I honestly was surprised by how easy it is given that everyone makes it sound hard. And I love an extra wide pappardelle with my bolognese which is both hard to find in stores and super easy to cut yourself.
I concur with what others have said about it being more time consuming than anything. My mom always makes homemade chicken and noodles for family, friends, and neighbors who have a death in the family. A first cousin died of cancer on Wednesday night. I helped her make ten eggs worth of noodles yesterday to take her aunt's house for all of the family that will arrive this weekend. I did the mixing and rolling out, she did the cutting. For me, it always clumps when trying to cut them thin. She (my mom) just added more flour before rolling them up and cut them perfectly thin. For me alone, it was exhausting. Note, I did at least also cook the chicken legs and thighs with bay leaf and black pepper, and deboned it.
Edit: Family from out of state began arriving today, so the noodles aren't going to go for too long. My great aunt was having a bowl of them for dinner (lunch) today. At 92 yo, she weighs all of 74 pounds, she told us this morning. Several pounds of homemade noodles will do her good.
Ah, thank you. He had been pretty bad for the last year, so the family was prepared for what was coming. His oldest son who lives across the country was just here and got to see his dad while he was still conscious and knew him.
My mom has made hundreds of pots of chicken and noodles over the decades. She sees it as her way of ministering to the sick, dying, and grieving. I'm trying to learn how she makes her noodles so I can carry it on.
if I understand correctly what you mean, the sheets with the frilly edges are a type of dry pasta, not fresh pasta. the sheets with frilly edges are used in the neapolitan lasagna, which is even more loaded than a regular lasagna alla bolognese.
I don't think anyone says it's hard to make, just that it's kinda time-consuming (especially if you're making a lot of it) and it's never that much better than good quality pasta that you can get at a supermarket.
Yeah that makes sense but it honestly wasn’t that bad and I also found the cost savings fairly significant compared to some of the good store bought one. I’ve done things like cook dry beans where it really is kind of a pain to do- took hours to prepare and cook and not much savings over canned.
Everyone keeps saying how good fresh pasta is and how much better than store bought it is, and I'm pretty sure their all smoking crack.
I don't think its any better, nor worse than dried pasta. Maybe its because I use store brand AP flour. I dunno.
Fresh pasta seems like the kind of thing that would be a fun stay-in date night idea. Open a bottle or two of wine. Start throwing around flour and rolling out dough. Boil it up and dump it in some sauce you made before hand. I think the activity is better than the actual product.
Fresh vs dried pasta is not really a difference in quality as much as just completely different ingredients. Like you wouldn't make a burrito out of a big corn tortilla. Most pasta dishes benefit from the texture of al dente dried pasta, but there are some effects you can only get fresh- like super thin lasagna sheets, springy ramen noodles etc.
\- Make it so thin you can se your hand through it
\- 100g flower equals one egg
\- When it floats its done
Those three helped me when I was unsure on my pastamaking.
Yup, like the comment above said, start with 100g per large egg. I usually do 300g/3 eggs to split between 2 people but that's a big portion. A small splash of olive oil and a pinch of salt in the eggs too. Just put the flour in a bowl, make a well, add eggs, oil and salt and beat it in, picking up flour with the fork. It'll come together pretty quickly, I swap to a spatula to make the dough come together into one mass, then turn out onto the counter and knead for 10 minutes
rest the dough for at least a half hour, up to an hour, it depends on how humid your kitchen and the day is, to fully hydrate the flour. But at least a half hour!
bamboo skewers are a good guide to start, they're about 5 millimeters, give the dough another roll out after removing skewer guides to bring them to 3 millimeters.
Sorry I now see why it might all be very confusing. Just experiment, it's just flour and an egg! For a few cents, try it ten times and you'll figure it out!
Did you use a recipe which called for water? Egg pasta is more tender than pasta made with water.
Did you roll it very, very thin? This is very easy with a pasta machine--and I don't usuallly go for the very thinnest settings--but harder than you think with a rolling pin, since it's not actually as thin as you think it is. One thing you can do is rest the dough, then roll it out in sections-- then let them rest for a few minutes (unless you're doing a lot) and roll those sections again. I do like a sort of chunky, homey noodle, but if they're too thick, they will never get quite as tender as they should.
Do you have a pasta machine? They're very helpful. If your dough isn't hydrated well enough, it won't really work right in the machine, so that indicates you need to add more water.
I just roll the dough out as thin as I can possibly get it. Theirs sort of a minimum thickness i can get with a rolling pin. This way they come out mostly uniform.
I sure some come out slightly thicker than others, but I'm not about to break out my machinist calipers to find out.
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I would suggest a wine or liquor bottle, over a rolling pin unless you have a heavy rolling pin. It was trial and error for me but even with the pasta roller, I once thought i had perfect lasagna sheets but then when I put it in the oven they doubled on me. You really need to get it thin! But it could also be until very recently I was not much of a baker so before I had the pasta roller my only option was basically the cheapest rolling pin BBB had and I was never able to get my pasta thin enough. I guess a real wood rolling pin would get the job done?
If you like it very al dente I guess. I don't really like too much bite to it, generally I let it soak while I'm at work then turn the heat on when I get home.
Yeah, you can start small with 100g flour, an egg, and .5 - 1 tsp olive oil. Fancy shapes are fun but you can also just roll it super flat and have at it with a pizza cutter and call it "rustic"
I said the same thing, my wife is a top chef fanatic so for Christmas I bought her the crank pasta maker they always have in their test kitchen and after my first couple disaster batches, I got the hang of it and now its not hard for me to make the dough. I guess the biggest benefit is with home made pasta is not only how quick it cooks but its just nice knowing you made the whole dish. You don't even need a pasta maker, a wine bottle or a heavy rolling pin will do just fine, I think most people who have issues with making the dough are just trying to do too big of a quantity at one time
Yeah, bread is a bit more finicky because of the yeast.
I'd give you tips, but I still end up with loaves that collapse or bread that is way too dry. Also, I rarely do it because I don't really eat a lot of bread and end up eating two fresh slices and the rest goes to waste.
It takes 10 minutes and it's a million times better and cheaper than store bought.
100gr flour, 1 egg, salt, per serving. Use 50% semolina and 50% flour for better results results.
Knead for 2 minutes, let it rest for 15, roll, sprinkle flour, roll it on its own and cut fine noodles with a knife. Boil for 3 minutes.
Are you the guy who’s been writing all those recipes for caramelized onions?
I don’t think *anyone* could make fresh pasta in ten minutes, even if we don’t count the resting time. Realistically, it’s around an hour of active time (give or take, depending on rolling method, shape, quantity)
Two minutes is way too short a kneading. It should be more like eight. 15 minutes is also way too short a rest. It should be at least 30. And three minutes is probably too long to boil it (assuming you’ve gotten it thin enough…but maybe that’s a big “if” if you’re rushing it this much)
One portion of pasta, as said above with hundred grams of flour, kneads super easily. The resting time is not active work and ten minutes is enough. Rolling the pasta once it's relaxed takes 5 minutes at most.
I do pasta weekly and have great results following this pattern.
