Hand-formed pasta

I'm much more into cooking than baking, both because I don't really like to measure and because I like savory things more than sweet. But recently I've been trying to conquer my 'fear' of dough. I've been experimenting with making bread. And, I've been making my own pasta (I realize that's not baking--but it's still dough). I've got an Imperia pasta maker I bought on Ebay which I've been using for egg-based pasta (fettucine, linguine) but I also wanted to try hand-formed flour and water pastas. I took a wine class recently at Fine Wine Distributers on Lincoln. The class was taught by Viktorija a food writer (currently writing a cookbook about Puglia--southern Italy) who also teaches Italian cooking out of her home. I'm a fairly adventurous home cook but I have a friend who wants to learn more about cooking and we decided to take a class with Viktorija. In the class we learned how to make Cavatelli, formed by running small marbles of semolina/AP flour dough over a textured dishcloth.

I recently purchased a Sardinian cookbook by Efisio Farris.
I'm sort of obsessed with Sardinia right now--really itching to take a trip there, lured by the rugged terrain, pristine coast, thought of little baby lamb, pecorino sardo cheese and great seafood. But, for right now, I have to be content with trying a few recipes out of this cookbook. The cookbook features several recipes with a pasta called Malloreddus ("calves" in Sardinian dialect). There's no recipe for the pasta but there is one picture of the pasta being formed on a gnocchi paddle. Of course, after seeing this and having my class last week, I HAD to have a gnocchi paddle (thank you Sur La Table-$6.95) to try this using Viktorija's dough recipe. The gnocchi paddle is basically a piece of wood with grooves. Here is my first go at Malloreddus.
The dough recipe is on Viktorija's website (above). Basically, 1:1 ration of finely ground Semolina to AP flour. Make a well, add enough water to make a slightly shaggy, but not sticky dough.


Knead the dough 10 minutes+ by hand until dough is smooth (or use a mixer with a dough hook attachment)


Dust with Semolina flour, wrap in plastic wrap, let sit for 30+ minutes
Take an apricot-sized piece of dough and roll it into a snake about the diameter of your pinky.


Cut into uniform pieces with a knife or pastry cutter


Toss with a little semolina flour. Roll over a gnocchi paddle dusted with semolina.


Presto!

I boiled these in salted water for a few minutes after they floated (basically until they didn't taste gummy).

I had leftover braised bacon from a Zuni cafe cookbook recipe so I made a tomato based sauce with the rest of it. I topped it with Pecorino Sardo, purchased at JP Graziano's (also the source of semola for the pasta dough)



But I also made a sauce with pork shoulder and pancetta from the Efisio Farris cookbook yesterday. I'm going to use that with the leftovers tonight.

Making the pasta was a lot of fun. For anyone with kids, I think they'd have a good time with this.

Great post.

Viktorija was the guest on Check, Please! who introduced Terragusto.

thaiobsessed is starting to specialize in forming foods that I'm stymied by...

Beautiful job - where did you get your gnocchi paddle? I've been trying to use a fork, but wind up with little cylanders instead of the rounded shapes you've got there. I just recently came across this video of a very cute Argentine family teaching their baby to make noquis:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt5j6_LDBnc&feature=related

That looks so good! I love making pasta but usually use the machine to make strand pasta or ravioli by hand. I've been wanting to try hand-formed pasta for a while but have been a bit intimidated. I'll have to check out Vitorija's site for the recipe.

Also, there are also hand-formed pasta recipes/techniques in the A16 cookbook that may be worth a look.

Thanks for the post!

Beautiful job - where did you get your gnocchi paddle?

I got mine at Sur La Table at North/Halstead for $6.95.
You can find them on Amazon.com, Ebay, etc. It took me a little while to figure out the right search term. Try 'Gnocchi paddle' or Gnocchi board' if you are looking on-line.

thaiobsessed is starting to specialize in forming foods that I'm stymied by...

