Introduction
Pasta is a very versatile dish as the dough itself is rather bland and lends well to sauces and toppings. To me a pasta should be delicate enough to be worth making fresh but tough enough to survive rough handling with a fork as it is spun around the fork into saucy spools.
Experimental Findings
What’s the verdict on the first test recipe?
The first test yielded a very delicate pasta. I rolled it out very thin as well so it almost felt like it might break too easily. Instead it held up beautifully and was gentle and tender. It was a good pasta. I wish it had more chew to it though.
How can more chew be obtained?
One option I’m seeing around is to make the pasta with half all-purpose flour and half semolina flour. I plan on trying this next.
Can the pasta be frozen for later use?
Yes and no. If I was to freeze this pasta I would coat it first in semolina and then place it into an air tight container in small nests. The problem is that few containers are truly air tight and inevitably your flour coating will get hydrated and your pasta will stick together. Int he short term you can definitely freeze it but I wouldn’t leave it there long. Next time I would like to try to freeze the pasta sheets instead of the cut pasta. I think this would work better as full sheets are easier to un-stick.
Tests
Fresh Pasta: Test 1 – Delicate Fettuccine
Exploratory Kitchen 