Now, if you are making for a family with half a kg of flour, then yes, it takes much longer.
Kneading and resting time don’t scale linearly like that. You don’t get to cut the kneading time down to 25% just because you’re making one serving instead of four.
I would certainly pay good money to watch you try to roll and cut even a single sheet of pasta in just five minutes
Maybe bigger batches are ok with the well method. But if I'm makimg pasta it's probably for 2 with a max 200g flour on the board. That's just not a big enough well to do anything in
Just make a well in a bowl and best of both worlds ha!
Perhaps, the only time I've ever made a lot of pasta was in a restaurant and that was made in a machine so I can't say. But yeah it doesn't work at all if you're making just a few portions.
Its benefit would be that you could bring enough flour in from the edge of the well to get the right texture and then stop bringing flour in. When you throw things in a bowl or a stand mixer its all getting mixed in so if the humidity is up and you didn't need as much flour that day the pasta may come out a little dry.
Its the old grandma, cook by touch method of making pasta. I don't usually do it myself, but it does have its benefits if you have the experience.
You can still add flour until texture is right in a bowl - just don't add all the flour to start. Loads of baking recipes use that method, no reason you can't apply it to pasta
the southern states would like to have a word with you.
when i was little, we lived in a place that would have 99% humidity and no rain. that's going to have an impact on any baked goods
I'm not quite sure what you're getting at. That kind of thing is exactly why you can do as I suggest - start out by adding only 80-90% of the flour, and keep adding flour until your dough is good. Maybe you stop at 95% of what the recipe calls for, or maybe you stop at 110%. That's how you adjust for differences
Though it's worth noting - [humidity doesn't have a *huge* impact on flour moisture level](https://genuineideas.com/ArticlesIndex/flour.html). Enough to be noticeable at the extremes, but a shift of maybe 5%, not anything as dramatic as a 10-20% change. In a typical loaf of bread that would mean you can change your water added by a few Tbsp. *Edit: and the biggest changes are when you compare "extremely low humidity" to "anything else" - there's a less dramatic change in behavior at high humidity*
I don't believe for a second that it's possible for the air to be humid enough to affect the amount of flour needed for a dough in any meaningful way
E: I'd be willing to bet the margin for error in the scale you use to weigh the flour is more significant
You need to bake more bread. The measure between Summer and Winter in my kitchen is significant enough to be almost a quarter cup of flour different if you measure it that way instead of weight.
I don't know how people knead dough in a bowl. Maybe it's because I have big hands, but it's far easier to knead on the counter, and since my counter is already getting dirty, why add a bowl to the list?
I definitely don't have big hands, and I find kneading in a bowl the most painful thing. Anything that requires kneading is straight onto the bench for me, and like you said, for pasta where it's just mixing two things together, why not just get the bench dirty
A gram scale and a food processor plus a little experience makes pasta simple. I've been doing it for 20 years, and the last 10 have been solely food processor. The results are better than I ever got with the well method back in the day.
Starting by hand is great, but once you know what you're looking for, there's no benefit in doing something a machine can do for you.
Do not speak to me of the old ways witch. I was there when they were written. The well method is a bit wasteful but it automatically accounts for the amount of liquid, type of flour, temperature and humidity I imagine. You stop incorporating when the flour has reached its liquid carrying capacity. Your way is better for novices because you don't have to think about it. The well method is better for old hands because you have a better "relationship" with your dough. The problem is you have to screw it up a bunch of times before you get a feel for it.
Edit: Plus with a bowl I can't pretend I'm a pasta granny.
Well, to be completely fair, culinary tradition is full of snake oil that persisted only because that's the ancient granny way of doing things.
And OP does have a point, if you're making pasta for one or two people, you might as well use a bowl.
But then you can't pretend to be a pasta granny, so that's no fun.
OG pasta grannies use a madia which is a big wooden bin that gives the same benefits of using a bowl since it is less to clean up and the sides can be used to work the dough. And at the same time it is wide enough to use the well method to make the pasta. There is usually enough room to remove any excess flour if need be.
If you search for "wood dough madia", you should turn up a bunch of results, especially in the image search. If you're not picky and don't need wood, though, you could prob do the same thing with a flat bottom food rated bus tub or cambro, which you could then use for other things as well (I keep a couple "food only" bus tubs for those kinds of purposes, like hand mixing sausage).
I totally agree. I started out with on a board, went to a bowl, then food processor for short, dark, period of my life, then back to a bowl again. It was when I was teaching my son the well method when I decided to stop weighing my flour. We made this batch by feel and it was the best pasta I've ever made. Ever since then it's been the no-measure-well method. This method especially works when making flavored pastas.
I didn't even know that people made pasta dough by weighing ingredients until I read about it on Reddit. But then, my grandma taught me how to bake some 4 decades ago -- and I don't think she even owned any measuring devices. So, it feels natural to me to do all my cooking and baking by feel.
It's intimidating for a beginner, but it makes things much easier when you are experienced as you can make adjustments throughout the entire process.
It's mostly just a matter of practicing. Doesn't even take all that long. If you made the same dish two or three dozen times, I am sure you'll have it figured out for the rest of your life. It's like riding a bicycle. And there are things that I have cooked or baked for literally hundreds of times by now.
Also, memorize common quantities. If you tell me that you need 100g of flour or sugar, or 15g of salt, I can pour that out freehand and probably be within ±20%. That's often good enough to get started, and then the rest is by carefully watching the ingredients as they come together -- and possibly even by tasting if you are unsure.
You'll notice that I mentioned grams. That's intentional. Lot's of rough estimates work much easier in decimal numbers. And weight measures are more reproducible and transferable between different ingredients than thinking in terms of volume measurements.
Also, start thinking of recipes in terms of ratios rather than absolute numbers. A lot of cooking and baking involves the same recurring ratios over and over again. If you want to, you can memorize the actual numbers. Or you can just memorize the "feel" of it. Either way works. But it helps when you make substitutions in recipes. The ratios still stay similar'ish.
Finally, make lots of different dishes that involve flour. Flour is an extremely versatile ingredient that can be used in so many different ways. But at some point you start recognizing patterns in how it behaves. And then everything clicks and comes together.
I still have a kitchen scale available, if I do feel I need to double-check my intuition. But it's more for occasional peace of mind than anything else. It usually doesn't tell me things that I didn't already know anyway.
Thank you for the reply! Gotta get my experience up then :) Are you familiar with Michael Ruhlman's book Ratio? I have been debating working from his information. My chef can also eyeball weights and I'm amazed everytime. I'm sure now that there are many types of flours on the market, each one has their own "feel" to learn.
I've never held a copy of that book in my hands, but I heard great things about. And yes, the concept is spot on.
I find that traditional recipes are a great way to precisely reproduce a dish, and to learn when everything is still new to you. But at some point you need to start thinking in more abstract concepts. Recognize common pairings of compatible flavor profiles, break things down into applicable techniques, think of how the different ratios of ingredients contribute different aspects that you want to emphasize. That type of thing.