These were really not hard to make (and I'm dough-impaired). The trick was a good toss for the dough pieces and a dusting for the paddle with semolina flour. That being said, I didn't try making gnocchi. The potato-based dough may be harder to work with.

I just recently came across this video of a very cute Argentine family teaching their baby to make noquis

Yes, that's just great. A two year-old is better at forming these than I am.

I love making pasta but usually use the machine to make strand pasta or ravioli by hand

Just wanted to add that I would love some tips on ravioli. I'm going to try them next. I've got the hang of the pasta dough, making sheets, etc. I just bought a ravioli stamp like this one:

And I have a pastry cutter. Is this pretty straight-forward? Any practical tips on assembly? Do I need one of those molds?

Just wanted to add that I would love some tips on ravioli. I'm going to try them next. I've got the hang of the pasta dough, making sheets, etc. I just bought a ravioli stamp like this one:

I've used the ravioli molds and made them with a simple round cutter and have actually found it's easier to use the round. My mold is from Sur la Table but I don't remember the cost (I bought it a few years ago). But I like the idea of the free-form: putting in your filling, then wetting the sides and sandwiching it inside. Really simple and not as time-consuming as you'd think, although I always get at least one that bursts.

Let me know how the stamp works for you.

Silly me, wasn't reading as carefully as I should have. Thaiobsessed, your pasta is beautiful, I wouldn't be at all afraid of the potato dough, it's pretty easy to work with. I'm guessing my problem is that it takes experience to roll dumplings off a fork - I'll have to find the gnocchi paddle and give that a try.

Thaiobsessed, your pasta is beautiful, I wouldn't be at all afraid of the potato dough, it's pretty easy to work with. I'm guessing my problem is that it takes experience to roll dumplings off a fork - I'll have to find the gnocchi paddle and give that a try.

Thanks! I think potato gnocchi are next (after ravioli) so I'll report back.
Here's a better picture of the cooked pasta. I made the sauce out of the Sardinian cookbook shown above (Malloreddus Kin Purpurzza--Malloredus pasta with pork shoulder and pancetta). It's made by braising the pork with red wine, tomato paste, sundried tomatoes. The recipe called for a 30 minute braise which seemed way to short and the pork wasn't tender/flavorful enough at that point. So, I chucked the whole mess in the slow cooker and let it go a few more hours. Not bad, but not as good as I thought it would be (I mean pork and more pork--sounds pretty irresistible).

Scouting around on-line for some new pasta shapes to make, I came across this website. Penne is one of my favorite pasta shapes so I decided to try the garganelli ("little esophaguses" or esophagi, I guess, in Italian).
These weren't entirely hand-formed since I used my roller to get the dough into sheets.
This dough was green b/c I added mint (most of it was used to make mint tagliatelli to go with lamb ragu from Mario Batali's 'Babbo' cookbook).


Then I cut the dough into little squares.

My gnocchi paddle came with a wooded dowel/roller and until I saw the website above, I couldn't figure out what it's for. I guess it's meant for this type of shape (and probably others--if anyone has ideas, please share). So, I tried rolling the garganelli around the dowel. I actualy thought they were a little big so I switched to a chopstick. I rolled them on the gnocchi board to get nice little ridges.



I'm planning to try farfalle next.

I made some hand-cut pappardelle the other day. I added black pepper to the pasta dough and rolled it out with my Imperia pasta machine, then cut it into strips. I tossed the cooked pasta with browned butter, shallots, mascarpone and roasted diced butternut squash and added a little parmesan on top.

thaiobsessed wrote:I made some hand-cut pappardelle the other day.

Ha, me too- last night! I served them w/ the lemon cream sauce basically from the Pasta Sfoglia cookbook and grilled chicken. About half way through making I thought to myself "man this sounds like an Olive Garden dish.." Once I had that in my head, I just couldn't get it out. Not my best creation.

BTW, the cavatelli from the A16 cookbook are very easy to make, and very good.

Jeff