0

The Best Homemade Fresh Pasta Recipe for a Pasta Maker

Italians have a deep history with pasta and they have created a wide variety of pasta recipes. As a beginner, you might have a tough time selecting the right recipe to try out. Worry no more as we will prepare fresh egg pasta, a recipe that you can try out this weekend. The step by step procedure highlighted in this recipe will ensure that you amaze others with your Italian culinary skills and it takes a relatively short time to prepare.

We will be making fresh pasta from scratch and you can serve with your favorite sauce.

Ingredients

• 3 cups of flour – Our target is to get 5-6 servings, feel free to add the flour to increase your servings.

• 1 teaspoonful of salt

• 3 eggs

• Kitchen equipment required

• 1 mixing bowl

• Fork or whisk for mixing

• Baking sheet

• Pasta maker

• 1 clean non -perfumed dishtowel

• 1 cup of warm water

• 1 Dinner plate

• • A Rolling pin

Instructions on how to make the pasta

Step 1

Add salt to the flour– The flour should be in the mixing bowl. You can start by adding two and a half cups of flour into the mixing bowl.

Step 2

Add the eggs – Crack the eggs and add them into the flour. To make mixing easier, ensure that you break the eggs at the center of the flour.

Step 3

Begin mixing the eggs with the flour — You can use the whisk to mix eggs to the flour. Continue mixing until the mixture looks slurry. Do not rush while mixing the two together as you will waste your flour. Stop mixing after it forms a soft dough. Adding warm water will take care of any leftover flour in the bowl. Ensure that you still have some flour left as it will harden the flour.

Step 4

Kneading the dough — Begin kneading the pasta with your bare hands as using the whisk is ineffective. Apply some cooking oil or margarine on your hands will prevent the dough from sticking to your hands while kneading. Flatten and fold the dough till it hardens and forms a ball. Avoid trapping air bubbles as you do this.

If you suspect that you some air bubbles are trapped knead some more. Don’t worry about kneading if its your first time, you will get the hang of it. Sometimes as we add flour and it sticks to the bowl and you can a very small portion of water to get rid of this problem. If you add a lot of water your dough will become slurry again. Adding more flour will increase the number of servings one can make. A slicing knife comes in handy in letting trapped air escape and cut the dough into smaller portions.

Step 5

Let the dough cool — Place the dough in a plastic container and let it cool down. Alternatively, you can wrap it in an aluminum foil. Clean the mixing bowl after you have transferred the dough into the plastic container. Let it rest for 30 minutes and keep the container sealed.During this break, you can prepare the sauce for the freshly made pasta.

Step 6

Dividing the pasta into smaller portions — Take the dough out of the container and sprinkle some flour on it.

Some dough might be still stuck in the container. Scrape the dough from the bottom of the container using a spoon or a spatula. We are avoiding wastage of the dough and sprinkling flour dust does the trick. Place the dough on a surface and cut the dough into four smaller portions. Ensure that the smaller portions are fist -sized which are easy to roll. Apply flour on the rolling surface to prevent the dough from sticking to it.

Step 7

Rolling the dough — Your pasta machine settings should guide you on how wide you roll the dough. If you don’t have a rolling pin, can use a clean glass bottle as a substitute. Flatten the dough using a rolling pin by rolling it up and down twice and then rotate the dough so as to get a flat disk -like shape. Use the rolling pin to get control the thickness of the dough. For ease of cooking your dough shouldn’t be that thick. If your flat dough exceeds the wideness settings of the pasta maker, you can use a knife to cut the edges. Use your hands to feel the texture of the dough and ensure that it is soft.

Step 8

Thinning the pasta — Thick pasta takes a longer time to cook and is a chef’s nightmare. If you are not satisfied with the thickness of the pasta you can use the rolling pin to flatten the dough some more. Flatten it to your optimum thickness and the width of the pasta should be around 12 -inches. Each pasta cutting tool has its desirable settings and the thickness is highlighted in the instructions. Lay the dough on the pasta cutting board and cut it into two halves.

Step 9

Cutting the pasta using a pasta machine — Mount the pasta into your pasta cutting tool. Feed the pasta into the pasta machine as it cuts the dough into noodles, lasagna or spaghetti. Ensure that all pasta are of the same thickness. A basket is placed at the other end to collect the cut pasta. Repeat this procedure with each portion. Some pasta machines come with readily installed rolling pins and we can use our dough portions as they are.