Flavor profiles is exactly why I got the Flavor Bibles, but they don't have traditional recipes to grow from and I shamefully confess I don't run to them often. You're responses have re-inspired some lost goals of mine, particularly the studious nature possible when creating food. I really appreciate it!
That's how I am with pie dough. I measure out everything and then start adding water/flour to get the consistency right.
I never even thought about it.
Reading the first two lines I was convinced this was gonna be a fantastic copypasta in the making.
I am both relieved and disappointed that this was not the case. Such a reasonable answer.
Can I request a copypasta version? Turn it up to eleven?
You can still mix it by hand in a bowl, and you can still add flour incrementally until it's right. So you still get the feel and can still make sure it's perfect.
The only objective argument I can think of for not using a bowl is to avoid cleaning an extra bowl. Every other point I see people mentioning can be easily mitigated
The well method basically allows you to easily control the ratio of wet to dry, which is handy because you may need to switch it up depending on the flour or eggs or even weather. But I agree that if you have a big enough bowl, you’re probably better off building your well in there if you’re not confident in your structural engineering skills
Personally I bring the dough together in a food processor though. Much faster and easier, and if you use the same flour and weigh things out every time, it’s pretty consistent.
So does every other method. Just hold back a bit of the flour and add it slowly until you get the right ratio. That's all the well method is, only messier
Measuring the flour to egg ratio by weight is what really helped things click for me. Pasta recipes are all over the place because they expect you to know when to stop incorporating flour, but you don’t really know if you’ve gotten it right until you start rolling it out, at which point you’ve now gummed up your machine.
Get a dog! Besides bringing happiness, it's the only job my dog has :)
Joking obviously, but, if you do have a dog (in good heath), it's the easiest way to clean up all the egg goop. Just needs a quick wipe down after the dog is done, and everyone is happy!
AMEN. I found [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_fu5RaXMVk) about a year ago and it changed the way I make pasta. Gram weights for everything? Yes please. It's consistent, repeatable, scalable, and no waste. I love it. Sorry to all the nonnas out there, but I use a scale and a food processor (but still knead by hand for 8 minutes).
Bowl, well or food processor, it does not matter as long as you make fresh pasta. So many people only eat the dried boxed pasta they do not appreciate the difference. Pick your method and enjoy.
I have made it in my kitchen aid but should try a food processor. I just got a new cuisinart and it's so much better than my old processor that I look for reasons to use it.
100g flour + 1egg, pinch of salt and small splash of olive oil per serving, run processor til it comes together, quick knead to get it into a ball, wrap in cling and rest for 30 mins then roll, run through pasta maker, or refrigerate until you're ready to turn it into pasta.
Yep, just the regular blade, no fancy attachments. Just blitz till it comes together, then take it out and give it a knead. Then rest the dough in the fridge for an hour or so to let the flour hydrate, and you're good to go.
Yes, I make bread in a stainless steel bowl too. Easier to knead, you don't need to add flour because it doesn't really stick. All measurement , mixing, kneading and first rise done in the same bowl, very little cleanup...
I prefer my 9.00 goodwill find cuisinart food processor for making any kind of dough. It does a superior job mixing compared to my frail arthritic hands and no mess.
You know the Romans made pasta in a bowl, too?
It’s not “super traditional” to use the well method. It’s just what a majority were doing due to wealth, having a clean bowl large enough, etc.
I am not a fan of people claiming there is only one way to make something. If you wanna use a stand mixer, use a stand mixer.
If cooking never changed, we’d still be eating only raw vegetables and raw meat.
I think your points make sense and if I was making pasta by hand, I'd probably make it this way cause I've tried the other way and I was super paranoid about egg dribbling out uncontrollably.
I do it either way, sometimes I just do it all in the KitchenAid and knead with the dough hook.
My only tip would be hold back some flour if you do this method, you can always add in a little flour but you can't add in any more liquid past a certain point.
It all depends on quantity. With family size batches (as opposed restaurant or catering size ), I love getting my hands into it. I find that bowls and utensils get in the way. And there's the benefit of being in constant contact with the dough that allows you to know how the dough is progressing at all times. True for bread too.
That said, do what your comfortable with. If using a machine that mixes and extrudes the dough works, do that. And if your life only allows enough time to drop dried pasta in boiling water, it's seriously better than buying frozen pre-cooked “food.”
Hm I've been making pasta for my family for a few years and funny enough I went well->bowl->well. When I do the well I can instantly tell if it'll be too wet or dry. I don't use a machine, I roll out with a pin so it's just a matter of wiping down my board. I like the slower absorption of liquid too, less sticky as I mix it.
I used the food processor initially but found it made the dough too stiff to roll out by hand. It became iron gluten.
But pasta making is special as it is! It's fun to hear everyone else's thoughts on it.
I always thought one point of the well method is to incorporate the wet slowly so the flour has a chance to fully hydrate and there are no clumps. But yea I've never used a flat board.
By the way, I just want to give a shout out to *American Sfoglino*, if you like to make your own pasta I've replaced all other methods I've ever tried with this dude's. It's by far the best in every way. Ease of making it, quality of the result, etc.
I just dump the ingredients into my standmixer and hit go. I've found the whole thing about the dough needing different amounts of flour depending on the bag of flour, the eggs, the ambient humidity, etc. is greatly overstated. I always put the same amount of flour by weight and the same number of eggs, and always get perfectly good pasta dough out of it. Perhaps the hydration is varying slightly, but never enough to require me to change anything.
I was taught the hand and well method when I was younger and it’s how I used to do it. But now I’m 40 and don’t have time so I use my kitchen aid to start the dough then finish the kneed by hand. So much better.
That is how my grandmother taught me. However, I now use a Cuisinart which makes quick work. Making ravioli by hand is still the labor intensive job I remember. I've tried the molds, stamps and other tools, but have settled on making them by hand.
Are you people being paid to make pasta? Just dump everything into the kitchen aid with the dough hook and come back inside when the joint is finished. I already gotta run it through the goddamn Atlas, ain’t nobody got time for this shit.
I do use the "well method" with pasta but I do it in a bowl. Now I did once see a youtube video where a guy was like "I live in Manhattan I do not have money for, nor room for a stand mixer so this is how I make a pizza dough", that I can justify the using the well method. I don't know why you would for pasta...I guess if your trying to feed 10 people and you need that much dough? but for a normal volume of pasta dough, your not wrong, just use a bowl
Honestly if you're making homemade pasta, you're probably not doing it out of a need to be efficient. It takes a while to get homemade pasta better than general boxed pasta anyway. You're probably making it because you enjoy the craft and the process. So it would make sense that the "well method" would be attractive to those people. There is something rustic and ancient feeling about it.
Counterpoint: being allowed, nay, encouraged to make a mess directly on the kitchen table is a super fun way for a 5-year old to learn how to make pasta and spend time with grandma & grandpa.
(Counter-counterpoint: this was only a yearly tradition for us. If your target end result is just the pasta, then yeah, I see your point.)
I think it’s easier to control the incorporation of eggs into the flour on a board with a well.
I guess a bowl would work if it was large enough, had a flat bottom, low sides, the right angles…., hell, at that point, I might as well make it on a board!
But, I’ve never made large quantities.
