Make it Yourself...Pasta Making Equipment

If you want to make fresh pasta, you don’t really need many tools at all.  I can make good homemade noodles using nothing more than my usual bread-baking set-up; a cutting board or mat, flour in a shaker, a rolling pin, and a knife.  I roll them out, let them rest, cut them and let them dry right on the board.  I usually use a bowl to mix my dough, but many mix their dough right on the board too.

I also mix dough for larger sessions in my Kitchenaid and use my roller-cutter set to prepare them.  Very handy, as I don’t have to knead by hand, and I can use both hands to feed the dough through the roller-cutters.  A good hand-cranked roller-cutter machine is the choice of folks who don’t want to invest in a mixer.  They also have motorized attachments.  The roller-cutters usually come with a small stiff brush for cleaning them.

Some other useful tools are a good board; I like my reversible one with a lip on the front and back so it stays in place on the edge of the counter, and the Danesco mat, that allows both rolling and cutting.  Bonnie’s mom rolled out her homemade noodles on newspaper, and then she had minimal cleanup – however, that was before current inks, which come off on your dough.  Parchment might do the same job, I haven’t tried it.

I like this Tovolo colander, it’s small holes mean I don’t watch my spaghetti go right down the drain!  Myrna likes a pasta fork/spoon/server like this one; I use a good tongs.  And I would be lost without a good flour shaker.  My old flour sifter bit the dust, and I haven’t found another good one; and the shaker has a plastic top cover so I keep it on my counter all the time for baking.  I like the "pasta bike" for cutting wider noodles, it is adjustable, and works for crackers too.  In the larger picture, I am making filled ravioli, and I am using a fluted cutter that matches the ravioli stamp for sealing the dough.  

You do need some way to dry your pasta; fresh pasta needs to dry some before going through the cutters or even using the pasta bike.  You can dry on towel-lined trays, parchment lined trays, on an assortment of purchased dryers, or, as I often do, on one of my clothes-drying racks.  I find that the trays and clothes rack work best for me, the big rack doesn’t need table or counter space, and puts them at the right height to grab and run through the rollers.  I do put some newspaper under the rack to catch any flour and scraps for easy cleanup.

Fresh Pasta is a pleasure to make - I try to always have some in the freezer.