Step 10

Cooking the pasta — Cook the pasta immediately. Add 2-3 cups of water to a large pot and a slight pinch of salt. Allow the water to boil and then proceed to add the pasta into the pot. Let the pasta boil for 4-5 minutes and then sieve the hot water. Others opt to dry or freeze the pasta for later use which is still a great idea.

Serve your pasta with you favorite sauce and salad. This entire process will only take an hour and is easy to follow.

Conclusion

You can add various spices to the dough and get varying flavors. Preparing pasta is easy and within no time you will have gained expertise in making your own pasta dishes. Avoid serving pasta with large chunks of meat in the sauce as they are tough to eat. Various sauce recipes are available and minced meat is your best bet when making sauce for the first time. Remember to enjoy yourself and be creative with the recipe.

0

Commercial Pasta Making Machines for your Restaurant or Factory

More restaurants today serve Italian cuisines and pasta as its demand increases. Pasta is easy to make and requires lesser time to prepare compared to other dishes. Fast food restaurants are a favorite among people looking for convenience. However, today people are shying away due to health complications brought about by fast foods. There are over 28 pasta variants which give chefs more freedom to play around with their dishes and help impress their clients with their culinary skills. Restaurant and factories process huge amounts of pasta and will be more inclined to using commercial pasta making machines. Below are the best 5 pasta making machines. Continue reading

0

How to Eat Pasta and Still Lose Weight?

While trying to lose weight many consider wheat based foods completely off-limits. The main reason why many people shy away from eating wheat based foods is that they contribute to weight gain. Pasta contains refined carbohydrates which get broken down easily thus get used up very fast and have very little nutritional value. After eating food high in refined carbohydrates one will experience a short burst of energy then you will feel sluggish and hungry again. This feeling will lead one to eat more and staying dormant. However, you can still eat pasta and still lose weight.

Eat pasta foods with a low glycemic load

Foods with low glycemic load are slower in increasing blood sugar levels. High sugar levels in the blood are dangerous as it increases the chances of one suffering from cardiovascular attacks. The human body stores sugar as fat in the body. This means that when one takes pasta with high glycemic load their weight increases rapidly plus they are at the risk of heart attacks. People who train heavily will tend to eat food high in glycemic load due to the energy required by intense physical activities. The excess sugars are converted into glucose and converted into energy needed by the body. However, if you are looking to lose weight the last thing you would want on your plate is food high in glycemic load. Many pasta diets are high in glycemic load and we should eat pasta in moderation. Here are some pasta foods with low glycemic load: Spaghetti, Noodles, Linguine, Vermicelli, Shells and Capellini.

If your workout sessions are not that rigorous, eating food with the low glycemic load will help you lose weight. The body will burn up more carbohydrates than we are consuming.

Have intense workout sessions If you find yourself eating pasta high in carbohydrates, having intense work sessions is your solution to burning the excess calories. If your job does not entail intense physical activity then you may find yourself gaining weight. Gaining weight is dangerous for your health and one has to watch their weight. Running for quite some team will burn a lot of energy. The excess sugars in your blood are quickly used and this prevents you from gaining weight. Have a timetable on when to jog and workout. Working out requires dedication and discipline which is not easy. You can look for a partner and stay true to the mission, in the long run, you will lose weight. Find a local gym if you cannot find friends to workout with and the instructor will give you the best workout routines. If you follow your routine religiously you will shed your extra weight and still enjoy pasta dishes. By cutting down your weight you are avoiding many weight -related complications. Work might be taking up a lot of time and you still can find ways to exercise. Cycling to and from might be a great way of cutting your weight. There are tons of ways how we can lose weight and stay in shape.

Dieting

Dieting is a great way of losing weight and nutritionist recommend it . Following a strict diet routine is tough since we have to restrain ourselves from eating anything and everything. While dieting we take foods that we do not normally take. Supplementing pasta with other high fiber foods helps in losing weight. Try adding vegetable into your sauces and more fruits in the salads. Many people prefer meaty sauces which contribute to gaining weight and increases the chances of one having a heart attack. Avoiding such sauces can help one lose weight. Vegetables and fruits are highly nutritious and physicians recommend that we include them in our meals. You can reduce the amount of pasta and increase vegetables in your diet. Food high in fibers helps in cutting weight and are healthy. Fiber makes you stay fuller and focused all along the day. Dieting should not translate to you starving yourself in order to cut weight. Staying hungry makes you grouchy and easily irritable, this can affect your relationship with other people. You can find many dieting tips online and you should avoid straining yourself when it comes to dieting. Creating a good dieting plan will help you stay on track and monitor your daily food intake.