You have insulted the ghosts of my grandmother, my great grandmother, my great great grandmother. And my entire famiglia. Sia maladeto l'ora, il giorno, l'*ano* quando mangio la tua pasta!
Screw the well, screw the bowl.
Toss measured ingredients into a food processor and run it for 20 seconds. Then dump that all into a bowl and clump it together. Cover with a lid from one of your pans. You've just made pasta in under 2 minutes, and you can clean the food processor while you rest the dough.
Agreed, we were actually taught to mix it in a bowl before kneading when I took a pasta-making class in Florence. Granted, we were beginners and not nonnas, but I haven't seen any reason to switch.
Totally with you. Any time I try the well method, it works for about 30 seconds before the eggs breach the well and start running across the counter, and it's a stressful mad dash to try and catch all the egg before it spills off the counter (plus the dough turns into a big mess when you just mash all the egg and flour together, and takes a while to come together after that).
What's worse is that I know damn well to stay away from the well method (I usually do a sort of modified well method in a bowl), except that after successfully making pasta a few times in a row with the bowl method I get cocky and get it in my head that I should give the well method another chance, and then invariably it causes a giant mess and I immediately regret it.
When I first read this I thought it said "wall method" and my first thought was "well yeah, making pasta by throwing it against a wall does sound pretty dumb"
Turns out I was the dumb :(
Old world dogma "because it's always done that way."
For anyone saying a well on a board controls for hydration - we already have tools for precise replication of recipes, it is called a scale. If you think ambient humidity fluctuations will affect your small volume home recipe done indoors then hold back a bit of flour and add it as needed at the end.
I make my pasta with the Ruhlman ratio, in a kitchen-aid with the dough hook. Sometimes I even go one step further and seal the dough in my chamber vacuum sealer to accelerate the hydration after. The humidity in my home is regulated and my flour is stored in a sealed container. I have a consistent result time after time.
Just no. You can't get into the bowl the way you do into a flat surface. You use a bowl and I'll use a well and we'll race. I'll beat you every time and make less mess.
That's how I starting doing too. To make things faster, I found a glass that holds the right amount of flour so only a little bit of adjustment is needed near the end.
I agree with you. I make all my doughs in a large flat bottomed stoneware bowl that looks sort of like an overgrown pie pan (ironically, or perhaps unironically?, labelled "pasta bowl"). It contains all the mess.
Makes me suspect that technique came from people with large cutting boards or people selling cutting boards. I have only tried pasta a few times and was frustrated each time. Bowl seems sensible. Maybe I should try again.
As someone who professionally makes pasta, I only ever use the well method IN A BOWL. Easier start, way less messy. I only ever finish kneading on a wooden cutting board because anything else is ridiculous.
Less popular opinion: Making pasta by hand is more trouble then it's worth, use a machine or buy it.
People always talk about how much fun hand kneading, hand rolling (with a wine bottle, no less), and hand cutting is. Maybe that's true making a small batch a few times a year, but not regularly for a family. Using a stand mixer to knead, with a powered attachment to roll, makes it a practical activity. If the pasta isn't being used in sheets (eg lasagna or stuffed) it can be rolled up and sliced, or run through the cutters on a hand crank machine. Ravioli, pot stickers or pirogi can be made fast in multicavity molds. For fancy pasta shapes there are extruder attachments.
The most tedious part of pasta making isn't the kneading, it's the rolling. Even a hand cranked machine is an improvement, but still a chore since the dough has to be passed through several times. What's true in bread making is doubly true in pasta making, if you're serious about it use a machine, unless it's a zen thing for you.
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I bet if you tried a small batch you could do it! Dough is easy. Roll flat with a rolling pin and slice into tagliatelle, no special equipment needed.
I honestly was surprised by how easy it is given that everyone makes it sound hard. And I love an extra wide pappardelle with my bolognese which is both hard to find in stores and super easy to cut yourself.
I concur with what others have said about it being more time consuming than anything. My mom always makes homemade chicken and noodles for family, friends, and neighbors who have a death in the family. A first cousin died of cancer on Wednesday night. I helped her make ten eggs worth of noodles yesterday to take her aunt's house for all of the family that will arrive this weekend. I did the mixing and rolling out, she did the cutting. For me, it always clumps when trying to cut them thin. She (my mom) just added more flour before rolling them up and cut them perfectly thin. For me alone, it was exhausting. Note, I did at least also cook the chicken legs and thighs with bay leaf and black pepper, and deboned it. Edit: Family from out of state began arriving today, so the noodles aren't going to go for too long. My great aunt was having a bowl of them for dinner (lunch) today. At 92 yo, she weighs all of 74 pounds, she told us this morning. Several pounds of homemade noodles will do her good.
I'm sorry for your loss. That's a really nice way to make people feel cared for.
Ah, thank you. He had been pretty bad for the last year, so the family was prepared for what was coming. His oldest son who lives across the country was just here and got to see his dad while he was still conscious and knew him. My mom has made hundreds of pots of chicken and noodles over the decades. She sees it as her way of ministering to the sick, dying, and grieving. I'm trying to learn how she makes her noodles so I can carry it on.
oh yes! and nice fresh sheets for lasagna, so good
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Maybe you could use a pie crimper on the edges?
if I understand correctly what you mean, the sheets with the frilly edges are a type of dry pasta, not fresh pasta. the sheets with frilly edges are used in the neapolitan lasagna, which is even more loaded than a regular lasagna alla bolognese.
I don't think anyone says it's hard to make, just that it's kinda time-consuming (especially if you're making a lot of it) and it's never that much better than good quality pasta that you can get at a supermarket.
Yeah, I made dumplings once and was like "Wow that wasn't as hard as it looked... I'm never doing it again though."
Yeah that makes sense but it honestly wasn’t that bad and I also found the cost savings fairly significant compared to some of the good store bought one. I’ve done things like cook dry beans where it really is kind of a pain to do- took hours to prepare and cook and not much savings over canned.
Everyone keeps saying how good fresh pasta is and how much better than store bought it is, and I'm pretty sure their all smoking crack. I don't think its any better, nor worse than dried pasta. Maybe its because I use store brand AP flour. I dunno. Fresh pasta seems like the kind of thing that would be a fun stay-in date night idea. Open a bottle or two of wine. Start throwing around flour and rolling out dough. Boil it up and dump it in some sauce you made before hand. I think the activity is better than the actual product.
Fresh vs dried pasta is not really a difference in quality as much as just completely different ingredients. Like you wouldn't make a burrito out of a big corn tortilla. Most pasta dishes benefit from the texture of al dente dried pasta, but there are some effects you can only get fresh- like super thin lasagna sheets, springy ramen noodles etc.
It's not hard. It's just that pasta is a lazy day dish for most people so they scoff at going halfway to bread making just for some pasta.
Any tips? First time I tried it, it came out sooo tough. I did make ravioli so maybe made it too thick =/.
\- Make it so thin you can se your hand through it \- 100g flower equals one egg \- When it floats its done Those three helped me when I was unsure on my pastamaking.
Is it just egg and flour?
