pasta machines

[Ellendra]

Salt does increase the boiling temperature of water, but it was probably the drying that made the difference.

[Odsox]

I just made some poppadoms with my pasta machine .. and very nice they were too

[Rosendula]

Mmm... poppadoms

I made some egg noodles last night and they came out perfect, so I think in the future it will be egg pasta for us. Very nice it is, too

[Jay Bee]

I bought mine quite cheaply in Aldi about 13 months ago - and it hasn't even seen the light of day "yet" as I work myself up to making my own pasta.

I was in a cook shop (Lawsons) last week and saw some things for making ravioli (ie little rolling pin and shapes) then glanced sideways to the pasta machine of the same make....... Flippin eck! It was over £80 and if I had that much then I am sure I would buy it and of course use it <whistles>. That did lots of different shapes along with the normal long thin stuff. I am really trying to get motivated into having a go. I have seen video instructions on you tube which might be useful for beginners.

[red]

I just made some poppadoms with my pasta machine .. and very nice they were too

ohhhh sounds good.. recipe? please?

[Odsox]

I just made some poppadoms with my pasta machine .. and very nice they were too

ohhhh sounds good.. recipe? please?

Dead easy if you can find the right flour.
I got some gram flour from my local wholefood shop which I believe is made from cooked chickpeas.

Just take a small quantity of flour, say 2 - 4 oz
add a pinch or two of salt.
slowly add water to make a stiff dough.
leave to rest for a while and then roll out as thin as you can ... I got down to 2 on the pasta machine.
Then fry in hot oil as usual, it takes a bit longer to fry than commercial ones because they are not dried, but still only about 10 seconds.

They are not as brittle-crisp as bought ones, more like biscuit crisp, but have a wonderful rich flavour ... plus of course when you want a change you can add any flavourings you fancy.
I believe you can also make them from lentil flour which I was going to grind myself until I saw the gram flour.

I also bought some rice flour as well, so next weekend I am going to try making prawn crackers.

[janemiss]

Glad the pastas getting better Rosendula, like i said ive had loads of failures! same with pizza bases from scratch, some days they are perfect & other days they cant even be cut with a chainsaw I think a really good pasta flour helps as well, the stuff from the supermarket sometimes gives good results but i found that one i bought from the local health food stall in the local food hall worked better. Trial & error like everything i suppose

[red]

Dead easy if you can find the right flour.
.

excellent thanks for that - I always have gram flour in stock - I make courgette bhajis and mullagatawny soup using it...

[ocailleagh]

Woo! How timely, I just got a pasta machine last month from a charity shop-£7 with spaghetti and tagliatelle attachment and a few utensils, tongs and whatnot, and completely unused-but have yet to use it-partly because of lack of room in my kitchen (I actually have stockpots with more room in them), partly because of unpleasant memories of a similar ravioli machine-which was nightmareish-and partly because I'm unsure of which flour to use. Would strong bread flour be ok? I've seen pasta flour and durum wheat flour around, but they're always white flour, and I'd much prefer wholemeal. When I buy pasta, I tend to buy the multigrain, low wheat, high protein types..could I attempt something similar myself with a blend of flours (eg gram flour, cornmeal, rice flour etc), or will I run into trouble?
And, how easy is it to make, say, spinach pasta? The only recipe that came with was for plain egg pasta, which I used to make all the time by hand...who knew pasta could be so confusing :-p

Oh, and poppadoms, great plan!! I've always wanted to make my own but I've never been able to find lentil flour, I shall try it with gram :-)
Here's a tip for the readymade type though...instead of deepfrying, which can be unhealthy and uses a large amount of oil, try grilling them. Pop under a hot, hot grill, watch like a hawk, and keep turning them over. They cook just as well and are wonderfully greasefree :-)

[Ovalina]

Absolutely love home-made pasta and used to painstakingly make ravioli by hand - christ its hard work rolling it out thin enough isnt it?

Won an imperia a few weeks back on ebay, with all the cutters - I'm so chuffed!

Courgette bhajis (?) sorry about the spelling, might try them when mine grow up, (courgettes that is) I make onion regularly