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Posted on July 3, 2009 by Brendan Traviatti | Posted under Food & Drink
Making Homemade Pasta
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Everyone knows about pasta and that it is an original Italian creation. Even your kids know that. Do you think someone who has eaten Italian food at a fast food joint or ordered spaghetti will be discerning enough to tell the difference between quality pasta and poorly made ones? Pasta is basically made with three main ingredients: flour, water and eggs. In the pasta making industry, there are 350 kinds of pasta with different shapes and sizes. The only kind of pasta we may know of may be the kind that comes in a box and is boiled until tender. That type is called dried pasta, and is one of the two types available. The other type of pasta - fresh pasta - gives a more exquisite taste and tends to cook better. Making homemade pasta has been an Italian trandition for centuries, and most families will have their own special recipe. The process is quite the same though. You may need to have a stand mixer to combine the three basic ingredients together. If you want to make your own pasta without using a stand mixer, just pour the flour onto a flour-covered working surface. The next step would be to make a "well" in the middle of the flour heap, and add eggs onto it. Start kneading the entire thing together starting from the sides and then working your way to the center. The dough tends to be sticky and the kneading process can be quite time-consuming, but keep going until you your dough looks good. You can add flour in small increments if you feel that your dough is too wet. If it is very dry, add water. This would really depend on how you prefer your dough. Once your dough is "done," you can start to flatten it out with a rolling pin or a pasta press, working in sections. You may want to make it as thin or thick as you want depending on how you enjoy your pasta. When you are happy with the thickness, you can cut your pasta according to your desired shape. You can use a kitchen knife or pizza press to shape your pasta. Some Italians have even used meat extruders to shape their pasta. If you plan to cook your fresh pasta right away, it will only take you as little as one minute, if you made it really thin, to cook it to perfection. You will want your pasta to be cooked to an al dente which is tender in the outside but still firm in the inside when you take a bite of it. Fresh pasta does not feel heavy in the stomach, and that is one of its advantages over dried pasta. Because sauce tends to adhere better to fresh pasta, you will notice that dishes prepared with fresh pasta tend to be more flavorful than those made with dried pasta. About The Author: Brendan Traviatti loves Italian food (Doesn't everybody?) See More Restaurants Hermosa Beach Homemade Pasta This is the Homemade Pasta Restaurant in Hermosa Beach |
Tags: HOMEMADE PASTA, HOMEMADE PASTA RESTAURANT, AUTHENTIC HOMEMADE PASTA, BEACH HOMEMADE PASTA
