Making Extruded Pasta

I'll admit, I'm still a newbie at this, but I have managed to pull off a few attempts at making fresh pasta using the Pasta-Extruder Attachment attachment for my KitchenAid mixer. I have to admit, I'm not sure if it's worth the almost $200 investment, but I'd been mulling over making fresh pasta after eating so well in Italy. When a friend sent it to us as a belated wedding gift, I totally pounced on it -- how did she know what I was thinking? :)

The particular tool that I have is the extruder, not the Roller Attachment. The roller attachment seems more common and there are more how-tos online of how to use it. Since I was nervous about being able to make pasta at all, I'd considered exchanging the extruder for the roller (somehow it seemed easier) but in the end, I kept the extruder. I'm glad I did, because it makes beautiful shapes and if I want long noodles, I can always use the spaghetti attachment.

Here are the things I have learned:

• A chef friend (I won't name-drop, but he has been called "Pasta King" at a Michelin-starred restaurant) advised me that when making extruded pasta, you want the dough to be dry -- likely, drier than you think it should be
• Being dry, and using Semolina flour will prevent your dough from being gummy

INGREDIENTS

These are simple:

• Semolina Flour
• All-purpose flour or cake flour
• Eggs
• Water

Getting the proportions of these 4 ingredients right is where it gets interesting. 

Flours:

I found a 50/50 mix of Semolina and white flours was a bit gummy (though to be fair, the dough was too wet that time either). Next, I tried 2 parts Semolina and 1 part all purpose flour, and that turned out well. Start with 2-3 cups total. 

Eggs:

Here is what they say about eggs. Per 2 cups of flour:

1. A rich man will use 9 egg yolks 
2. A middle class man will use 3 whole eggs plus 1 egg yolk
3. A poor man will use 2 whole eggs

I found that a fun rule of thumb, but at the same time a lot of pastas don't use eggs at all! I went with 3 whole eggs and didn't bother with the extra yolk.

YIELD: 2 generous servings

INSTRUCTIONS

For rolled pastas, they tell you to form a mound of flour, create a divot for the eggs, etc. I just threw flours and beaten eggs into my standing mixer and let them mix until they were somewhat combined. From there, you want to add water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until the dough just barely sticks together, but not so much that you can form a nice smooth ball.

See this nice smooth ball? 

That was too wet and resulted in pasta that was extruded, but gummy and stuck to itself. No worries, that is easy enough to fix -- just add more flour.

Instead, you want something like this, where the dough will adhere to itself if you press it together, but otherwise feels dry. 

Next, cover the dough and let it rest 30 minutes. This step allows the water to soak in and allows gluten strands to form. I noticed that after resting, the dough felt wetter.

Once the dough has finished resting, cut it into walnut-sized pieces. I started with 16 sections, but ended up having to make them smaller. I would start with 24 or more -- there is no harm in having them too small, but if they are too big, they won't fit through the extruder

Next, you'll feel them through your extruder slowly, cutting at the desired length. I had the luxury of a motorized extruder, so there was no hand-cranking involved. If it is your first time and you are using the KitchenAid attachment I would recommend starting with the Large Macaroni shape.

This video is a great visual on how this process works.

Once your pasta has been extruded and cut to the desired length, I found it helpful to roll the finished product around in a bit of semolina flour. In my experience, spaghetti noodles are particular tricky. Try letting them dry for a minute or two before coiling them to store and dry further. 

Once your pasta is extruded, you can cook it immediately and boil 1-2 minutes (until it tastes done) in water that is salty enough that it is unpleasant to taste. Or you can let it dry for an hour before storing covered in a cool place. The fresh pasta will keep 2-3 days in the refrigerator. 

Here is some of the finished product:

Extruded Spaghetti

TROUBLESHOOTING AND TIPS

• If you are making tubed pasta that is sticking to itself and folding, your dough is too wet. Don't worry, just knead everything together and add some flour and try to extrude it again
• If your Kitchenaid mixer start smelling or getting too hot, give it a break and grab a glass of wine :)
• My spaghetti seemed hopelessly stuck together after I'd stored it coiled. I was kicking myself for not letting it dry before coiling, but luckily my sous chef/husband didn't mind boiling it in small batches and swirling it around to dislodge the noodles. Even though some of the noodles still stuck together, unlike dried pasta that is stuck together, they were still delightfully edible and soft.
• I have the Artisan 5 Quarter KitchenAid mixer, recommends you only extrude two batches of pasta before allowing the motor to cool for an hour or more. Be sure to check the recommendations for your mixer and plan accordingly
• Cleanup for the extruder attachments is easy -- just let the pasta dry completely, then it will flake off. You can gently coax out tricky bits gently with a toothpick once everything is dry

Large Macaroni

They say you can tell something is hand-made (rather than machine manufactured) because of the imperfections. I really took that to heart, as you can see from the many-varied sizes of my macaroni. But hopefully you can also see a bit of the uneven surface of the pastas -- all those nooks and crannies made for a great base for the pasta dishes I ended up cooking. But more on that later, stay tuned and happy pasta making.