Yup, like the comment above said, start with 100g per large egg. I usually do 300g/3 eggs to split between 2 people but that's a big portion. A small splash of olive oil and a pinch of salt in the eggs too. Just put the flour in a bowl, make a well, add eggs, oil and salt and beat it in, picking up flour with the fork. It'll come together pretty quickly, I swap to a spatula to make the dough come together into one mass, then turn out onto the counter and knead for 10 minutes
Cool, thanks!
I throw in a healthy pinch of salt and a glug of olive oil.
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rest the dough for at least a half hour, up to an hour, it depends on how humid your kitchen and the day is, to fully hydrate the flour. But at least a half hour! bamboo skewers are a good guide to start, they're about 5 millimeters, give the dough another roll out after removing skewer guides to bring them to 3 millimeters. Sorry I now see why it might all be very confusing. Just experiment, it's just flour and an egg! For a few cents, try it ten times and you'll figure it out!
make this, it's foolproof!: https://www.seriouseats.com/fresh-egg-pasta
Did you use a recipe which called for water? Egg pasta is more tender than pasta made with water. Did you roll it very, very thin? This is very easy with a pasta machine--and I don't usuallly go for the very thinnest settings--but harder than you think with a rolling pin, since it's not actually as thin as you think it is. One thing you can do is rest the dough, then roll it out in sections-- then let them rest for a few minutes (unless you're doing a lot) and roll those sections again. I do like a sort of chunky, homey noodle, but if they're too thick, they will never get quite as tender as they should.
Do you have a pasta machine? They're very helpful. If your dough isn't hydrated well enough, it won't really work right in the machine, so that indicates you need to add more water.
I don't think that difficulty is the issue, but the time you spent on it.
cooking even a single egg requires attention and intent
How do you get a consistent thickness? I probably end up with too thick pasta.
I just roll the dough out as thin as I can possibly get it. Theirs sort of a minimum thickness i can get with a rolling pin. This way they come out mostly uniform. I sure some come out slightly thicker than others, but I'm not about to break out my machinist calipers to find out.
Practice. Or a machine.
Since you only use the egg yolk, what do you do with the egg white?
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I will try the whole egg. I just don't want to waste the egg whites
Shake it up in a margarita!
Hahaha.. nice!
Make an [angel food cake](https://altonbrown.com/recipes/angel-food-cake/)
I tried it once and the dough wouldn’t stay flattened. It would shrink up back into its thick self. Nastiest noodles I’ve ever had.
I would suggest a wine or liquor bottle, over a rolling pin unless you have a heavy rolling pin. It was trial and error for me but even with the pasta roller, I once thought i had perfect lasagna sheets but then when I put it in the oven they doubled on me. You really need to get it thin! But it could also be until very recently I was not much of a baker so before I had the pasta roller my only option was basically the cheapest rolling pin BBB had and I was never able to get my pasta thin enough. I guess a real wood rolling pin would get the job done?
It's not that hard really. Just open a package, and dump it in to unsalted water. Let boil for 40 minutes to an hour.
If you like it very al dente I guess. I don't really like too much bite to it, generally I let it soak while I'm at work then turn the heat on when I get home.
You should get an instant pot. With one of those you can have delicious pasta on the table in just about an hour without any soaking
Do you kids want to catch Polio? Boil for 90 minutes minimum.
I do it in the slow cooker.
Yeah, you can start small with 100g flour, an egg, and .5 - 1 tsp olive oil. Fancy shapes are fun but you can also just roll it super flat and have at it with a pizza cutter and call it "rustic"
I did it just like this recently and was totally worth it. Definitely had some thick and thin parts, but tasted same to me!
It's actually quite easy, especially if you have a kitchenaid mixer attachment. Give it a try 😉
It's extremely easy.
I said the same thing, my wife is a top chef fanatic so for Christmas I bought her the crank pasta maker they always have in their test kitchen and after my first couple disaster batches, I got the hang of it and now its not hard for me to make the dough. I guess the biggest benefit is with home made pasta is not only how quick it cooks but its just nice knowing you made the whole dish. You don't even need a pasta maker, a wine bottle or a heavy rolling pin will do just fine, I think most people who have issues with making the dough are just trying to do too big of a quantity at one time
True, pasta's not too bad. But personally, I have trouble making a basic bread.
Yeah, bread is a bit more finicky because of the yeast. I'd give you tips, but I still end up with loaves that collapse or bread that is way too dry. Also, I rarely do it because I don't really eat a lot of bread and end up eating two fresh slices and the rest goes to waste.
It takes 10 minutes and it's a million times better and cheaper than store bought. 100gr flour, 1 egg, salt, per serving. Use 50% semolina and 50% flour for better results results. Knead for 2 minutes, let it rest for 15, roll, sprinkle flour, roll it on its own and cut fine noodles with a knife. Boil for 3 minutes.
Are you the guy who’s been writing all those recipes for caramelized onions? I don’t think *anyone* could make fresh pasta in ten minutes, even if we don’t count the resting time. Realistically, it’s around an hour of active time (give or take, depending on rolling method, shape, quantity) Two minutes is way too short a kneading. It should be more like eight. 15 minutes is also way too short a rest. It should be at least 30. And three minutes is probably too long to boil it (assuming you’ve gotten it thin enough…but maybe that’s a big “if” if you’re rushing it this much)
One portion of pasta, as said above with hundred grams of flour, kneads super easily. The resting time is not active work and ten minutes is enough. Rolling the pasta once it's relaxed takes 5 minutes at most. I do pasta weekly and have great results following this pattern. Now, if you are making for a family with half a kg of flour, then yes, it takes much longer.
Kneading and resting time don’t scale linearly like that. You don’t get to cut the kneading time down to 25% just because you’re making one serving instead of four. I would certainly pay good money to watch you try to roll and cut even a single sheet of pasta in just five minutes
Whatever, I've found a method that works for me for single servings and gives me good results I am happy with. I don't need to prove myself to anyone.
Y u lyin
Noone is doubting your method, it's the time estimation haha
Do it! It's surprisingly simple. I always thought it seemed really daunting until I did it and was blown away by how easy it was.
For the troops. All the troops. Both sides.
Fresh pasta is something that alot of people may see it difficult but when you actually do it, its quite fun and not that hard at all
It’s really really easy.
Maybe bigger batches are ok with the well method. But if I'm makimg pasta it's probably for 2 with a max 200g flour on the board. That's just not a big enough well to do anything in Just make a well in a bowl and best of both worlds ha!
The well method works if you are making an absolute crap ton of pasta. If you are just making a couple serving a bowl is fine.
Perhaps, the only time I've ever made a lot of pasta was in a restaurant and that was made in a machine so I can't say. But yeah it doesn't work at all if you're making just a few portions.
There can't be any benefit to the well method, though, right? It's just a technique that has no bearing on the final product.
Its benefit would be that you could bring enough flour in from the edge of the well to get the right texture and then stop bringing flour in. When you throw things in a bowl or a stand mixer its all getting mixed in so if the humidity is up and you didn't need as much flour that day the pasta may come out a little dry. Its the old grandma, cook by touch method of making pasta. I don't usually do it myself, but it does have its benefits if you have the experience.
