From the Strategist: The Most Essential Pasta-Making Tools, According to Professional Pasta-Makers

Photo: Courtesy Retailer

Experts recommend pasta machines, cutters, and more to make fresh, homemade pasta, from the Strategist

The secret to making pasta at home is that it’s not actually that hard, especially once you have all of the right tools. But even decisions as seemingly simple as whether you should buy a hand-crank pasta machine or an electric one can quickly become daunting if you don’t have a guide. Do you need a ravioli pin, or will a tablet suffice? What about a drying rack? To figure out what pasta-making tools you really need, and which you can leave sitting in your Amazon cart, we asked Linda Miller Nicholson, author of Pasta, Pretty Please and the “pasta artist” behind the Instagram account Salty Seattle, and Meryl Feinstein, the founder of Pasta Social Club in Austin, Texas, to walk us through everything they use to cut, shape, and cook their lovingly made and endearingly bright pasta.

---

Pasta machine

Marcato Atlas Pasta Machine

For most people making fresh pasta at home, an electrical pasta machine is overkill. But even if you’re getting a modest hand-crank pasta-maker, it’s important to invest in one that’s accurate. That’s because a pasta machine is basically made of two rollers, which start at a wider width then taper inward. “As you reduce the space in between them, that’s what makes the pasta sheet get thinner and thinner, and the calibration on those two rollers is very, very important,” explains Nicholson. “Even if it’s a 64th of a millimeter off, you’ll have one side of the pasta sheet pulling and being a little bit more narrow, whereas the other side doesn’t grab it quite as much.” That’ll leave your pasta more prone to tearing, which will undo all of your hard work. One brand that’s very much solved this problem, according to Nicholson, is Marcato Atlas, an Italian company that’s been making these pasta machines since 1930. “There’s a hand-cranked version, which is fun if you are with someone else or even by yourself,” she says, and they’re reliable enough for even the biggest batches.

---

Rolling cutter

LaGondola Professional Pasta Cutter Wheel, Ravioli Cutter

Another pasta-making tool that’s worth investing in is a rolling cutter. “You wind up using them so much in pasta-making that you don’t want the cheapo, stainless-steel ones,” says Nicholson. Also, because those lesser-quality ones are “not ergonomically comfortable, they don’t have the ability to cut nearly as well.” That’s why she likes this brass one from LaGondola with a wooden handle, which is heavy enough to smoothly and evenly slice through dough without tweaking your hand unnecessarily.

---

Kitchen scale

Ozeri ZK14-S Pronto Digital Multifunction Kitchen and Food Scale

If you’ve heard it once, you’ve heard it a thousand times: Kitchen scales are a game changer – and that’s especially true when you’re working with pasta. Feinstein that while making pasta is mostly about technique and eyeing ingredients, a little precision doesn’t hurt. “Weighing your ingredients instead of estimating by volume will help you reach perfect pasta dough every time,” she says.

---

Pasta bike

Marcato Atlas Pasta Cutter Bike

Nicholson has what she describes as a love-hate relationship with the pasta bike, but the trick to making friends with this funny-looking gadget is to not think of it as a cutter but as a scorer. It’s not going to cut through every line, consistently and firmly because it has so many moving parts. But it’s a handy tool for “anything that needs essentially, like, fairly precise squares or rectangles — like garganelli or cannelloni — or really anytime you want to cut a lot of something quickly.” Just remember to go over the scored lines with your nice, smooth rolling cutter.

---

Bench scraper

OXO Good Grips Multi-purpose Stainless Steel Scraper

Another must-have tool is a bench scraper, for dividing dough evenly and even helping to mix ingredients, and Nicholson’s absolutely favorite one is the Campbell’s dough knife. It is hand-forged by a man in the United Kingdom, and Nicholson describes it as nonstick and “virtually indestructible.” However, you must also order it from this man’s Instagram account. A more readily available option that we like is OXO’s stainless-steel scraper, which isn’t hand-forged but is reliably sturdy, especially for the occasional pasta-maker.

---

Wooden board

John Boos R02 Maple Wood Edge Grain Reversible Cutting Board

While you can certainly roll out your pasta directly onto your counter, a wooden board or cutting board is helpful as a work surface. “Something with a natural finish is ideal for kneading and rolling out pasta, no matter the type,” Feinstein says. “The porous material will absorb excess moisture when kneading your dough and rolling out sheets, and the friction from the natural finish will make hand-rolled shapes like orecchiette and cavatelli a breeze.”

---

Ravioli tray

Marcato Atlas Ravioli Tablet Pasta Maker

If you’re new to making pasta but have your heart set on mastering ravioli, Nicholson recommends this tray, which is both easier to use than a ravioli pin and creates less waste. “The ravioli tablet actually has the perforations on an overlay. You roll a pin over, and the pin in conjunction with those perforations actually cut the ravioli in one movement, rather than having a step to cut afterward.” Feinstein adds that if you don’t want to spend money on a ravioli tray, use a cookie cutter or a flutted cutter for square ravioli.

---

Stainless-steel round cutter set

Ateco 5357 Plain Edge Round Cutters in Graduated Sizes

These stainless-steel round cutters are great if you’re making tortellini or cappelletti — pasta shapes that start with circular pieces of dough and are then shaped — but they’re also nice to keep in the kitchen, more generally. “You can use them for everything: biscuits and cookies and pasta and making funny Halloween shapes of things for my kids; they come in very handy. I think, just in general, having a set of nesting circular cutters comes in very handy,” says Nicholson.

