How to Extrude Dough With a Pasta Maker

Hand-crank roller pasta makers work fine for flat spaghetti and linguine, but if you want to get creative and produce more interesting pasta shapes, like macaroni and rigatoni, you need an extrusion machine. Here are a few tips to ensure that your pasta turns out right each time.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Pasta machine
• Pasta dough
• Nonstick cooking spray
• Flour

1. Choose the type of pasta you want to make and attach the die to the machine. Spray a little nonstick cooking spray on the die to make extrusion easier for the dough. Some manufacturers suggest that you soak the die in hot water mixed with 1 tsp. of oil about 30 seconds prior to placing it on the machine.
2. Place a lightly floured cookie sheet under the die end of the machine so that the pasta will have a place to land after extrusion from the machine.
3. Follow your recipe and mix your ingredients in the pasta machine, food processor or mixer. You may have to adjust the amount of liquids called for in the recipe.
4. Stop the machine and test your dough. If there are visible white flour granules, it's too dry. If it sticks to your fingers, it's too wet. If it has a crumbly, pea-sized texture void of white flour specks, it's probably just right. Dough that's too dry or too wet will have a difficult time pushing through the die.
5. Begin the extrusion process. Some machines have a hand crank and only extrude the dough, while electric models both mix and extrude. The machines that mix and extrude have two settings for the mixing arm. When you put it on the extrusion setting, the direction of the mixing arm blades pushes the dough towards the pasta die.
6. Cut off the first 6 inches of pasta extruded from the machine, stop the machine and add the pasta back to the dough.
7. Turn the machine back on and continue the extrusion process. Cut the pasta off at the desired length as it comes out of the machine, using a sharp knife. Catch it with your other hand and place it on the lightly floured cookie sheet.

Tips & Warnings

• When making spaghetti or vermicelli, you want the dough to be a little more moist than when making shaped pasta.
• Position your pasta on a lightly floured surface to dry for 15 minutes before cooking it or allow it to dry for storage. A wooden pasta drying rack is handy for drying long pasta.
• Store extra pasta in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours or place it in a freezer bag and freeze for up to a month.