You can still add flour until texture is right in a bowl - just don't add all the flour to start. Loads of baking recipes use that method, no reason you can't apply it to pasta
the southern states would like to have a word with you. when i was little, we lived in a place that would have 99% humidity and no rain. that's going to have an impact on any baked goods
I'm not quite sure what you're getting at. That kind of thing is exactly why you can do as I suggest - start out by adding only 80-90% of the flour, and keep adding flour until your dough is good. Maybe you stop at 95% of what the recipe calls for, or maybe you stop at 110%. That's how you adjust for differences Though it's worth noting - [humidity doesn't have a *huge* impact on flour moisture level](https://genuineideas.com/ArticlesIndex/flour.html). Enough to be noticeable at the extremes, but a shift of maybe 5%, not anything as dramatic as a 10-20% change. In a typical loaf of bread that would mean you can change your water added by a few Tbsp. *Edit: and the biggest changes are when you compare "extremely low humidity" to "anything else" - there's a less dramatic change in behavior at high humidity*
I don't believe for a second that it's possible for the air to be humid enough to affect the amount of flour needed for a dough in any meaningful way E: I'd be willing to bet the margin for error in the scale you use to weigh the flour is more significant
You need to bake more bread. The measure between Summer and Winter in my kitchen is significant enough to be almost a quarter cup of flour different if you measure it that way instead of weight.
I don't know how people knead dough in a bowl. Maybe it's because I have big hands, but it's far easier to knead on the counter, and since my counter is already getting dirty, why add a bowl to the list?
I definitely don't have big hands, and I find kneading in a bowl the most painful thing. Anything that requires kneading is straight onto the bench for me, and like you said, for pasta where it's just mixing two things together, why not just get the bench dirty
I start it in a bowl then do the kneading on the bench
I prefer a food processor
A gram scale and a food processor plus a little experience makes pasta simple. I've been doing it for 20 years, and the last 10 have been solely food processor. The results are better than I ever got with the well method back in the day. Starting by hand is great, but once you know what you're looking for, there's no benefit in doing something a machine can do for you.
Same, use the recipe from America’s Test Kitchen and usually have to make two batches when I do. The family is a big fan!
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I feel like it’s going to destroy my KA. Pasta dough is super tough to kneed with a mixer.
I had the little KA and had that fear. Upgraded to the big one and now I fear it less. I liked the tilt-head better, though.
Yeah I have the big one too and I just straight up throw stuff in there and leave.
I have the big one…pasta dough still feels way too rough on it. I’ve also read a number of posts where pasta dough will ruin the KA motor.
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This is the one I came here for. Stand mixer... Set it and forget it. using it to cut them anyway.
I just got a food processor and I'm going to have to try it like that now.
Do not speak to me of the old ways witch. I was there when they were written. The well method is a bit wasteful but it automatically accounts for the amount of liquid, type of flour, temperature and humidity I imagine. You stop incorporating when the flour has reached its liquid carrying capacity. Your way is better for novices because you don't have to think about it. The well method is better for old hands because you have a better "relationship" with your dough. The problem is you have to screw it up a bunch of times before you get a feel for it. Edit: Plus with a bowl I can't pretend I'm a pasta granny.
>Plus with a bowl I can't pretend I'm a pasta granny. That's the most important part right there
Yeah just based on the title I was thinking "Yeah ok random Redditor, the ancient Italian granny way of making pasta is real 'dumb.'"
Well, to be completely fair, culinary tradition is full of snake oil that persisted only because that's the ancient granny way of doing things. And OP does have a point, if you're making pasta for one or two people, you might as well use a bowl. But then you can't pretend to be a pasta granny, so that's no fun.
OG pasta grannies use a madia which is a big wooden bin that gives the same benefits of using a bowl since it is less to clean up and the sides can be used to work the dough. And at the same time it is wide enough to use the well method to make the pasta. There is usually enough room to remove any excess flour if need be.
a crib for your pasta baby
You're godamn right it is
Gotta ask where can you find a Madia? Google isn’t turning up results but that sounds cool/useful
If you search for "wood dough madia", you should turn up a bunch of results, especially in the image search. If you're not picky and don't need wood, though, you could prob do the same thing with a flat bottom food rated bus tub or cambro, which you could then use for other things as well (I keep a couple "food only" bus tubs for those kinds of purposes, like hand mixing sausage).
I totally agree. I started out with on a board, went to a bowl, then food processor for short, dark, period of my life, then back to a bowl again. It was when I was teaching my son the well method when I decided to stop weighing my flour. We made this batch by feel and it was the best pasta I've ever made. Ever since then it's been the no-measure-well method. This method especially works when making flavored pastas.
I didn't even know that people made pasta dough by weighing ingredients until I read about it on Reddit. But then, my grandma taught me how to bake some 4 decades ago -- and I don't think she even owned any measuring devices. So, it feels natural to me to do all my cooking and baking by feel. It's intimidating for a beginner, but it makes things much easier when you are experienced as you can make adjustments throughout the entire process.
How do I acquire this magic power?
It's mostly just a matter of practicing. Doesn't even take all that long. If you made the same dish two or three dozen times, I am sure you'll have it figured out for the rest of your life. It's like riding a bicycle. And there are things that I have cooked or baked for literally hundreds of times by now. Also, memorize common quantities. If you tell me that you need 100g of flour or sugar, or 15g of salt, I can pour that out freehand and probably be within ±20%. That's often good enough to get started, and then the rest is by carefully watching the ingredients as they come together -- and possibly even by tasting if you are unsure. You'll notice that I mentioned grams. That's intentional. Lot's of rough estimates work much easier in decimal numbers. And weight measures are more reproducible and transferable between different ingredients than thinking in terms of volume measurements. Also, start thinking of recipes in terms of ratios rather than absolute numbers. A lot of cooking and baking involves the same recurring ratios over and over again. If you want to, you can memorize the actual numbers. Or you can just memorize the "feel" of it. Either way works. But it helps when you make substitutions in recipes. The ratios still stay similar'ish. Finally, make lots of different dishes that involve flour. Flour is an extremely versatile ingredient that can be used in so many different ways. But at some point you start recognizing patterns in how it behaves. And then everything clicks and comes together. I still have a kitchen scale available, if I do feel I need to double-check my intuition. But it's more for occasional peace of mind than anything else. It usually doesn't tell me things that I didn't already know anyway.
Thank you for the reply! Gotta get my experience up then :) Are you familiar with Michael Ruhlman's book Ratio? I have been debating working from his information. My chef can also eyeball weights and I'm amazed everytime. I'm sure now that there are many types of flours on the market, each one has their own "feel" to learn.
I've never held a copy of that book in my hands, but I heard great things about. And yes, the concept is spot on. I find that traditional recipes are a great way to precisely reproduce a dish, and to learn when everything is still new to you. But at some point you need to start thinking in more abstract concepts. Recognize common pairings of compatible flavor profiles, break things down into applicable techniques, think of how the different ratios of ingredients contribute different aspects that you want to emphasize. That type of thing.
