If you enjoy fresh pasta adding a pasta maker to your kitchen tools is a no brainer. Not only do you get to control the ingredients and the nutrition that goes into the food your family eats, but there is also a zen quality to the preparation process. Mindful eating is the key to getting the most out of your foods and if you’ve gone to the trouble of using all the best ingredients for your dinner, why use a boxed dry pasta as one of your base ingredients? This stainless steel pasta maker is very easy to use and has a quick learning curve if you’ve never used one before. A few of the things I learned are not in the instruction booklet, so I’ve included a bit more detail here on how to use it. In your box you will receive 4 pieces: a clamp, a handle a base and a roller attachment. Out of the box there are a few things you need to do before using it for the first time. You will need to clamp the machine onto your table or counter top and insert the handle into the roller hole. I personally found that the drawers of my cabinetry interfered with clamping the pasta machine to my kitchen counter, so I used a thick cutting board to clamp it to instead. The rollers attach by sliding the entire piece into a slotted area on the back of the clamped base. Make sure that the TopZone logo faces up and is readable so that you know that you have placed it correctly and not upside down. You will also want to clean the machine by running a dry cloth over it to remove any excess oil. Then run a small piece of dough through the rollers. This is to clean the rollers so this dough is then thrown away. Other notes on cleaning- this is not a machine you will want to wash with water or run through the dishwasher. You will only ever need to use a brush to clean it. Also, no knives or cloths between the rollers. This is really a no fuss, easy clean-up piece of equipment.
To process your prepared dough you begin by setting the machine regulator to position 7. This completely opens the rollers and begins the process of shaping and flattening your dough. You will run your dough through the regulator (bottom part of the machine) 5-6 times always folding the dough over upon itself and adding a bit of flour to the middle if necessary, after each pass. Keep in mind, that if your dough is too dry, it won’t be caught by the cutting rollers in the next step (cutting your thinned . You can simply add some water to your mixture and pass it through again. If your dough is too soft (wet) the rollers won’t cut, which can be solved by adding some flour to your mixture. A good mixture will never stick to your fingers. With time, you will instinctively know the correct consistency that your mixture needs to be for the perfect end result. Once you have shaped your dough on the #7 setting, you will continue to run it through the rollers lowering the setting once each time - 7 to 6 to 5 and so on until you reach your desired thickness. Once this has been achieved, you will switch to running the dough through the cutters (top attachment to the regulator). Move the handle to the cutter that will give you the pasta size of your choice. You can choose between fettuccini or spaghetti noodles. Leave your pasta to dry for at least an hour before either storing in a cool, dry place for up to 1-2 weeks, or boiling to cook.
While all this whole process may sound intimidating, each step is really quite easy to do. It is totally worth the time and effort to know that your family is eating food made with only the freshest and best ingredients with no preservatives added.
22 фев 2021
