I love anything home made! I get immense satisfaction from making something from scratch. However, any ‘help’ I can get in the way of an appliance makes the experience much better. In December Dave and I got a Kitchen Aid Mixer for Christmas and for my birthday I got this attachment:
© kitchen aid pasta attachment
Everything from Kitchen Aid is easy to attach. It is a simple matter of removing the protective cover off the motor, inserting the drive and tightening the screw. Once that is done it is A for AWAY. All you have to do is make the pasta dough (recipe to follow). The dough is then put through the rollers with the motor at a speed you can cope with – not too fast however. This needs to be done several times on the thickest roller setting until the dough has developed its gluten properly and is nicely shaped and perfectly shiny. Once you have achieved this, put the dough the decreasing roller sizes until you get the thickness you desire – not too thin for ravioli and as thin as possible for spaghetti. I leave my spaghetti to dry on a stand before cooking it. The great thing about home made pasta is that you can make it any flavour / colour you desire, it takes only 3 minutes to cook in boiling, salted water, and it tastes superior to any shop bought product.
© pasta nero
PASTA NERO – HOME MADE PASTA
ingredients:
200g pasta 00 flour
2 whole eggs
pinch of salt
2 sachet’s squid ink
flour for dusting
method:
you can do this by hand, or in a food processor or in the Kitchen Aid!
bring together all the ingredients until a dough is formed
knead on a floured surface for 5 minutes
you need to make sure the dough is not too wet – add flour if it is
or too dry – I add an egg yolk, but you can add water – trust your instinct here
wrap in clingfilm and place in the fridge for 30 minutes
divide into two and roll through the pasta machine
this is enough pasta for 2 people
I am submitting this recipe to Presto Pasta Nights, which is being hosted this week by Gay, A Scientist in the Kitchen
Tandy
