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There is nothing better than homemade pasta

2024. 02. 26.

Why is homemade pasta better?

When you stand in the kitchen and immerse yourself in the art of making pasta, you are actually doing much more than just make food. The benefits of homemade pasta go far beyond putting a fresh and tasty dish on the table..

#1 Check ingredients

Homemade pasta allows you to have complete control over the ingredients. Not only does this mean you can avoid the additives and preservatives often found in store-bought versions, but it also means you can customize the taste, whether it's for special dietary needs or simply your preferred taste..

#2 Texture and freshness

The texture and freshness of homemade pasta is incomparable to store-bought versions. The texture of the homemade dough can be perfectly controlled: it can be thinner, thicker, looser. Thanks to this, each dish can be exactly the way you want it.

#3 Meditative activity

Making pasta gives you the opportunity to relax and really give yourself over to the joy of cooking. With its help, you can create real value in the kitchen by abstracting from everyday stress.

Ingredients for the dough

Like bread, pasta is made from the simplest ingredients. Sometimes only flour and water are added, but eggs are usually used instead of liquid in home-made pasta.

The basic ingredients: wheat flour, eggs and salt. However, it does not matter what the raw materials and proportions are. In the case of wheat flour, for example, its quality, texture or the amount of gluten in it can be decisive. The egg is also very important: if it is made from a beautiful, yellow egg, it can significantly increase the quality of the finished dough.

As a general rule, they believe that 1 egg should always be added to 100 grams of flour.

The basics of rolling dough

If you want to get really perfect pasta in texture, you have to pay attention to 5 things:

• wooden work surface (the FoglioChef silicon pastry mat can also be a practical solution)
• rolling pin
• patience
• practice
• strength.

The result is worth all the effort.

Tips for making hand-rolled dough

1. When choosing a rolling pin, take into account what you are making dough for and what shape you want to roll out the dough. For example, a slightly bent rolling pin may be a good choice for circular dough.
2. Once you've kneaded the dough into a perfect ball, start rolling in the middle and work your way outwards.
3. If you want to avoid the mistake of the dough sticking to the rolling pin, flouring requires constant attention: spread a little flour both on the work surface and on the rolling pin.

Of course, you can't just extend the dough by hand. If you want to speed up and make the process easier, you can also use a pasta maker. Chef Aliza Green recommends the following if you use a machine to make pasta:

1. If you want to make pasta with machine, make dough with a denser consistency. The reason for this is simple: if the dough is dense, the machine can make much thinner sheets of dough.
2. Cut the front of the extended dough sheet straight so that it is easier to insert it into the pasta machine.

The secret of the perfect pasta therefore lies not only in the quality of the raw materials, but also in the steps of the making process.

Variety in the kitchen

It is important to take into account that the preparation of each type of pasta requires unique techniques and practices, which are worth experimenting with if you want to create a perfect ingredient.

Ravioli, for example, requires special care in the preparation of the filling and the perfect closing of the dough. The various mold sets can help you make ravioli quickly and hygienically.

For spaghetti and other long types of pasta, precise extending and cutting techniques are key. Special pasta cutting tools can help with this. In the case of spaghetti, for example, it is important that the pasta strands have the same thickness and length so that they soften uniformly during cooking.

For the journey

The joy of variety and experimentation offered by preparing different types of pasta at home creates the opportunity to customize your meals according to your personal taste. We hope that learning these practices will help you.

If you are interested in the world of baking and cooking, then pay attention to our page, where you can not only find great kitchen tools, but also read exciting articles!

P.S.: At the end of this post, what is the first thing that comes to your mind about pasta? :)