How Does a Pasta Maker Work?

Whether your home pasta maker is a shiny Italian model or a more humble domestic machine, it probably works like the wringers on your great-grandmother's manual laundry machine. Dough is shaped into a roll as long as the rollers are wide and fed through one side into a set of rollers that flatten and cut it into strips, shapes or a flat sheet for specific types of pasta. Blade cartridges that can be inserted into the rollers to make different shapes of pasta are made for each machine. Most cutters are designed for long, strand or ribbon-shaped pasta like linguine and lasagna, but cutters for ravioli and other stuffed pasta shapes are also available. Tubular or shaped pasta like penne, manicotti or fusilli is made using extruding machines that press the dough through a form and then cut. Although extrusion machines are available, most home machines are the roller type, suitable for making flat strands or shapes for stuffed pasta.

Making your own pasta is a creative endeavor. Thomas Jefferson brought the first pasta-making machine to America and then invented his own machine to make macaroni (to which he added cheese for the first official American "comfort food"). If you're using a plain roller machine without specialized cutting inserts, you can form almost any shape using a hand cutter or knives. Make lasagna noodles by cutting long, wide strips and stretching the edges until they curl a bit as they dry. Other long or strand pasta can be cut to size with knives. Ravioli, tortellini and other stuffed pasta is cut, stuffed, topped and sealed with a wheel that presses the edges together or a press. Whatever shape you're making, remember that you need space to dry your fresh pasta. Hang strands on dowels and set stuffed pasta on wax paper, turning as it dries for a day or two if not using it immediately. Refrigerate or freeze any pasta that you aren't using within a day or two. Remember that fresh pasta takes less time to cook.

All machine dough requires eggs and flour. Italians and Americans use semolina, made from durham wheat, and some northern Europeans use potato flour or other grains. Asian countries use rice, soy or wheat flour, depending on their agricultural practice. Japanese "soba," the quick-cooking noodles popular in lunchrooms everywhere, are made with buckwheat. Transparent noodles, popular throughout Asia, are made with soybean flour in Thailand and rice flour in China. The eggs are added to the flour by making a "nest" and pouring beaten eggs into the depression and mixing, bringing flour up into the eggs from the side until the dough can be kneaded by hand. Many recipes include olive oil. Flavor and color are added by using vegetable juice: carrot (orange), tomato or beets (red), and spinach (green). Black pasta is made with squid ink. Whatever ingredients are used, the dough should be kneaded by hand until it is satiny and elastic enough to pass through the rollers easily.

Resources

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