The Fresh Loaf

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Tip - Cleaning Pasta Machine

DanAyo's picture
DanAyo

Tip - Cleaning Pasta Machine

I was making pasta for Lasagna today and thought this post might interest others. If you remove all of the cover guards from the machine, cleaning will become a breeze.

In the past I have had a miserable time rolling out and cutting pasta in my hand operated machine. The pasta was sticky and made cleanup a chore.

3 suggestions

  1. This is the most important - mix your pasta dough dry. It should never be sticky in the least.
  2. Sprinkle sheets (front and back), and also sprinkle flour on cut pasta to keep from sticking.
  3. I disassembled my machine and removed all unnecessary shields. This made cleanup much easier.

When pasta is made properly, cleaning the machine is very simple and generally requires only a light brushing to remove flour dust.

Here is an inexpensive pasta rack that works super and folds up very compact.

My rack in action.

 

ciabatta's picture
ciabatta

good stuff

i didnt know those could be removed.  i usually mix a piece of dough with just water and flour to run through a few times to pick up the loose bits and scraps.. that's how i cleaned it.. then i threw that bit away.

i have the ravioli attachment but looks like however you did those worked better.

j

DanAyo's picture
DanAyo

James these are shaped slightly different from ravioli and are called agnolotti. HERE is a nice video for shaping pasta that may interest you. The link above will take you straight to the agnolotti section.

I have a mold for ravioli, but I find making them by hand is fairly easy and enjoyable. Allie, aka GrowingStella taught me that making the pasta sheets very thin was best. I used her formula and instructions and made the best ravioli ever.

BTW - her Hokkaido Milk Bread is outrageous.

barryvabeach's picture
barryvabeach

Dan, interesting post ,  as usual.  I make pasta quite often, and usually tend towards very dry, so I don't have any real issues with clean up.  While the dryer you posted to looks nice,  I stole an idea from another poster -  oven racks propped up on cereal boxes ,   gives me one less thing to store.  

DanAyo's picture
DanAyo

Barry, have you thought about a small diameter wood dowel to move the cut pasta? You could cut is a bit shorter than the shelf depth so that it would fit between holes n the wire grill, and use it to move the pasta to the oven shelf. I love the way the supplied stick (pasta wand) makes transfer so easy and efficient.

I definitely get the storage concern. Room is precious. But for those interested, this tool folds up super compact. It is smaller than a rolling pin.