Well I can tell you, it's not hard at all. Unless you're me. The whole thing started out simple enough, I wanted to make a batch of fettuccine for tonight's dinner. I usually make my pasta dough the day before I roll it so it has a better texture, so this was yesterday evening. Then I remembered we had some spinach in the freezer, so I figured I'd make spinach fettuccine. Then I figured it'd look nicer if I made half a batch of spinach and half a batch of regular, sort of a nice contrast, right? That's about where I poured the first glass of wine. Then I started thinking, what if I just laminated sheets of the green and white pastas together, so each individual noodle would be green on one side and white on the other? Pretty cool idea, thinks I. About the time I got to the third glass, I had another idea; STRIPED PASTA!!!
So here is the story of my striped pasta in pictures.
Moral of the story? Don't drink and cook. Or do, just be ready to make some pretty weird stuff.
Started off with half a batch of each. (Recipes at the end of the post)
Rolled out sheets of each roughly the came size.
Then rolled them together and trimmed to a square.
Then ran the sheets through the old Pasta Queen until level 5.
Then cut into my 2 sided fettuccine. I should have stopped here.
It did look pretty cool.
But since I'd thought of the striped pasta...
I laid out the noodles in alternating colors.
Then rolled out super thin sheets from the trimmings and laid these out on the noodles and used the rolling pin to fuse the sheets to the noodles.
Then cut to size for the machine.
And then rolled and cut my striped noodles.
Basic pasta recipe. I like my dough fairly dry since I just knead it in the pasta machine.
3 cups AP flour NOT SIFTED
4 eggs.
1/4 teaspoon salt.
Run it all through the food processor until it's a granular powder that will just clump if you squeeze it. Squeeze into a ball, wrap in saran wrap and refrigerate overnight to let the flour hydrate.
Cut into fourths and knead each piece on setting one, folding in half after each pass, 5 or 6 times or until dough becomes silky and pliable. Then proceed through the settings to whatever thickness you desire.
(if you prefer a dough that's easier to work with by hand, use the same measurements but sift the flour before measuring it. This will decrease the amount of flour by 30% or so, giving you a much softer dough.)
For spinach pasta, use the same measurements but use 2 eggs and a thawed and drained (REALLY drained, squeeze it through paper towels or cheesecloth) 10 oz. box of frozen spinach. Run the eggs and spinach through the food processor until it's smooth, then add the flour.
So here is the story of my striped pasta in pictures.
Moral of the story? Don't drink and cook. Or do, just be ready to make some pretty weird stuff.
Started off with half a batch of each. (Recipes at the end of the post)
Rolled out sheets of each roughly the came size.
Then rolled them together and trimmed to a square.
Then ran the sheets through the old Pasta Queen until level 5.
Then cut into my 2 sided fettuccine. I should have stopped here.
It did look pretty cool.
But since I'd thought of the striped pasta...
I laid out the noodles in alternating colors.
Then rolled out super thin sheets from the trimmings and laid these out on the noodles and used the rolling pin to fuse the sheets to the noodles.
Then cut to size for the machine.
And then rolled and cut my striped noodles.
Basic pasta recipe. I like my dough fairly dry since I just knead it in the pasta machine.
3 cups AP flour NOT SIFTED
4 eggs.
1/4 teaspoon salt.
Run it all through the food processor until it's a granular powder that will just clump if you squeeze it. Squeeze into a ball, wrap in saran wrap and refrigerate overnight to let the flour hydrate.
Cut into fourths and knead each piece on setting one, folding in half after each pass, 5 or 6 times or until dough becomes silky and pliable. Then proceed through the settings to whatever thickness you desire.
(if you prefer a dough that's easier to work with by hand, use the same measurements but sift the flour before measuring it. This will decrease the amount of flour by 30% or so, giving you a much softer dough.)
For spinach pasta, use the same measurements but use 2 eggs and a thawed and drained (REALLY drained, squeeze it through paper towels or cheesecloth) 10 oz. box of frozen spinach. Run the eggs and spinach through the food processor until it's smooth, then add the flour.