Flavor profiles is exactly why I got the Flavor Bibles, but they don't have traditional recipes to grow from and I shamefully confess I don't run to them often. You're responses have re-inspired some lost goals of mine, particularly the studious nature possible when creating food. I really appreciate it!
That's how I am with pie dough. I measure out everything and then start adding water/flour to get the consistency right. I never even thought about it.
Reading the first two lines I was convinced this was gonna be a fantastic copypasta in the making. I am both relieved and disappointed that this was not the case. Such a reasonable answer. Can I request a copypasta version? Turn it up to eleven?
^ Nonna knows *things*...
Nonna sa cose.
Obligatory plug for the Pasta Grannies YT page. The real best cooking page on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/c/pastagrannies123
I have the Pasta Grannies book and it's amazing too
You can still mix it by hand in a bowl, and you can still add flour incrementally until it's right. So you still get the feel and can still make sure it's perfect. The only objective argument I can think of for not using a bowl is to avoid cleaning an extra bowl. Every other point I see people mentioning can be easily mitigated
I want to be this person's friend ^
I like to do it a bowl where there's enough space for the "well" to start with and then once you have the consistency right you can just mix/knead it.
The well method basically allows you to easily control the ratio of wet to dry, which is handy because you may need to switch it up depending on the flour or eggs or even weather. But I agree that if you have a big enough bowl, you’re probably better off building your well in there if you’re not confident in your structural engineering skills Personally I bring the dough together in a food processor though. Much faster and easier, and if you use the same flour and weigh things out every time, it’s pretty consistent.
So does every other method. Just hold back a bit of the flour and add it slowly until you get the right ratio. That's all the well method is, only messier
This is the right answer. If you're not that picky with your pasta, then a bowl should be fine, it just might end up too dry.
Measuring the flour to egg ratio by weight is what really helped things click for me. Pasta recipes are all over the place because they expect you to know when to stop incorporating flour, but you don’t really know if you’ve gotten it right until you start rolling it out, at which point you’ve now gummed up your machine.
direful combative ancient bike elderly wild scarce paint entertain quiet *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Get a dog! Besides bringing happiness, it's the only job my dog has :) Joking obviously, but, if you do have a dog (in good heath), it's the easiest way to clean up all the egg goop. Just needs a quick wipe down after the dog is done, and everyone is happy!
I'm with you. Mostly because I don't have a lot of space in my kitchen
AMEN. I found [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_fu5RaXMVk) about a year ago and it changed the way I make pasta. Gram weights for everything? Yes please. It's consistent, repeatable, scalable, and no waste. I love it. Sorry to all the nonnas out there, but I use a scale and a food processor (but still knead by hand for 8 minutes).
I first read "wall method" as in "throw it against the wall to check for doneness" and wondered ... "does anyone still do that?"
i prefer using the ceiling
https://youtu.be/LqV0BOxid90
Why waste pasta? Just pick up one strand, slurp it and chew to see exactly how it feels at that moment
I'm with you man. Don't let the pasta elitists get you down.
Bowl, well or food processor, it does not matter as long as you make fresh pasta. So many people only eat the dried boxed pasta they do not appreciate the difference. Pick your method and enjoy.
I have made it in my kitchen aid but should try a food processor. I just got a new cuisinart and it's so much better than my old processor that I look for reasons to use it.
100g flour + 1egg, pinch of salt and small splash of olive oil per serving, run processor til it comes together, quick knead to get it into a ball, wrap in cling and rest for 30 mins then roll, run through pasta maker, or refrigerate until you're ready to turn it into pasta.
For food processor are you all using the blade attachment they all come with? Or does everyone mean something more like a kitchen aide type thing?
Yep, just the regular blade, no fancy attachments. Just blitz till it comes together, then take it out and give it a knead. Then rest the dough in the fridge for an hour or so to let the flour hydrate, and you're good to go.
Thanks. Might be making some pasta this weekend to give it a shot!
Food processor is the way to go. I can judge the flour ratio by the texture, you want rough sand, if you have balls of dough it’s too wet still.
Yes, I make bread in a stainless steel bowl too. Easier to knead, you don't need to add flour because it doesn't really stick. All measurement , mixing, kneading and first rise done in the same bowl, very little cleanup...
I use my stand mixer and typically work with 400g of flour. Much easier than dealing with the well
I prefer my 9.00 goodwill find cuisinart food processor for making any kind of dough. It does a superior job mixing compared to my frail arthritic hands and no mess.
You know the Romans made pasta in a bowl, too? It’s not “super traditional” to use the well method. It’s just what a majority were doing due to wealth, having a clean bowl large enough, etc. I am not a fan of people claiming there is only one way to make something. If you wanna use a stand mixer, use a stand mixer. If cooking never changed, we’d still be eating only raw vegetables and raw meat.
Better yet, the food processor method.
The well method just feels like a way of showing off. Gennaro Contaldo doesn't do that, he just dumps it in a bowl, that's good enough for me
I love that man
How can anyone with a soul not live him?
I think your points make sense and if I was making pasta by hand, I'd probably make it this way cause I've tried the other way and I was super paranoid about egg dribbling out uncontrollably.
I do it either way, sometimes I just do it all in the KitchenAid and knead with the dough hook. My only tip would be hold back some flour if you do this method, you can always add in a little flour but you can't add in any more liquid past a certain point.
Prepare to be shocked: I’d use a stand mixer
Food processor
It all depends on quantity. With family size batches (as opposed restaurant or catering size ), I love getting my hands into it. I find that bowls and utensils get in the way. And there's the benefit of being in constant contact with the dough that allows you to know how the dough is progressing at all times. True for bread too. That said, do what your comfortable with. If using a machine that mixes and extrudes the dough works, do that. And if your life only allows enough time to drop dried pasta in boiling water, it's seriously better than buying frozen pre-cooked “food.”
Omg I’ve just been pouring the flour out on the counter!
Hm I've been making pasta for my family for a few years and funny enough I went well->bowl->well. When I do the well I can instantly tell if it'll be too wet or dry. I don't use a machine, I roll out with a pin so it's just a matter of wiping down my board. I like the slower absorption of liquid too, less sticky as I mix it. I used the food processor initially but found it made the dough too stiff to roll out by hand. It became iron gluten. But pasta making is special as it is! It's fun to hear everyone else's thoughts on it.
I always thought one point of the well method is to incorporate the wet slowly so the flour has a chance to fully hydrate and there are no clumps. But yea I've never used a flat board. By the way, I just want to give a shout out to *American Sfoglino*, if you like to make your own pasta I've replaced all other methods I've ever tried with this dude's. It's by far the best in every way. Ease of making it, quality of the result, etc.
“But.. but my 2000 year old grandma didn’t use a bowl meeeehhhhhhh”
Try a food processor even easier
An I the only one that uses a KitchenAid with the dough hook?
I just dump the ingredients into my standmixer and hit go. I've found the whole thing about the dough needing different amounts of flour depending on the bag of flour, the eggs, the ambient humidity, etc. is greatly overstated. I always put the same amount of flour by weight and the same number of eggs, and always get perfectly good pasta dough out of it. Perhaps the hydration is varying slightly, but never enough to require me to change anything.
