Is fresh pasta better than boxed?

[Nograts]

I'm watching this italian food documentary thing and they are making a tempting case for fresh pasta... I am thinking of forcing my wife to learn how to execute this pasta making. Is it worth the time invested? Good but not worth the time?

I'm also buying her a bathroom scale, a kitchen scale, and a magazine subscription to either Cooks Illustrated or America's Test Kitchen, which one is better?

:awe:

 

[Ns1]

So is fresh pasta better than dried? There's a disturbing misconception that, because it's just-made and doesn't come in a bag, it is. But that's completely untrue. Like a mother and her children, it's not a matter of loving one more than the other—it's just a different kind of love.

When to love fresh and when to love dried? The rule of thumb comes down to which sauce you're pairing with it.

USE FRESH PASTA FOR CREAMY, DAIRY-BASED SAUCES
Making a delicate sauce that starts with melted butter or whole milk? Get ready to have your at-home pasta game completely upgraded by pairing your next alfredo or carbonara with fresh pasta, either by making it yourself or buying in a store. Want to bring the glory of fresh pasta home? Give this Creamy Pappardelle with Leaks and Bacon a spin with any fresh ribbon pasta you can get your hands on.

USE THE DRY PASTA FOR HEARTY, OIL-BASED SAUCES
Dry pasta's calling card is its toothsome bite (that's what you're going for when a recipe calls for al dente pasta). That firm structure will help it stand up to any meaty sauce you throw at it. Any high-quality dried tube pasta makes a great pairing with a spicy sauce like the one found in this Rigatoni with Spicy Calabrese-Style Pork Ragù.

AND THEN THERE'S BOLOGNESE
One exception to that general rule? Ragu bolognese. This classic is a staple dish of Northern Italy traditionally uses fresh egg pasta, despite the fact that, at first glance, bolognese seems like a textbook example of a meaty sauce that would pair well with dried pasta. What makes it different is the addition of simmered whole milk, which gives the sauce its rich, thick consistency. If you're making bolognese, always opt for fresh pasta.

http://www.epicurious.com/ingredients/when-use-fresh-pasta-versus-dry-pasta-article

 

[OverVolt]

Just throw finely chopped scrambled egg into oil based sauces. Akin to the bits of egg they throw into fried rice. nailed it.

Anyway, fresh pasta is not worth the time, ever. Your effort is better spent on preparing fresh veggies, home made sauces, marinated chickens, etc.

All that effort spent on the pasta vs dried and it honestly doesn't do much for the dish. But if you spent that time instead on what you add to the pasta the dish is 1000x better.

 

[Nograts]

Just throw egg into oil based sauces. nailed it.

Huh?

 

[Nograts]

Just throw finely chopped scrambled egg into oil based sauces. Akin to the bits of egg they throw into fried rice. nailed it.

Anyway, fresh pasta is not worth the time, ever. Your effort is better spent on preparing fresh veggies, home made sauces, marinated chickens, etc.

All that effort spent on the pasta vs dried and it honestly doesn't do much for the dish. But if you spent that time instead on what you add to the pasta the dish is 1000x better.

Allright...maybe I'll make some in the future as a novelty just to say I've done it. You sure even if it was big sheets of pasta (which I would assume would be much quicker) it's not worth it, for like lasagna?

What about the magazines?

 

[WelshBloke]

Anyway, fresh pasta is not worth the time, ever.

Good luck making ravioli with dried pasta. :whiste:

 

[OverVolt]

Huh?

I get an immune response to tomatoes I haven't had pasta with sauce in a decade or more.

I use Butter and EVOO 50-50 instead with a bit of garlic and breadcrumbs. Maybe a bit of egg or chicken and broccoli (steamed) or Brussels sprouts (sauteed in EVOO, lemon and w/ parm cheese).

Odds are realistically you guys throw ragu on angel hair.

 

[OverVolt]

Good luck making ravioli with dried pasta. :whiste:

Frozen w/ spinach all the way. Spinach freezes well. So it works out well. Making your own ravioli is so ridiculously time consuming for the benefit. Make spanakopita instead. Tastes better anyway.

 

[Nograts]

Frozen w/ spinach all the way. Spinach freezes well. So it works out well. Making your own ravioli is so ridiculously time consuming for the benefit. Make spanakopita instead. Tastes better anyway.

Like, you just add spinach to your ravioli that is frozen?

 

[CraKaJaX]

To answer the question, yes. However it's inconvenient to make. It's nice when you have company coming over or want to impress someone

 

[Kaido]

I am thinking of forcing my wife to learn how to execute this pasta making.

If you want to make it easy, Philips has a $300 appliance for making homemade pasta:

http://www.amazon.com/Philips-HR2357-05-Pasta-Maker/dp/B00REJMIJ6

Dump in flour & water and fresh pasta magically comes out - it both mixes & extrudes it for you. Walmart has 25-pound bags of flour for just shy of $13. If you eat a lot of pasta & want it fresh, it's the best way to go. Philips also sells additional discs for different pasta designs, so you have a lot of options for stuff like penne, spaghetti, lasagna, etc. Plus you can mix in stuff like spinach for different flavors. Pricey, but this is the best device on the market for making homemade pasta easily.

