Pasta Making: Papperadelle

Last Saturday I made homemade Papperadelle for my 2 Cheap Chicks Challenge. I used to watch my Ma make pasta and ravioli by hand but nowadays we have modern tools that work quite well. My pasta making tools are my KitchenAid mixer which I used to mix up my dough and my Atlas Pasta Machine to roll the dough. I have not used the KitchenAid Pasta Roller attachment as they were not available when I purchased my Atlas. Papperadelle is a very wide pasta noodle and is very rustic and inviting. It was the perfect choice for my Spinach Gnudi.

HOW TO MAKE THE DOUGH
4 eggs
water
3 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

Place the four eggs in a liquid measuring cup. Add water to equal one cup of liquid total. Beat a little with a fork and add to bowl of your mixer. Using the dough hook attachment, on medium speed, mix in small amounts of flour at a time. Once the flour is added, mix slightly longer. Remove dough to a floured surface and knead. If too dry, wet your hands and knead. If too wet, add small amounts of flour, One tablespoon at a time. The dough should be pliable but not sticky. Leave on floured surface and cover tightly with plastic wrap to rest, about 10 minutes.

HOW TO ROLL DOUGH

Cut a racket ball sized piece of dough from the larger ball and knead slightly. Be sure to cover the larger dough back up with plastic to prevent drying. Place your Pasta Machine on #1 or the thickest setting. Roll dough ball through once.

Flour each side and triple fold the dough as shown in the photo. Run through the pasta machine again, refold and roll one last time set at #1. See photo below to see how this looks.

Now turn the dial to #2 and roll dough once. Do not fold anymore at this point but you may need to flour the dough with each pass through the machine to prevent sticking. Continue to turn the dial up in each numerical increment until you get your desired thickness. I ended with #5 but may have liked it better at #7.

HOW TO CUT DOUGH

Place the entire rolled piece of dough on a floured surface, sprinkle with more flour and roll up tightly. Using a sharp knife cut the noodles as wide as you would like. Since I was making Papperadelle, I made the noodles about 3/4 inch wide. I do have the attachments to make linguine and fettuccine but not wide plates for Papperadelle.

Unroll each noodle and place on a very floured towel to dry or you may hang them on a pasta drier. I was cooking these right away so a towel worked for me. If you do dry these then you can store them in the refrigerator to be cooked later. Be sure they are dried, floured nicely, and wrapped well before storing in the refrigerator or they will clump.

To cook place in well salted boiling water and cook about 3-5 minutes for al dente. Drain and serve with your favorite sauce.

To clean you pasta machine, brush excess flour off using a pastry brush. Using a slightly damp cloth wipe the machine down. If there is dough caught in the wheels, then leave machine out over night to dry the dough. The dried dough will come out with a gentle shake or nudge with a wooden skewer. Do not soak the unit in the sink, it is better to clean using the most dry technique as possible.

So you see with some modern contraptions, pasta making is very simple and quick, it can probably can be made up before the water boils.

Note- I have used pasta drying racks in the past and I feel that they are unnecessary. The pasta gets too dry and brittle and breaks and it is one more thing to store away and have to be put back together. Towel drying works well enough, especially if you plan to cook the pasta immediately which is preferred. When making pasta, flour is your friend as long as you do not get the dough too dry. Flour does prevent the dough from sticking back on itself. Before committing to purchasing a machine, try borrowing someone elses first.