Making pasta at home doesn’t need to be hard. Learn how to make artisan pasta at home in a fun and easy way with the pasta starter set.
The art of pasta-making is a time-honored tradition. The chemistry and creativity can bring you together with your family as a fun pre-dinner activity, or it can be a solo activity that introduces freshness to your menu.
As a culinary novice, I found making pasta to be intimidating, not knowing where to begin or what to purchase. The Pasta Starter Set is perfect for the beginner pasta chef. The set comes complete with Marcato’s Original World-Famous Atlas 150 Pasta Machine, a pasta cutter, a hand crank, a clamp, complete instructions, and The Ultimate Pasta Machine Cookbook by Lucy Vaserfirer. The veteran cookbook author and cooking-school instructor Vaserfirer has assembled a vast collection of recipes for pastas and sauces in her first-class cookbook, along with terminology and tips for success.
It can be as simple as you want and as challenging as you dare. Creating pasta from scratch can be as easy as mixing flour, water, and eggs or you can get more complex with your ingredients by adding vegetables and spices. The options are limitless, and you control the appearance and taste. Making your own pasta is an exercise of creativity in the kitchen. Colored pastas can be mixed and cooked for visual appeal, and shape can be personalized depending on the sauce recipe. As with any new skill, practice makes perfect, and your results will improve the more you get a feel for the dough consistency and techniques. So sink your hands in! It’s as fun as playing with dough as a child, but with a delectable outcome.
Additionally, I gain peace of mind knowing I’m using healthier flours, eggs produced by my chickens, organic vegetables, and fresh ingredients to create sustenance at home. Skipping the dry store-bought products also means eliminating the preservatives and additives that come with them. It’s one more way to improve the wholesome nutrition I provide for myself and my family.
I was surprised to learn dry grocery-store pasta isn’t the result of dehydrating fresh pasta, and it isn’t something stale either. The ingredients used in both fresh and dry pastas are unique and result in two different products. Dry pasta is made without eggs and can be stored at room temperature, whereas fresh pasta contains eggs and more water and requires refrigeration. Of course, you can find fresh pasta in stores to purchase ready-made, but you’ll pay a premium for it. Fresh isn’t intended to be served al dente, however, so both types of pasta will have their place in your meal planning. The rough texture of dry pasta will allow flavors to adhere, while homemade fresh pasta will have an improved texture and will absorb more sauce. Where store-bought dry pasta tends to be sticky, fresh will cook more evenly and in less time. When you make your own at home, it’ll be more tender, thicker, smoother, and full of character, and it’ll improve meals accompanying creamy or dairy-based sauces. Fresh is also an excellent choice when serving traditional Bolognese sauce because of the milk content in the tomato base. In the end, it’s a matter of preference. Many recipes benefit from using fresh pasta while others are successful with dry.
Learning to make your own pasta will introduce a variety of delicious options that aren’t available in stores. You can’t beat the selection of recipes in The Ultimate Pasta Machine Cookbook; there’s something to please everyone in those pages. You’ll learn the basics of using several types of pasta machines to include a pasta extruder, a pasta sheeter, and a cavatelli maker (these can be manual or electric). A pasta extruder is similar to a meat grinder, without a blade, and it uses pressure to force dough through a variety of dies, creating shapes such as spaghetti, bucatini, macaroni, rigatoni, and fusilli. A cavatelli maker creates traditional hot-dog-bun-shaped pasta with ridged impressions on one side. The machine grabs the dough, folds it, and cuts it to correct lengths in one quick stroke.
You can create lasagna, fettuccine, and tagliolini using a sheeter machine (included in The Pasta Starter Set). It easily replaces the difficult-to-master technique of producing thin pasta by hand using a rolling pin. The hand-crank machine will roll the dough multiple times, until you achieve the desired thickness, and then cut the pasta. An adjustment dial controls the thickness and produces evenly rolled dough. There are 10 thickness settings, from paper-thin 0.6 millimeters to 4.8 millimeters. A motor can provide power to the machine. (This can be purchased separately.) Twelve machine accessories are available for additional purchase to modify the shape of your fresh pasta. Pasta results will have consistent texture, taste, and cook times. The chrome-plated steel machine cleans easily with a dry brush or cloth after each use and comes with a 10-year manufacturer’s warranty.
All sorts of purées can be transformed into flavored pastas. Make noodles using beets, sweet potatoes, corn, tomatoes, or spinach and flavored with herbs and spices to satisfy every unique desire. If you aren’t in the mood for savory, go sweet and create chocolate pasta for a surprising treat. Mix and sample the expansive selection of ideas for months with over 100 recipes for pastas and sauces in the cookbook. It even includes recipes for fillings used to stuff homemade ravioli and tortellini. Educational sidebars will enlighten you on various bits of technical information involved, including hydration percentage, Italian flour terminology, pasta-making tool explanations, and a guide to selecting the best ingredients. The recipe book also contains a section on pantry and fridge staples for pasta cooks, so you can set up your kitchen for success. This set will expand your recipe options, allowing you to create a multitude of pasta shapes and flavors.
Using this set is simple. Pick a pasta that works with your machine, decide on a dough recipe, and choose a shape. After that, it’s time to work with your hands, creating and shaping. Cook your edible sculptures to taste and flavor with myriad sauce options. Voilà! Your friends and family are sure to enjoy your delicious artistic results.
