Fresh pasta shapes

[medtran49]

This is a technique post, rather than a recipe, but we don't have a technique forum, so...

Yeah I love making pasta and one day I will get around to learning how to make ravioli, but what kind of equipment does one even need to make tubular pasta from scratch?

Dies. We have some from an old KA attachment set, but I've never used them. It made penne/rigatoni type shapes.

You can also use knitting needles, or long, thin dowels, and make spirals, letting the pasta dry before you remove.

Craig just turned on the cooking shows and it happened to be "America's Test Kitchen Celebrates 25 Years." Bridgette and Julia were making garganelli, a tubular and grooved pasta, with fresh dough, then cooking right away. The dough is rolled out flat until you can just see your hands, then cut into small squares. Using a gnocchi board and a very small dowel, they started at a corner and rolled the dough around the dowel to make the shape, rolling back and forth a couple times when they got to the end point. It's basically a slightly larger penne. Make sense?

 

[badjak]

Makes sense, but sounds too labour intensive to me

 

[Barriehie]

Makes sense, but sounds too labour intensive to me

Agree. I'd have flour everywhere...

 

[karadekoolaid]

When you're making fresh pasta, it's imperative there's flour everywhere.
For Italian cooks, making pasta is not a chore; it's a labour of love. Yes, I get it; if we're not accustomed to making it fresh, it can be a little time-consuming, but the result is 1,000 times better than the bought stuff.
Here's a video - all the participants are over 65 (in this case, over 80)
Garganelli

 

[badjak]

I make my own pasta.
Easy peasy for lasagne sheets, linguini and fettucinni...
But the other shapes .....

 

[Barriehie]

I make my own pasta.
Easy peasy for lasagne sheets, linguini and fettucinni...
But the other shapes .....

Me too.

 

[medtran49]

I think this, just like gnocchi and other hand shaped pastas, is a many hands make light work scenario.

 

[karadekoolaid]

I think this, just like gnocchi and other hand shaped pastas, is a many hands make light work scenario.

Absolutely.
It's one of those things that, if you do it every day, or every other day, is simply a routine, but if you do it once every 6 months, then it's a PITA.

 

[JAS_OH1]

When you're making fresh pasta, it's imperative there's flour everywhere.
For Italian cooks, making pasta is not a chore; it's a labour of love. Yes, I get it; if we're not accustomed to making it fresh, it can be a little time-consuming, but the result is 1,000 times better than the bought stuff.
Here's a video - all the participants are over 65 (in this case, over 80)
Garganelli

I think you had an Italian grandfather, is my memory serving me correctly? I OTOH, have no Italian ancestors at all, but I too love making fresh pasta because it's just so darned delicious. I like skinny long pasta like fettucine, but my Italian-American DH is a fan of tubular pasta, and since I love him so much, I will make this for him at some point--maybe when we finish with all the fettucine I made a few weeks ago that's in the freezer!

 

[karadekoolaid]

I think you had an Italian grandfather, is my memory serving me correctly?

No, , but my wife's family came over from Elba in the late 19th century, and if it were her choice, we'd eat pasta morning, noon and night.
Agree completely - fresh pasta is just super delicious.