You've gotta roll with it
Aug. 11th, 2008 03:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ventaAt the weekend, I decided to make pasta.
Now, thus far everyone I've said that to thought I meant boil some water, put some pasta in it, and serve. I actually meant that I was going to make pasta, out of flour and eggs.
I was following instructions given in The Naked Chef - while I happily admit that Jamie Oliver himself can be quite irritating, I quite like his cookery books. The instructions basically go: get some 00-grade flour, get some eggs, make into dough. There's a bit more detail, but that's the gist.
So, I did that. The dough was extremely sticky and refused to behave nicely, so I added a little more flour until it stopped clagging to my fingers, the bowl, passersby, etc. Jamie wanted me to have a "smooth, silken, elastic dough". I was prepared to settle for "dough". To be honest, I wasn't sure what a silken dough would be like, and was rather hoping it would become obvious. It didn't.
Anyway, having let the dough rest a while I began to roll it out. Jamie recommends aiming for about a milimetre thickness. My dough wasn't having any of it. Roll this way... dough rolls out. Roll that way... other dimension shrinks dramatically.
So, basically, my dough failed to be elastic enough. I carried on anyway, and the resulting pasta was edible if a little odd... the dough having been far too thick, the pasta was surprisingly chunky. Possibly I could market it as a new style, I'm not sure.
However, I'm not sure how to fix it for next time. Maybe I didn't knead it for long enough, though I felt like I'd helped it do all the developing it was going to do. Maybe the dough was too dry. I had, after all, put more flour in than was recommended, but I can't see how you could have made it into a sensible dough without doing that.
Does anyone have any ideas ? Or does anyone have any general pasta-making recommendations ? Jamie recommends Tipo flour, but I couldn't find that round these parts so ended up with McDougal's 00 sauce and pastry flour.
Maybe it's just a matter of practice :)
Now, thus far everyone I've said that to thought I meant boil some water, put some pasta in it, and serve. I actually meant that I was going to make pasta, out of flour and eggs.
I was following instructions given in The Naked Chef - while I happily admit that Jamie Oliver himself can be quite irritating, I quite like his cookery books. The instructions basically go: get some 00-grade flour, get some eggs, make into dough. There's a bit more detail, but that's the gist.
So, I did that. The dough was extremely sticky and refused to behave nicely, so I added a little more flour until it stopped clagging to my fingers, the bowl, passersby, etc. Jamie wanted me to have a "smooth, silken, elastic dough". I was prepared to settle for "dough". To be honest, I wasn't sure what a silken dough would be like, and was rather hoping it would become obvious. It didn't.
Anyway, having let the dough rest a while I began to roll it out. Jamie recommends aiming for about a milimetre thickness. My dough wasn't having any of it. Roll this way... dough rolls out. Roll that way... other dimension shrinks dramatically.
So, basically, my dough failed to be elastic enough. I carried on anyway, and the resulting pasta was edible if a little odd... the dough having been far too thick, the pasta was surprisingly chunky. Possibly I could market it as a new style, I'm not sure.
However, I'm not sure how to fix it for next time. Maybe I didn't knead it for long enough, though I felt like I'd helped it do all the developing it was going to do. Maybe the dough was too dry. I had, after all, put more flour in than was recommended, but I can't see how you could have made it into a sensible dough without doing that.
Does anyone have any ideas ? Or does anyone have any general pasta-making recommendations ? Jamie recommends Tipo flour, but I couldn't find that round these parts so ended up with McDougal's 00 sauce and pastry flour.
Maybe it's just a matter of practice :)
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no subject
Date: 2008-08-11 05:55 pm (UTC)I don't think have used pastry flour - internet trawling reveals that pasta flour can be used for bread or pizza, so I'd try pizza flour if not completely plain or Dove's Farm speciality pasta flour if you want a comparison (stockists and online stores - Goodness Direct def. have the pasta one.). I used a lot of Dove's Farm stuff when I was gluten free and think they're good. (Pasta recipe and flour discussion I found while thinking about this.)
There's a BBC blender technique here, where they don't seem fussed by which flour you use.
no subject
Date: 2008-08-11 06:05 pm (UTC)The recipe and associated instructions I was using said to use 00-grade flour and large eggs, so that's what I went for. As I understand it, type of flour is largely a matter of taste. Once I get the basic practise down I'll experiment.
I've discovered on the web an awful, awful lot of bum recipes - people writing who don't really know what they're writing about, or writing from the US where the flour (among other things) is very, very different. So in an area where I know nothing I'd rather trust one reputable source than risk following duff advice.