Making Pasta at Home

Pasta is basically a part of Italian cuisine which is now found in almost every nook and corner of the world. This food is made from dough of wheat with vegetable extract or eggs as additive ingredients sometimes. It is dried when made without egg and otherwise it is termed as fresh pasta. It is generally hard when uncooked and is cooked by boiling it. This mouth watering dish is generally served with sauce and is of various types depending upon its shape like spaghetti, macaroni, fusilli and lasagne meaning thin rods, tubes or cylinders, swirls and sheets respectively.

Though you will get the pasta from a store near you, but making it at home is really rewarding. By preparing pasta at home, you can give your family a healthy treat of taste and can also go for different flavours and shapes which you will not find at the store. Things you need to have are the wheat flour, eggs (vegetable stew if want to make them dry) and salt, according to the taste.

First of all you take flour and egg on the surface and blend both the things with salt till you get smooth dough. Water can be added if necessary. To avoid tearing of dough, do not forget the kneading step. After this make two parts of it and roll the dough over the surface with the help of the rolling pin. There are many pasta making machines available in the market, but for the better results go for the rolling pins. You need to roll it so that it may not stick to the surface. Always try to make the strip as thin as possible. This is done because when you boil and cook it, it becomes almost double of its size.

After you have made the thin sheets of your dough you can give it the desired shape like rolling then into tubes etc. or you can even make them stuffed. Now place them out for drying by stretching them over the supports. Now you can cook it with salted boil water. Since you have used eggs, you have to cook it at the most three times. You can also make the dry pasta by making use of the durum wheat flour and vegetable extract and it is prepared commercially. Though making pasta by hand demands much labour but it is worth making that effort.

If you want to make your pasta more colourful then you can add chocolates, vegetables and many other items according to your taste and interest. But you should keep in mind that adding vegetables to the dough will make it less elastic and more difficult to roll into the thin sheets. You can make your pasta along with cheese, black pepper and other various ingredients to enjoy this delicious treat with your family and friends. The love and affection you will serve your family by making it with your hands will have no match with the ones sold at the stores.

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