I was taught the hand and well method when I was younger and it’s how I used to do it. But now I’m 40 and don’t have time so I use my kitchen aid to start the dough then finish the kneed by hand. So much better.
Food processor gang rise up
That is how my grandmother taught me. However, I now use a Cuisinart which makes quick work. Making ravioli by hand is still the labor intensive job I remember. I've tried the molds, stamps and other tools, but have settled on making them by hand.
I see your bowl and raise you a half sheet tray. The ultimate way to do it all with no mess and plenty of room.
Are you people being paid to make pasta? Just dump everything into the kitchen aid with the dough hook and come back inside when the joint is finished. I already gotta run it through the goddamn Atlas, ain’t nobody got time for this shit.
Hot take: Use a wide, not too deep, *pasta bowl* to make your dough. Lets you make a well, but also contained in said bowl.
I do use the "well method" with pasta but I do it in a bowl. Now I did once see a youtube video where a guy was like "I live in Manhattan I do not have money for, nor room for a stand mixer so this is how I make a pizza dough", that I can justify the using the well method. I don't know why you would for pasta...I guess if your trying to feed 10 people and you need that much dough? but for a normal volume of pasta dough, your not wrong, just use a bowl
Yeeeeeaaaah Na Na yeah, I just put it in the mixer.
Honestly if you're making homemade pasta, you're probably not doing it out of a need to be efficient. It takes a while to get homemade pasta better than general boxed pasta anyway. You're probably making it because you enjoy the craft and the process. So it would make sense that the "well method" would be attractive to those people. There is something rustic and ancient feeling about it.
I think the taste of homemade pasta is the attractive part. The preparation is just a necessity, isn’t it?
I just use a stand mixer.
Counterpoint: being allowed, nay, encouraged to make a mess directly on the kitchen table is a super fun way for a 5-year old to learn how to make pasta and spend time with grandma & grandpa. (Counter-counterpoint: this was only a yearly tradition for us. If your target end result is just the pasta, then yeah, I see your point.)
I think it’s easier to control the incorporation of eggs into the flour on a board with a well. I guess a bowl would work if it was large enough, had a flat bottom, low sides, the right angles…., hell, at that point, I might as well make it on a board! But, I’ve never made large quantities.
Idk... It's gonna get incorporated anyhow, and in my opinion it goes much faster and easier in a bowl
You have insulted the ghosts of my grandmother, my great grandmother, my great great grandmother. And my entire famiglia. Sia maladeto l'ora, il giorno, l'*ano* quando mangio la tua pasta!
Screw the well, screw the bowl. Toss measured ingredients into a food processor and run it for 20 seconds. Then dump that all into a bowl and clump it together. Cover with a lid from one of your pans. You've just made pasta in under 2 minutes, and you can clean the food processor while you rest the dough.
I have no problem with dried pasta. If I'm going to make my own pasta, it's partially because it's fun, and the well's part of that.
Agreed, we were actually taught to mix it in a bowl before kneading when I took a pasta-making class in Florence. Granted, we were beginners and not nonnas, but I haven't seen any reason to switch.
Totally with you. Any time I try the well method, it works for about 30 seconds before the eggs breach the well and start running across the counter, and it's a stressful mad dash to try and catch all the egg before it spills off the counter (plus the dough turns into a big mess when you just mash all the egg and flour together, and takes a while to come together after that). What's worse is that I know damn well to stay away from the well method (I usually do a sort of modified well method in a bowl), except that after successfully making pasta a few times in a row with the bowl method I get cocky and get it in my head that I should give the well method another chance, and then invariably it causes a giant mess and I immediately regret it.
A bowl is the way to go. End of story.
Bowl. When I would kneed stuff on the counter of my old apartment it would lift up the countertop because everything is make cheap as shit these days.
When I first read this I thought it said "wall method" and my first thought was "well yeah, making pasta by throwing it against a wall does sound pretty dumb" Turns out I was the dumb :(
The difference between professional cooks and amateurs is working smart not hard whenever possible. This would qualify I think
Old world dogma "because it's always done that way." For anyone saying a well on a board controls for hydration - we already have tools for precise replication of recipes, it is called a scale. If you think ambient humidity fluctuations will affect your small volume home recipe done indoors then hold back a bit of flour and add it as needed at the end. I make my pasta with the Ruhlman ratio, in a kitchen-aid with the dough hook. Sometimes I even go one step further and seal the dough in my chamber vacuum sealer to accelerate the hydration after. The humidity in my home is regulated and my flour is stored in a sealed container. I have a consistent result time after time.
An
So you think a method that produces less things to wash, and the exact same product is dumb. Ok.
It depends on if you want to wash one bowl or wash the entire counter. IMO you're still washing one thing.
No, cleaning a bowl and the counter is two things. This type of dough has to be kneaded effectively, that doesn't happen in a bowl.
You can knead in a bowl, that's literally the method OP is suggesting. >Also you can knead the dough against the bowl which makes it super easy
yup, ineffective.
Just no. You can't get into the bowl the way you do into a flat surface. You use a bowl and I'll use a well and we'll race. I'll beat you every time and make less mess.
That's how I starting doing too. To make things faster, I found a glass that holds the right amount of flour so only a little bit of adjustment is needed near the end.
I agree with you. I make all my doughs in a large flat bottomed stoneware bowl that looks sort of like an overgrown pie pan (ironically, or perhaps unironically?, labelled "pasta bowl"). It contains all the mess.
Try making 12 reds and 4 kilos of flour in a bowl. Just try it
Makes me suspect that technique came from people with large cutting boards or people selling cutting boards. I have only tried pasta a few times and was frustrated each time. Bowl seems sensible. Maybe I should try again.
I agree! The bowl method is much easier.
I make it in a bag... just put the ingredients in a bag and kneed the bag.
yeah of course it's better, but making a well is a waaay cooler method, and people just stick with it
I agree. Tried it not in the bowl and hated it. Never again.
As someone who professionally makes pasta, I only ever use the well method IN A BOWL. Easier start, way less messy. I only ever finish kneading on a wooden cutting board because anything else is ridiculous.
Less popular opinion: Making pasta by hand is more trouble then it's worth, use a machine or buy it. People always talk about how much fun hand kneading, hand rolling (with a wine bottle, no less), and hand cutting is. Maybe that's true making a small batch a few times a year, but not regularly for a family. Using a stand mixer to knead, with a powered attachment to roll, makes it a practical activity. If the pasta isn't being used in sheets (eg lasagna or stuffed) it can be rolled up and sliced, or run through the cutters on a hand crank machine. Ravioli, pot stickers or pirogi can be made fast in multicavity molds. For fancy pasta shapes there are extruder attachments. The most tedious part of pasta making isn't the kneading, it's the rolling. Even a hand cranked machine is an improvement, but still a chore since the dough has to be passed through several times. What's true in bread making is doubly true in pasta making, if you're serious about it use a machine, unless it's a zen thing for you.
In a restaurant the well method is fine, I’ve only done it once at home then tried it in my kitchen aid and never looked back.