Steaming Bowl of Hot PastaKitchen Tip Tuesday:
I like making homemade pasta but I do not have a pasta machine. I don't like having around a kitchen gadget that is large and good for only one thing, as my storage space is very limited.
In the past I would cut my homemade pasta with a knife or with a pizza cutter - but I wasn't able to get uniformly sized noodles.
For some time I had been looking for a little kitchen gadget that I saw at the grocery store one time. I didn't know what it was called or what it was used for - but it looked similar to a pizza cutter except it had more wheels or blades on it.
I finally found one at Garden Ridge for $7.00...and it's actually an herb mincer.
Fresh Herb MincerI used my normal recipe for pasta, rolled it out, let it dry for about 1/2 hour and then ran the herb mincer down it. Worked great...at least the first batch did. When I made it today using the same recipe except included some whole-wheat flour it tended to gum up the mincer...I think it had more to do with the consistency of the dough...I sprayed some cooking spray on the mincer and continued and it worked fine.
Uncooked PastaYou do have to press down hard on the mincer and run it down the dough really quickly to get the cuts all the way through the dough.
Here is a link to another post I wrote on homemade pasta and it includes the recipe I use and my preferred method for drying the pasta.
Visit Tammy's Recipes for more Kitchen Tip Tuesdays.
Incidentally I tried the herb mincer on some fresh herbs and it didn't work worth beans!
6 comments:
Okay, that is cool. We like making homemade pasta and actually want to get a pasta roller so we can make our own eggroll wraps and tortillas, but this is a great idea for the actual pasta. :)
I also make pasta at home without a machine. What a clever idea!
Kimi At thenourishinggourmet.com
What a great idea! Making homemade pasta is still on my to-learn list:)
What a great way to cut your pasta!
What a handy little gadget! I would love to try your pasta!
~Kelli
I've been using one of these for pasta, too. It really is a time-saver that doesn't cost an arm and a leg. Just make sure that you cut on a flat surface. A flour-sprinkled cloth underneath the pasta creates a somewhat pliable surface underneath, helping the cutters poke through the bottom of the pasta.
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