Cooking question for those that make their own pasta

[worm761]

Ok. I have figured out how to make pasta using my pasta maker. And now that I know how, it really is super easy! I can't believe I couldn't do it. LOL....Anyway. I got to thinking. I successfully made spaghetti noodles for the first time and we had spaghetti for dinner a few weeks ago. It was really good only I over cooked the pasta. Since it is fresh it only needs to cook for a minute. So I started thinking about how Robbie likes mac and cheese and I have a die for elbow pasta. I could so make this! But I would like to make it up in advance and dry it out. Do any of you dry your own pasta? If so, how? I have a food dehydrator (that I am not very good at using). It is one of those that just has a fan on it, no heater. Could I use that to dry out the different pastas? Do I need to spray the holders with non-stick spray first? Would that ruin my pasta? Any advice on drying pasta would be welcome!

 

[crisi]

My great grandmother used to hang hers in the kitchen. It was like laundry day. Of course, it wouldn't have been elbow macaroni.

 

[FLAngie]

It may not work for elbow noodles, but when we make spag. & linguine noodles or ravioli we alway just freeze it. When we are ready to use it we just pull it out of the freezer and drop it into a pot of boiling water.

 

[micheleq]

My grandmother would make her pasta in the basement, and let it air dry.

I just looked in my copy of Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking (a fab. cookbook worth every penny), and she has a whole section on homemade pastas. She says to air dry as well.

 

[pittsburghmarc]

I have a question...why? I am the biggest fan/advocate of fresh pasta. Make it all the time. BTW, Banananut squash ravioli time

But there are so many good dry pastas out there, why take the time to dry your own elbow noodles? Cheers to you for taking the time.

Most dry imported pastas use more semolina than fresh noodles. I'm guessing for your fresh you're using AP or 00 flour.

I miss ALFREDO'S!!!!

 

[MazdaUK]

I would stick to dried for macaroni cheese as I think it risks going too squishy. When I make pasta I hang it over a clothes airer, but however much I make it always seems to go at once So no worries about storing it!