Sarah Harris
Author Archives: Sarah Harris
Sarah Harris is a passionate artisan pasta maker, dedicated to the art of creating handcrafted pasta that delights the senses and transports you to the heart of Italy. With a deep-rooted love for culinary traditions and an unwavering commitment to quality, Sarah has turned her passion for pasta into a lifelong pursuit.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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!
Making pasta is a precise art. Well, it’s one of those culinary skills that many people want to practice from the comfort of their home kitchens or wish they could; but never really get the opportunity to because:
(1) they might not know how to go about it,
(2) they may not have the right tools for it…. in this case, a pasta maker, and lastly,
(3) they may not have the time. Continue reading
When preparing pasta, it is only ideal that you maintain the Italian style. In this article, we have compiled 10 of the best and complete Italian pasta recipes, from, of course, Italy. Included as well are major techniques you should know in order to prepare a delicious meal. In case you aren’t privy with the trick to preparing authentic spaghetti carbonara, read on and you might become an expert today! Continue reading
Laab moo, or spicy pork salad, is a spicy issan favourite. Popular all over Thailand, it is usually eaten with sticky rice or other issan favourites such as som tam.
Although called a salad, there isn’t much “green” stuff in it. In this recipe I have used minced pork, but you could use minced chicken or beef.
This recipe is supposed to be spicy, so don’t be shy with the chillies!
Step 1: Heat a pan, and pour in the rice. Keep stirring the rice around the pan until it takes on a light brown colour
Step 2: Slice the spring onion and red onion
Step 3: Remove the chilli storks, and make a vertical incision in each chilli
Step 4: Crush the roasted rice – if you have a mortar and pestle, perfect! If not, a hammer will do the job
Step 5: Sieve the rice so that only the finest granules make it into the dish
Step 6: Heat a pan, and pour in the minced pork. Stir thoroughly until the pork has cooked, but be sure not to over cook it. It should have a white-grey colour. When it’s nearly cooked, add the stock granules.
Step 7: Pour the cooked pork into a bowel, and add the chillies, red onions, spring onions, mint, and parsley. Mix Throroughly
Step 8: Now add the crushed roasted rice, crushed chillies, lime juice, and fish sauce, and mix together. It’s ready to serve
Som Tam is a spicy Thai salad made from papaya. The papaya should be unripened and white inside. The dish combines 4 tastes – spice from the chillie, sweetness from the sugar, salt from the fish sauce, and sour from the lime.
This spicy papaya salad is a great snack, or side dish. Again its very healthy and meat free. Its usual in thailand for the customer to choose and add the ingredients themselves to suit their tastes, so why not play around the type and quantity of ingredients listed below until you find your ideal combination.
This dish is very quick to prepare, although it can be tricky finding the raw papaya.
Step 1: Peel the skin off the papaya, then wash thoroughly. Now grate the papaya
Step 2: Chop the tomatoes and garlic, and add to a large bowl (or mortar and pestle if you have one) Then slice the chillies length ways to open them up. Add to the bowl
Step 3: Slice and crush the green beans and add to the bowl
Step 4: Now add the shredded papaya, fish sauce, crushed peanuts, lemon juice and sugar. Mix everything together thoroughly
Step 5: If you dont have a mortar and pestle, use a spoon to mix everything, and make sure you crush the chillis to get the spice released. Do the same with all the ingredients.
Step 6: Once everything has been thoroughly mixed, you can serve and eat.
Thai chilli paste stir fry with seafood mix is a very hot and spicy dish. The lime leaves and lemon juice work together to give it a distinctly sour tang. In this recipe we have used a seafood mix, but you can also use pork, chicken, beef, or tofu.
Best served with Thai jasmine rice, this is a great recipe for those who like spicy stir fries with sharp flavours.
As with most Thai recipes, the ingredients below can be adjusted depending on your tastes – particularly when it comes to the amount of chillies added.
Step 1: Cut the green string beans. Tear the storks off the baby egg plant and young egg plant, and was them thoroughly.
Step 2: Chop the young egg plant into quarters. Slice the peppers.
Step 3: Remove the chilli storks, and cut them open as shown in video. Wash the peppers.
Step 4: Put 2 teaspoons of vegetable oil into a wok or pan, and set your cooker to a high heat. When the wok is hot, put in 2 tablespoons of chilli paste. Mix the vegetable oil and chilli paste together. When the paste is sizzling, put in the seafood mix and stir contents together.
Step 5: Once the seafood mix has been coated with the chilli paste, pour in the chopped peppers, chopped young egg plant, chopped green string beans, baby eggplant, whole chillies, and lime leaves. Mix everything in the pan together, keep stirring thoroughly. Once mixed, lower the heat.
Step 6: Use a fish slice to squash the chillies in the pan to really release their spicy flavour into the pan.
Step 7: Now add 1 tablespoon of fish sauce, and 1/2 tablespoon of lemon juice. Keep stirring. By now the ingredients should have been cooking for about 5 – 10 minutes on a high heat, and a further 5 minutes on a lower heat. Once everything is cooked, serve, ideally with Thai jasmine rice.
Thai Egg Plant
Seafood Mix
Thai Chilli Stir Fry With Seafood Chopped Ingredients
Thai Chilli Stir Fry With Seafood In Pan
This spicy stir fry recipe is common throughout Thailand. Bulked with rice and topped with a fried egg, it is a delicious tasting, cheap, easy to prepare and filling meal.
Spicy and meaty, pretty much every visitor to Thailand is sure to have tried and enjoyed this recipe.
Usually served with minced pork, however I have used minced beef. You can also use minced chicken. The egg is optional, but I find it goes well with the dish as a whole.
Thai Holy Basil
Peel and finely chop the garlic
Thinly slice the chillies, ensuring you remove the green stork beforehand
Serve with rice and a fried egg
For the vegetables not always present as a salad or mashed, today we bring you a recipe simple and tasty that combines the fun of a sandwich with healthy and nutritious vegetables. This is a grilled vegetable pita that serving provides:
Ingredients.
Preparation.
Open pita bread in half and toast both sides on a grill, book.
In the same grill or iron hot place the sliced eggplant without skin, previously washed zucchini and slice with your skin, onion slices and drizzle with olive oil. Turn when golden brown and leave there until the other side.
Place vegetables over cubes of cheese mozzarella and when the cast carries this on one of the halves of pita bread with all the vegetables cooked on the grill. Add the tomato slices previously washed, sprinkle with oregano and basil, salt if desired and cover the sandwich the other half of the pita.
To eat.
This recipe for grilled vegetable pita is an excellent preparation and the main course is suitable for vegetarians and also, to carry on tupper while eating healthy.
It is a rich dish fiber, Vitamins and minerals and above all, full of flavor, as all the vegetables, along with olive oil and dried herbs provide an appetizing dish.
The vegetable pita also offers healthy fat derived from olive oil Antioxidants and protein resulting from the quality of the cheese. Furthermore, although in this case, the bread is white bread, vegetables reduce their absorption, reducing the glycemic index of food and offers more fullness.
A spicy, vegetable-rich dish, this is a hearty Thai Kaeng Lieng Soup with fresh sharp flavors. Ideal for a cold winters day. As with many Thai recipes, this is a very healthy low-fat meal. As such its a big hit with those watching their calorie intake. Continue reading
Thai Jungle Curry Recipe! This is a vegetable rich, spicy, soup-like curry, that resembles a broth.
In this recipe, I have used fish, but this can be substituted for chicken, pork, beef, Tofu, or can just be left with vegetables as the main ingredient. Continue reading