If you love Italian food, you'll definitely want to try making your own pasta. Learning to make homemade pasta may take some experimentation to get the pasta dough to the best consistency and it may take several batches of dough to get it just right. Try starting off with the Basic Egg Noodle recipe in your owner's manual, because this dough is relatively easy to adjust and use.
- Good pasta dough is firm and leathery to touch, but also pliable.
- It should never stick to your fingers or crumble and fall apart.
- Many factors, such as humidity, the brand of flour used, and the size of eggs, may affect dough consistency.
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Making pasta dough in your mixer
- When making pasta dough, the paddle attachment should be used to mix the eggs, flour, salt, and water for about 30 seconds on Speed 2. The paddle will break up and incorporate the ingredients better than the dough hook.
- If the water amount is correct, the dough should stick together when pressed between fingers. If it is too dry and crumbly, add more water, 1tbps at a time.
- Next, the dough hook should be put on the mixer to knead the dough for two minutes on speed 2.
- The dough should stick together, but not be sticky to the touch. If more water is needed to get the dough to stick together, it should be added very slowly to the dough. Spritzing the water onto the dough ball is one way to incorporate the water without adding too much.
- After kneading with the mixer, pasta dough must be kneaded by hand for an additional 1-2 minutes. It can be kneaded on a counter with just a slight dusting of flour.
- The dough should be allowed to rest for 10-15 minutes before rolling – either by hand, or with the pasta roller, if you have one. Place the dough under an upside-down mixer bowl, wrapped in plastic, or in a plastic bag during the rest period to keep it from drying out.
TIP: If your pasta dough dries out while rolling or extruding, add water a little at a time. If your pasta spirals are drooping or not holding its shape, add a little bit of flour, because the dough is too wet.
