Comments | vox8: From Scratch Lasagna

vox8

From Scratch Lasagna

Feb 12, 2009 23:11

Tonight I decided to make lasagna and I did not have any noodles handy, so I made some. I used a recipe from James Beard on pasta for the noodles and it made a few too many noodles. Next time I go crazy and decide to make this I will save 1/4 of the pasta dough and while the lasagna is cooking I will throw together some ravioli with the remains of ( Read more... )

Comments 8

peteyfrogboy February 13 2009, 11:12:03 UTC

Yay! I made a scratch-noodle lasagna at Christmas and only boiled the noodles for a couple minutes, so it doesn't surprise me that it would work with no cooking at all. Looks tasty!

vox8 February 13 2009, 23:14:57 UTC

What level did you roll the pasta to? The instructions I found said to par-boil the noodles, but I took them down to the thinnest setting and that was a no go. I tried to boil one and it folded all over itself and was a bitch to unfold. I decided that was too much hassle and just put them in raw. It worked out just fine. I think had the noodles been thicker then there would have been issues - but I liked the texture of the super thin sheets.

peteyfrogboy February 15 2009, 23:48:40 UTC

I definitely didn't go to the thinnest setting. Probably about #4 or 5 out of 7 or so.

madrun February 13 2009, 13:04:20 UTC

That looks yummy! Great photo, do you do a lot of photography?

vox8 February 13 2009, 23:08:35 UTC

Yeah, it is one of my hobbies. I dabbled with getting serious about it, then realized it would take a lot more money then I was willing to devote to it. You can see a little of what I have done here:

I have been thinking about taking more food porn shots, but am not sure that the market isn't already saturated.

vox8 February 13 2009, 23:09:07 UTC

OK, I screwed up the whole HTML linky thing - but you get the gist I think.

talix18 February 13 2009, 16:57:12 UTC

I'll be right over!

(The comment has been removed)

vox8 February 13 2009, 23:12:58 UTC

Yeah, I have a "pasta machine" which is one of those hand crank jobbies. Without it I wouldn't even attempt to make hand made pasta. It is possible to do it with just a rolling pin and a knife - but I am not an old Italian momma.

As far as the how - mix flour, salt and eggs until it comes together. Knead for 10 minutes and then wrap in plastic wrap - allow to rest for at least an hour. Then you divide it up into workable pieces, run it through the pasta machine at the largest setting several times - folding it into thirds each time before passing through. Once it is supple you run it through the machine at steadily decreasing levels until you reach your desired thickness.

Then you either use as flat sheets (lasagna, ravioli) or you bust out the noodle cutting attachment and cut as desired. It is pretty darn easy - but it is time consuming.