, and served with a salad. It was SO good!
Pasta, tossed with butter and parmesan cheese
For the first strip of lasagna dough, that 5th time through I ran it at number 5. That seemed a little thin to me, so I ran the rest of it through at 4. Either would work I think. I added parmigiana cheese right into the dough for the lasagna too.
Lasagna Noodles
Lasagna ingredients:
Noodles
Sauce
Ricotta cheese mixed with egg, italian seasoning, parmesan cheese, and garlic
parmesan cheese
Provolone, Mozzarella, & Cheddar cheese, shredded in the food processor
Ground beef mixed with fried onions & mushrooms
Cream cheese melted and mixed with a little sauce
Italian seasoning, and garlic powder, salt & pepper
Layer noodles, ricotta mixture, sauce
noodles, hamburg mixture, sauce, cheese
noodles, cream cheese mixture, sauce, more cheese
Noodles, sauce, cheese
The noodles were too wide for two across, I trimmed them a bit.
One batch of dough, and all of the ingredients shown above, made one large lasagna pan, and one smaller pan, with just those few scraps shown here leftover. The thinner the dough (remember, I did one strip on 5, and the rest on 4) the more it would make. I often make lasagna in my crock pot roaster, this batch would make a nice deep pan of lasagna in there..
OMYGOSH....this looks sooo amazing and sounds so gooood.
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