In the last post I said I was drying the pasta to store. Well I did dry it, but then froze it in zip-lock bags. Reason for doing this is that I discovered a bag of lasagne sheets I made and dried only 1 month ago and they had gone mouldy! Not wishing to lose the whole big batch I'd just made, so into the freezer they went (in a basket at the top so I can SEE them!). They should keep for up to 2 months in there, although I should imagine we will be able to get through it OK before then.
Does anyone dry their pasta with a dehydrator?
Showing posts with label Pasta. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pasta. Show all posts
Friday, March 8, 2013
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Mega pasta making session
With a surplus of eggs in the fridge and more coming on a daily basis, there was only one thing to do.....make pasta! Usually I make fresh pasta and then we eat it on the same day, but obviously we weren't intending to eat this much pasta in one sitting so that left only 2 choices - freeze or dry. I have frozen fresh pasta in the past, but it usually seems to get forgotten about in the freezer. Recently I tried drying some pasta and this appears to work well, plus I am constantly reminded of its presence when I open up the pantry!
So this is the pasta in a semi-dried state, I've left it out all day and will probably leave it overnight just to be sure it is thoroughly dry before bagging up in zip-lock bags.
Some recipes for pasta include semolina, and sometimes water too, but I find that just plain eggs and flour (high grade) works fine. My ratio is usually 1 egg to 100g flour, but since my hens produce slightly smaller eggs than the 'norm' I increased this by 1 egg over 400g flour (in other words 5 little eggs/400g). But it's easy to tell if there's not enough egg to flour ratio as the mixture will not form into a dough without enough moisture i.e. egg. Clear as mud? I hope so.
Anyhow, I've used up close to a dozen eggs here and now have all this delicious pasta at hand. It was relatively quick to make and roll, obviously the drying time and having racks of pasta about the place is a tad inconvenient unless you have a huge bench in your kitchen (I do not, so use the tops of my chest freezers as well as the kitchen table). I also started off hand cutting the pasta but quickly resorted to using the fettucine cutter on my machine - SO much quicker and easier than peeling apart your hand-cut pasta. Do you make your own pasta? and if so what's your preference for type - I haven't got past fettucine and lasagne sheets, although would like to give ravioli a go sometime.
So this is the pasta in a semi-dried state, I've left it out all day and will probably leave it overnight just to be sure it is thoroughly dry before bagging up in zip-lock bags.
Some recipes for pasta include semolina, and sometimes water too, but I find that just plain eggs and flour (high grade) works fine. My ratio is usually 1 egg to 100g flour, but since my hens produce slightly smaller eggs than the 'norm' I increased this by 1 egg over 400g flour (in other words 5 little eggs/400g). But it's easy to tell if there's not enough egg to flour ratio as the mixture will not form into a dough without enough moisture i.e. egg. Clear as mud? I hope so.
Anyhow, I've used up close to a dozen eggs here and now have all this delicious pasta at hand. It was relatively quick to make and roll, obviously the drying time and having racks of pasta about the place is a tad inconvenient unless you have a huge bench in your kitchen (I do not, so use the tops of my chest freezers as well as the kitchen table). I also started off hand cutting the pasta but quickly resorted to using the fettucine cutter on my machine - SO much quicker and easier than peeling apart your hand-cut pasta. Do you make your own pasta? and if so what's your preference for type - I haven't got past fettucine and lasagne sheets, although would like to give ravioli a go sometime.
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