While I am in love with the Roma by Weston Electric Pasta Machine, I pryed my flour-covered hands off of it last night in exchange for a night in the olden days. A lot of people prefer a manual machine to an electric one. It's true, there is something strangely beautiful about using a steel bodied hand crank pasta maker. It gives you an unexplainable credibility to use one. I feel like I'm now in some secret authentic pasta making club now that I've done it.
As always, I started out by covering my entire table in Semolina. I clamped the Roma by Weston 6" Pasta Machine to my cutting board and got to cranking. I am all about being seasonal and so I just had to make Pumpkin Ravioli.
I really think there's two approaches to this dish. One is to make it savory and the other is to make it sweet. I think it's good both ways, but as an obvious lover of dessert pastas, I like a Pumpkin Ravioli that doesn't run too far away from pumpkin pie but is still dinnertime fare. I opened up my spice cabinet and debated. On one shelf was the bay leaves, sage, and thyme, on another was the cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. I just love pumpkin too much not to season it in an intuitive way. I grabbed the cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger, and left the sage to Wolfgang Puck.
I sifted the Semolina with the spices and made my usual egg based pasta dough. I let the dough rest in a covered bowl.
To make my ravioli filling, I cubed a fresh pie pumpkin from my local farmers market and sauteed it in butter. Once it was soft, I poured it into the Roma by Weston Sauce Maker with some heavy whipping cream and cinnamon. I cooked down the remaining puree until it was thick enough.
I then hand-kneaded the dough a bit after it rested and then fed it into the machine. Once the sheets were rolled out, I cut the edges of the sheets with the cutting wheel. To make the ravioli, I attached the 2" Ravioli Cutter Attachment. My Pumpkin Ravioli Recipe explains how to use the attachment. The ravioli cooked in about four minutes.
I decided to make a hazelnut flavored sauce to enhance my ravioli, so I simmered heavy whipping cream and Frangelico on low heat for 20 minutes. To finish the dish, I garnished it with crushed hazelnuts.
I wanted to taste how my meat sauce from Sunday was holding up after I sealed it with the Weston Pro 2300 Vacuum Sealer, so I made lasagnette with the manual machine too. If you're not familiar with it, lasagnette is just a longer, skinnier version of lasagna noodles. My sauce was so flavorful, even more flavorful than I had remembered it from the beginning of the week, that I decided to make a basic pasta dough for the lasagnette. Click here for my basic pasta dough recipe.
The past week of pasta and sauce has been a lot of fun. It will take me a few hours to sweep all of the flour off my floor, and a few weeks to burn off the carbs, but it was all well worth it.
Back to Basics Pasta Making with the Roma by Weston Traditional Style Pasta Machine
While I am in love with the Roma by Weston Electric Pasta Machine, I pryed my flour-covered hands off of it last night in exchange for a night in the olden days. A lot of people prefer a manual machine to an electric one. It's true, there is something strangely beautiful about using a steel bodied hand crank pasta maker. It gives you an unexplainable credibility to use one. I feel like I'm now in some secret authentic pasta making club now that I've done it.
As always, I started out by covering my entire table in Semolina. I clamped the Roma by Weston 6" Pasta Machine to my cutting board and got to cranking. I am all about being seasonal and so I just had to make Pumpkin Ravioli.
I really think there's two approaches to this dish. One is to make it savory and the other is to make it sweet. I think it's good both ways, but as an obvious lover of dessert pastas, I like a Pumpkin Ravioli that doesn't run too far away from pumpkin pie but is still dinnertime fare. I opened up my spice cabinet and debated. On one shelf was the bay leaves, sage, and thyme, on another was the cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. I just love pumpkin too much not to season it in an intuitive way. I grabbed the cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger, and left the sage to Wolfgang Puck.
I sifted the Semolina with the spices and made my usual egg based pasta dough. I let the dough rest in a covered bowl.
To make my ravioli filling, I cubed a fresh pie pumpkin from my local farmers market and sauteed it in butter. Once it was soft, I poured it into the Roma by Weston Sauce Maker with some heavy whipping cream and cinnamon. I cooked down the remaining puree until it was thick enough.
I then hand-kneaded the dough a bit after it rested and then fed it into the machine. Once the sheets were rolled out, I cut the edges of the sheets with the cutting wheel. To make the ravioli, I attached the 2" Ravioli Cutter Attachment. My Pumpkin Ravioli Recipe explains how to use the attachment. The ravioli cooked in about four minutes.
I decided to make a hazelnut flavored sauce to enhance my ravioli, so I simmered heavy whipping cream and Frangelico on low heat for 20 minutes. To finish the dish, I garnished it with crushed hazelnuts.
I wanted to taste how my meat sauce from Sunday was holding up after I sealed it with the Weston Pro 2300 Vacuum Sealer, so I made lasagnette with the manual machine too. If you're not familiar with it, lasagnette is just a longer, skinnier version of lasagna noodles. My sauce was so flavorful, even more flavorful than I had remembered it from the beginning of the week, that I decided to make a basic pasta dough for the lasagnette. Click here for my basic pasta dough recipe.
The past week of pasta and sauce has been a lot of fun. It will take me a few hours to sweep all of the flour off my floor, and a few weeks to burn off the carbs, but it was all well worth it.