Add cereals and grains to your dough Experts recommend that we add cereals and grains to our pasta. Cereals such as millet, barley, rye, corn and whole grains can be included in the flour. To avoid destroying the texture of the dough, we should have the grains milled. Cereals and grains add vital minerals to the pasta such as omega -3 fatty acids, vitamins, phosphorous and fiber. Various recipes are available on how to mix the flour together and achieve great results. Cereals are a rich source of unsaturated fats and antioxidants which play a great role in reducing cholesterol levels . Antioxidants help in reducing weight by helping the body burn excess fats in the body.

Various pasta makers will help you create delicious pasta. Cereals and grain are an excellent source of vitamins crucial for the body’s well-being. If you are not comfortable with changing your pasta, you might opt to use cereals in your soup or sauce. This ensures your diet is full of nutrients and beneficial to your weight loss journey.

Conclusion

Losing weight is frustrating especially if we do not watch what we eat. Pasta is blamed for being ineffective in reducing weight and many people will avoid eating pasta totally. However, there are low glycemic load pasta recipes that one can try and still successfully lose weight. Combining the various weight loss methods discussed above will help one in the weight loss journey. If you are worried about adding weight then you can take pasta in moderation and stay fit. Low carb diet works hand in hand with working out in helping to lose weight and avoiding lifestyle diseases. Always supplement your diet with fruits, vegetables, and cereals so as to stay fit.

0

Electric pasta maker is great for lots of dishes

Pasta makers come in different brands and types that vary in size, shape, price, functionality, and overall performance. A pasta maker can either be manual or electric; some can work both ways. Although seasoned folks prefer using manual pasta machines, electric pasta makers are quickly gaining popularity because they do (almost) everything for you especially if you’re new to making pasta. This makes electric pasta makers great for lots of pasta dishes. There’s also a slight difference between electric pasta makers and fully automatic pasta makers… but we will get to that later on as we go deeper into the topic. So what makes an electric pasta maker so special? And how do they come in handy when preparing various pasta dishes?

#1: Easy to Use — Easy Mixing, Easy Rolling, Easy Cutting

This is an advantage for both veteran home pasta makers and beginners as well. Powered by an electric motor, electric pasta machines simplify dough rolling and cutting to kindergarten play. Easy peasy lemony squeezy! Using an average electric pasta maker still requires you to mix and knead the dough manually. The electric pasta machine then helps you with the rolling and cutting. All you have to do is place your small piece of square -shaped, hand -patted, flat dough between the rollers and slowly work it through using both hands.

You can work on the dough while adjusting the thickness until you achieve the desired size of pasta. From there, you can effortlessly run the ready dough through the cutter to get the strands of pasta you want or you can push the dough out through an electric pasta extruder. As many home pasta makers will tell you, rolling the dough with a pin and cutting it to even strips is not an easy thing to do by hand.

An electric pasta maker like the Lello (2730) Pro runs on a 300 watt motor to automatically mix the dough for you (up to 3lbs in 30 minutes flat!), and also extrude the finished dough as linguine, spaghetti, maccheroni, fettuccine, lasagna, bucatini and angel hair! This gives you the opportunity to decorate your dining table with different pasta dishes every time you feel like eating pasta. Another automatic pasta machine that comes highly recommended is definitely the Phillips HR2357. Despite a similarity in mode of operation and service elivery between the Lello and the Phillips, the Phillip appears to be way ahead in terms of performance and reliability. Furthermore, the Phillips (2357) offers more pasta options such as pappardelle and tagliatelle in addition to all the options you can get with the Lello. One more thing you should probably also know about electric pasta machines with automatic mixers is that they give you the opportunity to play around with the ingredients you can include in your pasta recipes. You can go wild with herbs and veggies as much or as little as you want. The possibilities are virtually endless.

