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How to Make Tubular Pasta with a Pasta Maker
Making your own pasta is not just a money-saving proposition, but also allows you to experiment and create pasta specifically to your taste. You can add ingredients like spinach or tomatoes to your pasta recipe or add and subtract eggs. Using different types of flour will yield pastas of varying textures. Pasta machines come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Some are electric and some hand-cranked, but the basic principle to making tubular pasta is the same: extruding the dough through a die that forms the rigatoni, zitti, penne or other tubular pasta. Add this to my Recipe Box.
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Instructions
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Prepare the pasta dough. Many recipes are available online or in books. One way to vary the dough is through your selection of flour. You can stick with traditional semolina flour or try buckwheat, barley or whole-wheat flours. The dough should be neither too wet nor too dry. If it's granular and whitish, it's too dry; add a teaspoon of water and mix it again. If the dough sticks to your fingers, it's too wet; add some more flour to the mixture.
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Place the dough in the pasta maker, following the manufacturer's directions. You want to avoid overloading the pasta maker.
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Attach the cutting die for the tubular pasta to the extrusion port of the pasta maker. Most will screw on in a clockwise direction.
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Turn the pasta maker on if it is an electric model, or start to crank if it is a hand-powered model.
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Catch the pasta as it exits the extrusion die. If the dough is not extruding easily, it is either too wet or too dry. Amend the dough mixture and try again.
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Cut the tubes to a comfortable length for handling -- 2 or 3 feet -- and lay them on a cutting board. Cut the pasta into lengths customary for the type of tubular pasta you are making or as you prefer.
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Tips & Warnings
Wash your pasta machine and the extrusion die immediately after use.
References
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