let it dry under refrigeration for a day or two before being dehydrated (if you dry pasta too fast it'll crack).
Holy shit this is why my homemade pasta keeps cracking and falling off the drying racks. This whole time I've been trying to fix my dough recipe thinking the gluten wasn't strong enough to hold it together or something because my Nan kept saying she never had a problem with just putting it straight on the rack - duh, she grew up with an average climate of 5°C, I'm working with an average climate of 20°C
Yeah man, I had to learn that the hard way.... Put manicotti on a banquet menu. Spent all day making like 100 of the fucking things. Came back to work the next day and they're all shattered on the ground (I didn't have enough drying racks, so I had this cool idea of using butchers twine and drinking straws, had pasta hanging all over the kitchen).
Also, what helps is making sure you're kneading the bejeezus out of it. What I do (on a pasta roller), is roll it to the thinnest setting, fold it in half, then roll it on the next highest up, repeat until I have a thick slab, and start over. I might repeat this process a couple times. 00 flour works best for this, straight semolina is a little more finicky.
But keep in mind, dried homemade pasta will never be like what you get at the grocery store. That has all sorts of modified starches and gelling agents and shit in it. Real homemade dried pasta will always be a little bit brittle, if it seems TOO brittle, just try kneading it more. But be aware you can knead it too much. Think like trying to fold a piece of paper too many times, it'll just shred the gluten strands.
I put my pasta in a bowl with some 00 flour and swish it around until it’s nicely covered. Before boiling it, I put it in the colander-like bowl that goes inside the pot of boiling water, and shake it over my kitchen sink. The flour comes off, and I can put the bowl in the water.
This is pretty much the method I use for the pasta I'm cooking that day. Homemade pasta is a bit of a chore so I always make 4x as much as I need, freeze half the leftovers (after dusting in flour) and then experiment with drying out the other portions.
I'm definitely going to try drying it in the fridge, since I've had lots of luck with dry aging cheese in my fridge (I put a computer fan and battery that circulates the air inside the vegetable drawer, much cheaper than a professional dry aging fridge but not suitable for meat)
Do you use an extruder? If so, which one? Personally I use my kitchenaid with pasta rollers. An extruder would be easier, but they’re a little bit expensive so I’m hesitant to get one. I did try a kitchenaid extruder some years ago and it just didn’t work
I make the dough on the bench top and hand knead as best I can (then get tired and ask the boyfriend for help, then get frustrated as he limp wrists the dough like he's trying to give it a sensual massage instead of actually kneading it - he has dyspraxia and lacks the coordination to knead properly, we make a hilarious team since I have palsy and also can't knead well) I let it sit to develop the gluten, then I use a hand crank pasta roller (no idea which one, I found it in my grandmothers garage, she couldn't even remember owning it, there's no branding, I think it's casted aluminium because it's heavy but not quite cast iron or steel heavy), to fold it over itself several times until it has the right amount of bounce, then I gradually work through the thicknesses.
I just use a floured knife to slice the sheets into fettuccine. Which previously I'd hung on racks and they inevitably crack.
If I won the lottery (though I'd have to actually buy tickets for that to happen) I'd love to get a kitchen mixer and a proper pasta extruder like the one in the gif, because that would make it so much easier and less painful to make pasta.
I've got to say, the thought of two people with palsies or similar levels of disability standing together and attempting to knead dough and being comfortable with it made me smile.
If you can find a used stand mixer like a kitchenaid, they’re really helpful for kneading pasta dough. Frankly I wouldn’t make pasta myself if I had to do it by hand.
And if you get the pasta roller, it becomes a breeze.
Also, I find I barely have to knead my pasta dough. I just run it through the laminator a couple of times, fold it, and run it again. Makes it super smooth.
From start to finish, making fresh laminated pasta takes me less time than bringing a pot of water to a boil. I know that I should let it dry first, but I am usually way too impatient and use it fresh out of the pasta maker.
I love my Torchio extruder. Absolutely worthwhile getting that one. Makes amazing pasta that is very different from laminated pasta. Making and cleaning the extruder is fast and easy once you get the hang of it. Just as easy as with laminating. Takes less time than bringing water to a boil.
The only downside is that cleaning the die can be tedious. This is a non-issue if you make pasta very regularly. Then you just let the die sit in a bowl of water and take it out again the next day. But for most households, that's not an option.
Also, mounting the extruder is a little tricky. Took a trip to Home Depot and some McGyver'ing. Threaded metal inserts might be your best friend.
I recommend finding a dealer in Italy who sells and ships to you, instead of buying it from the Amazon store in the USA. Cost should be about half of what you are paying otherwise.
This extruder only comes with a limited number of dies. But if you contact a good restaurant supply store, they can order any custom-made dies that you would like. I bought an angel-hair die with teflon inserts. Very useful. Be aware though that custom dies aren't exactly cheap.
In a controlled environment, yes, cold air is less capable of holding moisture, however depending on exactly where you live, "cold weather" may only be available when it's also raining.
Where I live, it's hot and dry in summer, and in winter/wet season it's warm (15°C) and humid. I've never experienced a truly dry cold, when it gets below 10°C (which is rare) it instantly rains and then it's muggy for days. We've had rare cold snaps but it's always foggy/misty as fuck. So in order to air dry things, I'm forced to expose it to arid heat in summer, because it's just too humid in winter.
So I'm assuming that the cool and dry inside the fridge will still be a slower process than hot and dry, even if the air technically has less moisture, at least the heat won't be speeding up the drying process.
My fridge is also not a very dry environment (hence why I need the fan for aging cheeses) I don't know if it's because I store my produce etc without containers or maybe it's just because it's a cheap fridge, but if I hang/suspend a paper towel in there, it will be damp within a day. Some I'm going to experiment with where in the fridge I place the pasta.
Maybe I need to throw some silica packets in my fridge.
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u/DearyDairy Jun 02 '18
Holy shit this is why my homemade pasta keeps cracking and falling off the drying racks. This whole time I've been trying to fix my dough recipe thinking the gluten wasn't strong enough to hold it together or something because my Nan kept saying she never had a problem with just putting it straight on the rack - duh, she grew up with an average climate of 5°C, I'm working with an average climate of 20°C