How do I roll homemade pasta better?

November 7, 2022 5:23 AM

What are you tricks and tips for the rolling out stage to keep it from a globby mess, using a Kitchenaid roller?

I have a recipe I like for the ratio of ingredients, and I am happy with the taste upon cooking, but I can't seem to master the rolling out part. I am using a kitchenaid pasta roller attachment and following their recommended settings. I start thick and then run it through multiple times, adjusting the thickness by 1 setting in each run. I use small amounts of dough for each pass through the roller.

I tend to like my pasta thin, no matter the shape. I tend to roll it cold after it has rested as I find that it becomes elastic and sticky the warmer it gets and won't play well with the roller attachment when it warms up.

I've had some luck with dusting the dough with flour before pushing it through the roller, but that makes a huge flour mess. I've also tried catching it out of the roller and then tossing it in flour to keep the strands from sticking to each other, but it still ends up in kind of a pile and stuck together. It still tastes great when I cook it, but a ball of linguine strands stuck together like a bird nest is not the look I am going for.

What are your tips and tricks? I like using my kitchenaid roller and don't have the hand strength or patience to roll it out and cut it out by hand on a board.

I also don't have a lot of counter space so I've resigned to just making a giant flour explosion in my kitched each time I try.

posted by archimago to Food & Drink (9 answers total)

I pretty much just do what you do and dust everything with lots of flour at each step. I will dust the dough sheets as a roll them out as needed, then I set them aside slight folded and dusted with more flour until I am ready to cut them. Then I will cut each long strip of raw dough in half or so, if sticky give a light dusting, and run it though to cut and usually have a minimum of sticking. I am pretty much resigned that making pasta will result in a flour all over the counter.

That said I have also been eyeing some of the folding pasta drying racks since they don't take up much space and look like they would help even more with sticking.
posted by Captain_Science at 5:35 AM on November 7, 2022

You just have to make a huge flour mess.

What's your ratio of flour to wet? What sort of flour are you using? Even between 00 flours, different brands will absorb more liquid.

You shouldn't make much mess other than around the roller itself but the key is to make sure you're using a fairly dry dough (this is where you really need to use a roller) and to flour the sheets between each roll if they are still sticking.
posted by turkeyphant at 5:47 AM on November 7, 2022

From what you've written, you just need to add more flour to your recipe (1-2T to start) and to your rolling process. The dough shouldn't be that sticky when you roll it thru the machine. Yes - it's messy.

Dust a small piece of dough in flour, roll it thru. Fold it like a business letter, dust, and roll it again on the same setting but on the short side. Go down 1 setting on the machine and do the roll/fold/dust/roll/fold/dust routine again. The folding kneads the dough, strengthening it, etc. After this, the dough should have more strength and not be as sticky. Once it's in good shape, you can roll it 1-2 times each time you narrow the rollers.

Oh, and you might want to try using semolina flour for rolling - it's grittier and works like ball bearings - helping the dough glide through.

Once the dough is cut, coat it generously in flour before forming the nests.
posted by jenquat at 5:47 AM on November 7, 2022 [1 favorite]

Your dough is too wet. Wet dough doesn't cut well, and the strands tend to stick together in a gloopy mess. Add more flour to your recipe.

You do need to dust with a lot of flour while rolling and cutting, but you also need a drier dough.
posted by aquamvidam at 6:06 AM on November 7, 2022 [2 favorites]

I am not familiar with the kitchen aid roller specifically, but I have a hand crank roller and in addition to what had been said above about pasta making being a floury mess I will add that the very smallest setting in my pasts maker is just unusable. Too thin or too much of a drop from the preceding step, I am not sure. But it just can't be used without mushing and shredding the pasta. And isn't necessary for the cutter anyway. So, depending on what's happening It may be that you cannot got to the very lowest settings on yours either.
posted by jacquilynne at 6:06 AM on November 7, 2022

Chiming in with the "your dough is too wet" crowd. I use a hand cranked roller, and the key is as dry a dough as I can get to stick together, preferably allowed to sit in the fridge for an hour before I roll it out.

The first few times through the rollers it's crumbling rather than sticking.
posted by straw at 6:32 AM on November 7, 2022

I usually make my pasta dough, and let it rest, and it will appear to have absorbed all the moisture. But once I start rolling it out, it wants to crack and stick, so it's important to dust each piece that I'm rolling liberally in order to ensure that it won't.

Another thing I find helpful is to use the widest setting on the pasta roller as part of the kneading process: roll the pasta through, book fold, and roll it through again - repeat as needed - until that dusting is absorbed and your dough has the texture you want - nice and smooth, without sticking or without any of the sort of surface crinkling that I get when things are insufficiently kneaded.
posted by entropone at 6:44 AM on November 7, 2022 [2 favorites]

And yes, drying rack or homemade equivalent are essential. Even good non-gloppy noodles will merge back together into those nests you describe if you leave it to dry in a pile.

If you don’t mind a bit more potential flour mess (and face it you’ll have to clean up the counter anyway), the open door of a kitchen cabinet makes a very decent pasta drying rack.
posted by sesquipedalia at 7:08 AM on November 7, 2022 [1 favorite]

A clean broomstick with each end resting over the back of a dining chair makes a good drying rack. But be careful when you pick it up to move it to the other room where the fireplace is going so that it can dry faster and both of your hands are balancing the noodle laden broomstick and you’re trying to nudge the door open with one foot because that is when the dog who you thought was napping over there in the corner will jump up and start mouth snapping those raw noodles off the broomstick like there’s no tomorrow.
posted by veneer at 6:53 PM on November 8, 2022 [1 favorite]