Freezing fresh pasta for future raviolis

August 23, 2014 10:06 AM

Our bumper crop of veggies is coming on and our neighbor's chickens are producing eggs at an amazing rate. I don't have time right now to complete assembly on raviolis, but could make large batches of frozen pasta and filling. What is the best way to store the pasta?

Should I just leave it as a big lump? Should I roll it out into thick discs for more rolling later? Or can I go all the way and roll into the thinness of sheets I need? If so, what's the best way to store a big flat sheet (or strip, i.e. can I fold it on itself to save space in freezer, or should it be stored flat on a cookie sheet), and finally, is thawing just a matter of leaving it at room temperature for a while, or does thawed pasta do weird things that will make it difficult to use for raviolis?

posted by ikahime to Food & Drink (6 answers total)

You need to roll it, make it into the shapes you want, stuff it, and then freeze it. I think non-yeast doughs don't freeze well--too hard to work when thawed. Or you could make the filling and freeze it in smaller containers, and then do whatever you want when you have more time.
posted by Ideefixe at 10:19 AM on August 23, 2014

I don't have any direct experience with freezing pasta dough, but I have pretty extensive experience with freezing pie crust. I form it into a thick flat disc -- about 4-5 inches in diameter and 1-2 inches thick, enough for one crust, and then thaw it in the fridge for a day or so before working it. It works fabulously (for pies, anyway, which certainly aren't yeasted), and it's worth a shot for pasta! It's a pretty low-risk experiment; all you would waste is some flour and eggs if it doesn't work, right?
posted by fancyoats at 10:42 AM on August 23, 2014

Best answer: I freeze pasta dough all the time. No need to overthink it; just roll it into a thin brick, like 1/2" or so (it will freeze and thaw faster that way). Make the edges as rectangular as you can. Wrap tightly in a double layer of plastic; thaw unwrapped but loosely covered on a plate in the fridge for a day—the only thing to think about is keeping it from drying out and/or getting squishy from too much moisture while thawing.

I've found that this works best with semolina/AP/egg doughs; storage seems to exacerbate the challenges of other doughs - semolina/egg gets crumblier and AP/egg gets even mushier.
posted by peachfuzz at 11:11 AM on August 23, 2014 [3 favorites]

What peachfuzz says. We keep a block of pasta dough in the freezer (again, semolina/AP/egg) for schedule-free Sundays when we feel like making pasta.

On top of that, you can also thaw that block of pasta dough, make ravioli, and then freeze those. One gallon freezer bags of assorted ravioli are a year-round godsend.
posted by rocketman at 12:19 PM on August 23, 2014 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Yes, ideally I'd be just making the whole raviolis and freezing those, but I just don't have the time. Thin brick of pasta it is!
posted by ikahime at 1:39 PM on August 23, 2014

Another possibility is you could freeze the eggs and use them later.
posted by zorseshoes at 3:01 PM on August 23, 2014