Homemade Fresh Pasta with the Pastamatic

Meet my Pastamatic. A lucky find on Ebay a few years ago, it has a strong motor capable of kneading pasta dough, and an extruder to form the dough into noodles.


Tonight, I am reheating a tub of pasta sauce I made a while ago and froze down. Since I thus don't have much to do to prepare the sauce, I have the time to make the pasta instead.




My basic pasta recipe is from The Pasta Machine Cookbook by Donna Rathmell German.

This makes enough for 3 good portions. I do find I need to add a little more water than the book states, but this may be because I am normally using a medium rather than a large egg.

• 1 1/3 cups semolina
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 egg
• 2 tbsp water

Put the semolina into the machine bowl and switch it on.

Slowly drizzle the oil, egg and water into the machine as it kneads.

Once all the liquid has been poured in, let the machine knead for another few minutes.

Stop the machine and check the consistency of the dough. Add a little more water and knead some more if it's still gritty.

Once the dough is smooth, let it stand for a few minutes.

Warm up the chosen extrusion plate in a jug of hot water.

Open the extruder flap on the machine and run the machine to bring dough to the front of the extrusion screw.
Dry and fit the warmed plate.

Extrude noodles, cutting to your chosen length, and spreading the cut noodles out to dry.

When the remaining amount of dough left in the extruder screw is not enough to extrude, remove it from the machine and roll the last bit out by hand and cut into ribbons.

Let the pasta stand for 5 - 10 minutes before cooking.

Cook in plenty of boiling water in a large pan for about 3 minutes.

Serve with a good homemade pasta sauce, and topped with curls of parmesan.