#2: Consistent Results and Reliability

Daily preparation of homemade pasta is almost an impossible feat for the average person to pull off without the help of a pasta machine. Consistency is also another major issue especially for those who are still new to making pasta from home. However, all this can be made possible by investing in a good pasta maker. Most electric pasta machines come with amazing recipes that are easy to replicate day in day out and the resulting pasta is (almost) always the same. The advantage of a well built pasta maker is that it can endure constant abuse even when used on a daily basis! And that’s without faltering in performance. Please note that many people just starting out on making pasta from home cannot produce the same quality dough even if they made two dough batches in immediate succession. However, a fully automatic pasta maker with a mixer can produce hundreds of batches of the same quality dough.

#3: Availability of Cool Accessories

Although pasta makers like the Phillips HR2357/05 come fully loaded with a mixer and an extruder to make things kindergarten easy for you, some of them like KitchenAid require you to purchase a separate stand mixer and 3 different head attachments for tagliatelle, flat -sheet pasta and linguine. However, you can avoid all this hustle by getting the KitchenAid KPEXTA extruder attachment that has 6 pasta shaping discs (plates) to help you expand the creativity on your pasta creations.

You have a choice of up to 8 pasta shaping discs (dies) for different pastas with the Phillips and the Magic Mill DeLonghi pasta makers. The Magic Mill DeLonghi pasta shaping dies give you options for linguine, ravioli, lasagna, spaghetti, tagliatelle, fettuccine, biscuit, and macaroni. The Phillips pasta maker gives you options like spaghetti, angel hair, tagliatelle, pappardelle, lasagna, and penne. It also has a small drawer where you can store all your shaping discs.

The Marcato Atlas Wellness pasta machine on the other hand is bought separately from the 2 -speed motor.

This makes it easy to replace the electric part only if it breaks down. You can also continue using the pasta machine manually as you wait for your replacement motor to be delivered! This is more of a “hybrid” pasta maker since it can deliver the best of both worlds. More accessories include cleaning brushes, measuring cups, pasta cutters, and ravioli stamps.

#4: Faster Preparation

As mentioned earlier, rolling pasta dough is not a walk in the park! You have to go a few rounds with a rolling pin to get the precise pasta thickness you’re going and this is not even guaranteed. Plus, it takes a century to cut the pasta to precision especially if you’re making a big family -size batch at once; or different batches of differently shaped pasta. Automatic electric pasta makers take a lot of the pasta making process off your hands leaving you with more time to concentrate on the sauce or soup. You can use most of these automatic pasta makers to prepare your pasta from start to finish by simply pressing a few buttons. Better yet, you can prepare a complete pasta dish from scratch in less than an hour if you know what you’re doing. For instance, the Imperial pasta maker can make up to 12 different types of pasta from a pound and a half of dough in 10 minutes.

#5: Extra Useful Features

Some pasta makers can do more than just make pasta. For instance, the Ronco Popeil P400 and the USEFUL pasta makers can be used to makes delicious sausages to go with your fresh pasta or for any other meal. As briefly pointed out earlier, the Magic Mill DeLonghi also helps you produce nicely shaped biscuits. The Imperial pasta machine mentioned above can also do pretzels, cookies, bread sticks and bagels.

Summary of Electric Pasta Makers Benefits

• *Consistent results

• *Easy to use

• *A wide variety of pasta options and shapes

• *Fast pasta preparation which saves you time

• *Versatility

• *Relatively cheap

Conclusion

To conclude this topic on electric pasta makers, it is safe to say that electric pasta machines are the perfect investment for people who want to enjoy fresh pasta rather than buy pasta stuffed full of preservatives from the store. Another thing that makes electric pasta makers such amazing gadgets is the fact that you can practically prepare any type of pasta you can think of depending on the features or functionalities or accessories available with your electric pasta maker of choice. This basically means you can mix it up or match it up whichever way you want. By this I mean you can have one “mix -crate” plate of pasta with all sorts of differently shaped pasta and in varied lengths too. The possibilities and combinations are only limited by your own creativity. These wonderful appliances make everything look and feel quite easy. Pasta experts (and sometimes keen beginners) making their own pasta from home can use these brilliant machines to make fresh pasta dishes in less than an hour. Most of these pasta makers are driven by 200 watt motors, which means they can produce batches of pasta faster than the average person doing everything by hand. Electric pasta makers are reliable and consistent when it comes to mixing dough, rolling it or cutting it to desired shapes and sizes. Get yourself a pasta maker today and change your pasta eating experience forever!