 

[NetWareHead]

Fresh pasta is a delicacy. Yes it is a pain to make and needs time, but the result is deliciousness.

 

[dullard]

If you already have a mixer of some kind, the effort and cost is as minimal as any cooking can get. I happen to have a bread machine, so I use that. But any other mixer can do the trick too. If you have none, then mixing by hand is not hard, but then fresh pasta starts to take some time and effort.

I do this:
1) Start my water heating.
2) Toss the ingredients in the bread machine (dough cycle).
3) 3 minutes later take the dough out.
4) Roll it somewhat flat with a rolling pin (it doesn't need to be very thin, so no need to put much effort into it).
5) Use a pizza cutter to cut it into strips (this takes less than a minute if you don't care about being precise).
6) Wait around for the water to finally reach a boil (notice how the fresh pasta didn't slow the process down one bit).
7) Toss in the pasta.
8) Wait ~3 minutes and drain.

Fresh pasta done that way is FASTER than dry because the cooking time is shorter but the prep time is the same (however long it takes your water to boil).

That said, it isn't always worth it. Fresh pasta is great on some dishes and adds nothing to others.

 

[Markbnj]

I get an immune response to tomatoes I haven't had pasta with sauce in a decade or more.

I use Butter and EVOO 50-50 instead with a bit of garlic and breadcrumbs. Maybe a bit of egg or chicken and broccoli (steamed) or Brussels sprouts (sauteed in EVOO, lemon and w/ parm cheese).

Odds are realistically you guys throw ragu on angel hair.

Ragu on angel hair sounds pretty good alongside whatever the hell it is you're cooking .

 

[herm0016]

Americas test kitchen is much better. we were getting both, but have stopped cooks.

 

[nageov3t]

all things being equal, I'd prefer fresh, but fuck that noise if we're just talking like a random Tuesday night dinner.

 

[Eug]

all things being equal, I'd prefer fresh, but fuck that noise if we're just talking like a random Tuesday night dinner.

Around here, you can buy fresh pasta in the grocery store, but it's not made fresh every day. However, the local market has it fresh made every day. Unfortunately, it's a lot more expensive, and it doesn't keep a long time obviously.

When we go shopping at the market, we'll buy it, but we keep dry pasta around most of the time since we don't go to that market that often.

BTW, my wife's extended family has some Italians in it and they refuse to eat any dried pasta. I visited them in Italy and arrived just before a meal. The woman of the house was boiling dried pasta and I asked what kind of pasta she was making for us. She looked at me, horrified, and said that it was for the dog. We were having something else.

 

[KMc]

If I need tube pasta, then for sure I use dried, but I just can't bring myself to eat a dried product that I can make fresh on my own in 15 minutes with 4 ingredients that are always on hand. To me, the taste and texture comparison isn't even close.

 

[Ns1]

BTW, my wife's extended family has some Italians in it and they refuse to eat any dried pasta. I visited them in Italy and arrived just before a meal. The woman of the house was boiling dried pasta and I asked what kind of pasta she was making for us. She looked at me, horrified, and said that it was for the dog. We were having something else.

:awe:

 

[nageov3t]

in what world would any sane person give pasta to a dog?

 

[NikolaeVarius]

Not really

http://www.seriouseats.com/2015/01/best-easy-all-purpose-fresh-pasta-dough-recipe-instructions.html

If you've reached this point and you're wondering why on earth anyone would bother to make pasta from scratch when it's just a boiling pot of water and a cardboard box away, then it's time to get acquainted with the fresh stuff. It's crucial here to understand that fresh pasta and dry pasta are two totally different beasts; they're best suited to different tasks and the qualities we look for when making them are accordingly distinct.

Dry pasta, on the other hand, typically contains no eggs. It's made by mixing semolina flour—a coarse wheat flour—and water. The two are industrially mixed, shaped, and dried at low temperatures for optimal storage. Not only is it more convenient than fresh pasta, but the denser, firmer texture requires—and stands up to—longer cooking times and holds up beautifully under heavy, hearty sauces.

 

[NetWareHead]

We make pounds of fresh pasta and freeze it. Properly protected against moisture (freezer burn), you can have fresh pasta anytime. When you cut the pasta, dust it with semolina flour (to prevent sticking together in storage) and package it up. It goes right from freezer to boiling water and cooks in a few minutes.

 

[Muse]

Maybe. I've made it, it's not hard to do, but IMO it's not worth the trouble. I buy dry pasta and boil it when I want pasta.

 

[Eug]

in what world would any sane person give pasta to a dog?

Apparently Italians I guess.

BTW, my wife's aunt used to make casseroles from veggies, rice, and ground lamb for her dog. She's French (Canadian), FWIW.

 

[Ns1]

Apparently Italians I guess.

BTW, my wife's aunt used to make casseroles from veggies, rice, and ground lamb for her dog. She's French (Canadian), FWIW.

Wtf Europeans.