Pasta almost disaster!

Sunday night, ingredients all bought, time to test drive the shiny new pasta machine. As said in a previous post, I had to modify the recipe I wanted to use so I was a tad nervous...would it work?

Well to start with I thought no! My dough was sticky, the machine clogged up and yucky holey pasta was produced. Nothing like the lovely pasta I usually admire when watching the likes of Masterchef. Disappointment quickly manifested into frustration and my usual calm nature in the kitchen was replaced with despair, why wasn't it working? It didn't help that a hungry toddler was whining and a certain person had decided to wreak havoc in the rest of the kitchen by attempting to make gingerbread (but that's another story!).



After a lot of moaning, complaining and at one point raking in the cupboard for a packet of ready made pasta to use I stepped back, took a deep breath and analysed what was wrong. The dough was wet, the recipe had stated to use three eggs which did seem a lot so the answer seemed to be to add some more flour. Slowly I reworked the dough and as I put it through the machine it started to work and lovely sheets appeared. 
With a smile on my face I got a bit carried away and went the whole hog. this resulted in a batch of tagliatelle.


My next hurdle was how long to cook it for, the recipe stated ten minutes but I was sure from watching TV it was a lot less. I popped it in a large pan of boiling water (salt and a dash of olive oil added). Within a minute the pasta had risen to the surface. With gnocchi this usually means it is ready but it seemed to quick so I left it a bit longer...and longer...and longer.


Eventually I drained it and added it to my sauce. Time to taste...


I have to be honest I was a tad disappointed. It was OK, but the sauce I had made was a bit bland and the pasta itself had a slimy texture. I am not sure why, but after reading up on the Internet I think either the  mixture was too wet or wasn't rested enough. A lot of the recipes recommend putting the dough in the fridge for an hour before putting it through the machine.


I think a bit of practise is required before I publish my recipe. I want to do the machine justice and produce some perfect pasta (gluten free of course).


To be continued...