Homemade pasta made so easy
Written: Apr 24 '04
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Pros: Great tasting homemade pasta made fast and easy
Cons: It can rust
The Bottom Line: If you love fresh pasta, or currently make pasta, and don't own a pasta machine, get one, they're great. If you haven't tried making pasta, try someone else's machine first.
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| runningdan's Full Review: Villaware Chrome Hand Crank Pasta Machine |
Have you ever tried making homemade pasta before without a pasta machine? I have... once, and I never want to do it again. Trying to roll out the stiff pasta dough with a rolling pin is nearly impossible. I'm a college student who goes to the gym almost every day, and it took me quite a while to roll the dough to an acceptable thinness. I would've liked it thinner, but I got sick of rolling. This is not the case with the Villaware pasta machine. Just make the simple dough (usually consisting of only flour, eggs or water, and salt), let the dough rest for 30 minutes (plenty of time to set the table, put water on the boil, and get the sauce warming), run the dough through the widest setting a few times, run the dough through thinner settings (going down one at a time) until you reach the desired thinness, then cut and let sit until you're ready to use them.
What this machine does well.
If you are as sick of that boring dried pasta as I am, this could be a perfect machine for you.
The pasta is truly homemade. Who really knows, or wants to know, what all those ingredients in a box of pasta are? With this pasta machine, you decide exactly what ingredients go into your dough, and which do not. The difference between homemade pasta and a box of pasta is like the difference between homemade mashed potatoes, and a box of mashed potatoes, they are both edible, but you could take an extra 15 or 20 minutes and turn a good meal into a great meal.
This machine makes pasta-making quick. Making pasta dough takes a comparable amount of time as making simple bread dough. With about 10 minutes of mixing and kneading, you will have a very nice pasta dough. Just wrap that dough in plastic wrap and let it sit for half an hour, or more, while you do whatever you want. Then, with 5 or 10 minutes, you can roll the dough to an incredible, and even, thinness. Then just toss it in some boiling, salted water. Homemade pasta cooks a lot faster than dried pasta, so start checking it after a minute or two of cooking.
This machine is incredibly easy to use. This machine is a very simple machine basically consisting of two cranks. One crank is attached to two adjustable rollers that roll out the dough, and the other is attached to the cutter that cuts the dough into even strips. Using this machine is as simple as putting the dough up to the rollers, or cutter, and turning the crank.
What this machine doesn't do well.
I have personally never had trouble with this machine, but I see how you could have trouble with it if you don't do a few simple things.
This machine is chrome coated steel, not stainless. This means that this machine can rust if you get water on it. So don't go soak this machine in your sink to clean it up. When pasta dough has been properly made and prepared, cleanup is as easy as brushing off the extra flour from the rollers.
This machine is very compact. This could make it difficult to clean, especially without using water, but as I said before, correctly prepared pasta dough will make cleaning a breeze.
How I use the pasta machine.
Here is a step by step list of how I use my pasta machine without running into any of the problems many people have had. I don't include my pasta recipe because you could easily find one that suits you better all over the internet (there is even a recipe in the instruction manual for this product). The first batch of dough you send through the machine may need to be thrown out because it will pick up all the metal shavings left on the machine when it was made.
1. Make your pasta dough by mounding up flour on a board, or your counter, I have used all purpose flour, and my pasta has turned out just fine. Make a well in the center of the mound and add your wet ingredients. Bring the flour into the wet ingredients a little at a time. When the dough comes together start kneading it for 5 or 10 minutes. When you are done the dough should be very stiff, but not at all sticky. (this can take a little practice. If it doesn't work after the first or second try, just keep on trying, you will get it eventually)
2. Ball up the dough, wrap it with plastic wrap, and let it rest on the counter for at least 30 minutes. This pasta machine makes rolling out the dough easy, but if the glutens are all tight, the dough will spring right back towards it's original shape.
3. Take about a cups worth of dough and flatten it slightly with your hands in preparation for the machine, it doesn't need to be anywhere near as flat as the rollers are going to make it, just get the dough formed about 1 inch thick, and not too wide to fit the machine. (if you used 2 cups of flour for your pasta dough, then cut the dough ball in half, and roll it out in two batches)
4. Set the rollers to the widest setting and flour them down (the flour won't really stick to the rollers, but if there is some spot that the dough would stick to, the flour should take care of it). If the dough is at all sticky, rub the outside with a little flour. Put the dough up to the rollers and turn the handle. If your dough is adequately floured, absolutely none of the dough should be left behind, and you should end up with a nice thin, long sheet of dough.
5. Fold the dough in half lengthwise, cutting the width in half, and run it through the pasta machine once. You may need to flour the pasta again before doing this.
6. Repeat this step a few times, until the pasta dough is almost as wide as the rollers. Fold the dough in half, cutting the length in half, and run it through the pasta machine. Keep the rollers on the widest setting throughout this step. If the dough starts getting sticky enough that you are worried that it might stick to the rollers, flour the outside of the dough.
7. Do not fold the dough on itself any more. Decrease the Roller separation by 1 number between each roll, roll the pasta dough through until you have reached your desired thinness.
8. Let your sheet of pasta sit in such a way that it wont get stuck to itself (this shouldn't really be a problem if your pasta dough is dry enough), and roll out the rest of your recipe in the same way as above.
9. Move the hand crank from the rollers, to the cutter that you want, and cut out the dough starting with the first one you rolled out. You may want to flour the dough and cutters carefully to ensure they don't stick.
10. Add the cut pasta to salted boiling water. The pasta will cook in a matter of minutes, so don't go anywhere, just start checking soon after you put the pasta in.
11. To clean this machine, if you did everything correctly there should be nothing stuck to the machine. If that is the case, simply brush off any excess flour and store. If you do end up having something stick to this machine, resist the temptation to use soap and water on it. Your best bet is to let the pasta dough dry out, then it should easily flake off with the assistance of a toothpick or butter knife.
Fresh pasta is just that easy.
Conclusions.
If you love the taste and texture of real pasta, and don't mind spend 20 minutes, or if you love making pasta, but don't currently own a pasta maker, then I'd recommend buying this machine. It is not terribly expensive, but is very well built, and as long as you don't use water on it, it should last for a lifetime.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 35
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Epinions.com ID:
runningdan
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Reviews written: 50
Trusted by: 3 members
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