---

Pasta stripper

Eppicotispai Garganelli and Gnocchi Stripper

If you need to make textured pastas, you need a pasta stripper, which allows you to roll the dough over a ridge surface.”One of my favorite pastas to make from scratch is gnocchetti sardi (Sardinian gnocchi),” says Feinstein. “You roll the flour/water-based dough against a ridged board to create texture, which is perfect for catching sauce. The board can also be used for making garganelli, a hand-formed penne pasta.”

---

Sheet pans

Nordic Ware Natural Aluminum Commercial Baker’s Half Sheet (2 Pack)

Once your pasta is cut and shaped, you need a place to store it or let it dry out a bit, especially if you’re not eating it all at once. And the easiest way to do this is to lay out your pasta on a sheet pan. Nicholson recommends getting full-size sheet pans if you can because “you have more pasta-drying power with that.” But if space is a constraint, or you want something a little more versatile, get a half-pan. And though you don’t need them to be super durable, since you’re just laying out pasta on them and letting them dry, she recommends keeping a set just for pasta so that the pans don’t warp from the heat of the oven.

---

Nordic Ware Half Sheet Cover

You can also buy a lid for your half-sheet, which makes it easier to store fresh pasta in the fridge or take it on the road, if you’re traveling to someone else’s house for dinner. Just be sure to buy the lid integrated with the pan, from the same brand, otherwise they might not fit.

---

Spray bottles

Empty Amber Glass Spray Bottles with Labels (2 Pack)

A little water goes a long way, whether it’s getting the right consistency for your dough, keeping your pasta sheets from drying out as you work, or sealing your filled shapes. A few spritzes from a spray bottle is usually all you need, and as long as you’re using small increments, you’ll never have to worry about over-saturating dough.

---

Pastry bags

Ateco 4721 Disposable Decorating Bags, 21-Inch, Pack of 100

Using large pastry bags (no tip necessary, just cut the corner) to pipe your fillings will give you more control and expand the types of stuffed pastas you can make at home since some shapes, like agnolotti and ravioli all’uovo, require it. Plus, no mess!

---

Parchment paper

Reynolds Cookie Baking Sheets Non-Stick Parchment Paper

You don’t want to lay out pasta straight on the metal sheet pan because it will almost definitely stick, so be sure to put down a piece of parchment paper first. Nicholson likes precut sheets, for ease of use.

---

Plastic wrap

Reynolds Wrap 914 PVC Film Roll With Cutter Box, 18-Inch

“I feel very strongly about plastic wrap,” says Nicholson — so much so that she keeps an 18-inch roll of the stuff mounted underneath her kitchen cabinets for ease of use. When you’re making pasta, you’re using a lot of plastic wrap to keep fresh dough from drying out. “You’re always pulling it down, your hands are floury, so trying to get out a little tiny box and finagle and work with the box while you’re, you know, in the middle of needing an extra pair of hands anyway is not a pleasant thing.” And the reason Nicholson likes the 18-inch-wide plastic wrap is because it’s the same width as her half-sheet pans. “So when you’re talking about a half-pan, you can go across the short direction of a half-pan.”

---

Stackable food-drying trays with nets

Eppicotispai Beechwood Stackable Food Dryer With Net

Though drying pasta and letting it rest on a sheet pan is more than sufficient for most types of pasta, for filled pasta like ravioli, it can be nice to let these more delicate pastas rest on a food-drying tray with a net. “Even if you’re lining the sheet pan with parchment and sprinkling it with semolina, if you’re, you know, working slow and you have it out at room temperature, filled pasta will still occasionally stick to the parchment,” says Nicholson. “The airy drying racks do circulate airflow beneath, and they’re very handy for room-temperature drying over a period of time — say, like an hour, hour and a half.” It’s also nice for a little nest of tagliatelle, since the airflow ensures that “it doesn’t clump down there on the bottom like it would with a sheet pan.” Barring that, Feinstein says using generous amounts of semolina on a sheet pan is also a good way to prevent sticking.

---

Drying rack

Acacia Pasta Drying Rack

Since she’s making so much pasta, Nicholson has a bespoke drying system in her kitchen, made by mounting long wooden dowels from the hardware store underneath her kitchen cabinets. But the plug-and-play solutions work if you’re not willing to install more kitchen gear. “I use those for any pasta that is like a long-noodled pasta, like fettuccine, tagliatelle, lasagna, pappardelle. And even if I’m ultimately going to nest those pastas, meaning wrap them into the little coils and set them on a drying tray or sheet pan, I still tend to hang them for a few minutes just so that they can develop a little bit of a skin on the exterior so that when I nest them, they, like, don’t stick together.”

---

Stockpot

Demeyere John Pawson Stockpot, 8.5-Quart

Once your pasta is made, it’s time to cook it. For that task, Nicholson likes this stockpot from Demeyere. “It’s extremely even, and it cooks really well,” she says. “Also, I cook on induction, so it’s important to me, obviously, that something is magnetic.”

---

Cuisinart 766-24 Chef’s Classic 8-Quart Stockpot With Cover

However, if you don’t want to spend over $400 on a stockpot, or don’t need to worry about having induction-friendly cookware, any 8.5- or eight-quart stockpot will do, like this well-reviewed one from Cuisinart for under $50.

---

Spider strainer

Helen Chen’s Asian Kitchen Stainless Steel Spider Strainer

Nicholson uses one of these spider strainers to drop the pasta into her stockpot full of (salted!) boiling water and to gently remove once it’s done. Using this tool is easier than trying to dump out a gallon of hot water into a colander and is less violent than pulling out a strainer from a dual-immersive stockpot, which can be hard on the pasta. “It’s funny; whenever I teach workshops, I realize that I touch the pasta like it’s a baby. I’m gentle with it,” says Nicholson, because “you put so much work into it, and you want the end result to really be the very best it can be.”

from Eater - All https://ift.tt/314Y1la