Friday, January 14, 2011

Making Pasta

I make my own pasta. This is how I do it:

To make two pounds of pasta I put 3/4 cups of wheat flour and 3 1/4 cups of white flour together on my (washed) counter in a pile. I then make a large well in the center and crack six eggs in it.
Mix it all together with a clean fork. If it's too dry, I add a little water.
Knead it until it is smooth. I seperate my dough into several balls and knead them individually because I think it works better and then it's already sectioned off when it comes time to roll it.
I put all the dough in the gallon size Ziploc bag that I intend to store my dried pasta in. Make sure to get as much air out of the bag as possible. It dries out fairly quickly.
Let it rest for 20 minutes. I use an Imperia pasta roller to roll it and cut it.
If you don't have a pasta roller, you just need to roll your dough on a floured surface with a rolling pin and then cut it with a knife. The trick is to get the dough thin enough. We're talking paper thin here.

I flatten one of the balls a bit with my hands. (Keep the other balls of dough covered tightly in the bag.) I put some flour on it to keep it from sticking to the roller and roll on the biggest setting. I make sure there is enough flour on the dough and roll it through again. I only roll it on every other setting to save time and it works fine. I usually cut the sheet of pasta at some point during the rolling because it gets longer than I like to work with.

When it's all rolled out to the thinnest setting I run it through the alfredo or spaghetti attachment.

I boil half of it for three or four minutes. Fresh pasta takes less time to cook than store bought dried pasta.

The other half I hang to dry like this:
until I get - or make - something like this:
Hey, if we're dreaming...or this:

The last one actually reminds me of the Ikea towel rack That might work really well to hang in my pantry. It would fold up neat and tidy when I'm not using and no one would even know I was drying pasta in my pantry. It would be my little secret...

I need your help. I am looking for a really good marinara/spaghetti sauce recipe from any of you. I will hopefully have lots and lots of tomatoes this summer from my garden and would love to make my own sauce. The problem is that I have yet to find a homemade sauce my family likes. I'm calling for all recipes from far and wide. I'll try them all until I find the one we are looking for!

6 comments:

  1. Both Johnathan & I are picky spaghetti sauce people. Neither of us liked it when we got married, until we tried this recipe. Now I bottle my own each year and we love it! This recipe sounds harder than it is. I can bring you a jar at Presidents day if you'd like! Or you can adjust the recipe down to try. Good Luck!

    Spaghetti Sauce
    40 cups peeled, cut up tomatoes
    7 onions, chopped
    2 large green peppers
    4 cloves garlic
    2 tsp. pepper
    5 bay leaves
    3 TBL italian seasoning
    2 TBL salt
    2 tsp garlic powder
    3 TBL oregano
    2 tsp basil
    1 cup sugar
    1 gallon tomato paste
    2 cans tomato soup
    4 pkgs. dry spaghetti mix

    Place in blender first 4 ingredients. Put in large kettle, add seasonings. Bring to a boil, turn to low and boil for 1 hour.
    Add tomato paste, soup & spaghetti mix.
    Simmer 1 hour. Put in bottles. Wipe rim and add lid. Cold pack 30 minutes.

    Yield: 24-30 pint size jars

    NOTES: 1 gallon paste 11-12 large cans (12 oz)
    1 bucket tomatoes (14" tall) = abt 30 cups pureed tomatoes

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  2. Thank you Jana! I love the "bucket" measurements. That would be great if you could bring some so I could try it! I just want to be able to make my own!

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  3. I am remembering that in the Wallsburg cookbook there is a recipe for Spaghetti sauce from Mavis Hortin that is good. (I can't get it to let me post with my name so I will be anonymous instead of Becky)

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  4. Oh,thanks. I'll look there. Maybe the Tridell book would have one too. Good idea!

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  5. Hey Karen,

    Here is the link to my homemade tomato sauce: http://backyardfarming.blogspot.com/2008/07/homemade-tomato-sauce.html

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  6. I actually remember seeing this post now. Thanks for the reminder. :)

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