Cookaholics Bulletin Board

OK - it's the end of winter and I've gotten into a pasta-making phase (using a KA). Most of the pasta turns out very good but on occassion, some of my "nests" develop clumps - by which I mean that a few strands stick together at a specific spot. This seems to happen irrespective of how wet/dry the dough is or how much semolina I've dusted the nests with.

The recipe I'm using is 200g 00 flour, 100g semolina, 3 eggs, maybe 1-2 T olive oil, a dash of salt and water as needed. While most of the pasta is fine, I'm wondering if there is something I can do so prevent this. Any thoughts?

Gerard

Try drying out your pasta more as you roll it on the first setting. Dust liberally with flour, fold, roll, repeat...a number of times.

I make a ton of pasta at work, and getting it good and dry in the widest setting seems to help battle this issue.

Amy

Gerard,

Are you rolling or extruding? I only get this problem while rolling pasta if I've let it get a bit too wet and sticky. Dusting with more flour while rolling fixes this when you notice it.

Also, I don't know that I've ever put olive oil in the pasta before.

I'm extruding (in more ways than I care to think about!).

You're right about the olive oil, it's new to me as well. Maybe I'll omit it and add a bit more water. Does the flour to egg ratio sound OK or should I tweak that too? And if you don't mind my asking, how do you handle the pasta after it's been extruded and awaiting (possibly by a few hours) to be cooked?


Gerard

The only pasta I've ever been able to extrude on a KA without it becoming a big clump was macaroni. I think it has to be much drier than I think will ever work.

Never thought it might be the KA! That's really helpful. I'm thinking it might be time to revisit my hand-cranked Imperia.

I have much better luck with the rollers than the extruder plates that attach to the food grinder.

Thanks Pete - I am using the rollers and for the most part I'm successful. I'm glad you mentioned the other KA pasta attachment because I was just giving some thought as to whether to buy it or not (the nays have it!).

Amy - you bring up an interesting point as I've been going back and forth between dry and not so dry dough. More recently, the dough has been smooth without being sticky.

In all candor, in yesterday's adventure into pastaland (with a short stop at clumpville), the ball of dough came out on the dry side (and was quite difficult to knead) so I didn't use any flour when I put it through the rollers (on any of the settings). I'll try what you suggest and report back later in the week.

By the way, do you know anything about durum flour and whether that would make a difference on any of this?

I hope this isn't too self-serving but pasta-making would make a great tutorial!

Gerard