Home
What's New?
FREE Recipe Book
Pastastic - The Book
Ask a Question
Pasta Stuff Pasta Machines
Courses & Schools
Beautiful Bowls
Pasta Pots
Best Cookbooks
Pasta Art
Pasta Mats
The Recipes Submit a Recipe
VIDEO GUIDES
Very Easiest
Pasta Salads
Make Fresh Pasta
Meat Recipes
Sauces
Lasagna Recipes
Pasta Soups
Baked Recipes
Seafood Recipes
Vegetarian Recipes
By Ingredient/Type
Cooking Leftovers
Search
More Foodie Stuff YOUR foodie stories
Favorite Restaurants
Pasta Info & Types
Foodie Articles
About Me Me And My Site
Privacy Policy
Contact Me
[?] Subscribe To This Site!

XML RSS
Add to Google
Add to My Yahoo!
Add to My MSN
Subscribe with Bloglines

Help - my pasta is drying out too much!

by Amie
(Phoenixville, PA)

Hi, love your website, love the recipes, and everything!

My question is: what do I need to do differently so that the pasta I make doesn't become sooo brittle after I have dried it that it breaks into little pieces?

I have made pasta (with regular flour) and run it through the pasta maker - then lay the individual strands out on a drier to dry.

Problem is, when they are ready to remove, they are soo brittle and break into little pieces as I touch them to take them off the rack.

HELP!

Thanks,

Amie.

Comments for
Help - my pasta is drying out too much!

Click here to add your own comments

Less time, or not at all
by: Matt - Pasta Recipes Made Easy

Hi Amie and thanks for your glowing website feedback,

Re: drying pasta, the truth is that I personally don't dry it at all. It's always tasted scrumptious enough to me not to bother.

However last year I spoke to a very nice Italian man from Imperia (the pasta machine makers who also sell drying racks), and he advised that you should dry pasta, for 5 - 10 minutes only.

So I would suggest that's likely your issue... you're maybe drying it a little too long. So try reducing this 'drying time'.

Hope that helps. All the noodly best,

Matt.
Brittle dried pasta and a Kenyan adventure
by: Nancy

I am new to pasta making. I was expecting my homemade pasta to be dry and hard like store-bought pasta.

I am planning on a mission trip to Kenya and one of my plans is to teach pasta making for selling. The pasta is too brittle for packaging and selling.

Why is it more brittle than store-bought? Also, in your return comment to someone you said to only dry it 5-10 minutes. This will not work unless you plan to cook it right away.

I really would like to store it, especially when I am teaching pasta making in Kenya.

Nancy.
Hi Nancy...
by: Matt - Pasta Recipes Made Easy

Hi Nancy...

I think the reason for the difference is that factory produced packet pasta is commercially dried, and whilst I don't know how they do that (yet! seems a factory visit is in order...), it certainly does make a difference to the overall end pasta product, and in turn the length of time the pasta will keep (the packet stuff keeps up to a year).

Re: your Kenyan trip, since I replied above I've learned a little more and I do think it's possible to store fresh homemade pasta - without freezing - for up to 1 or 2 months.

I suggest you check out my response on this page, as another reader asked a similar question recently. I think the info there should help.

Have a wonderful trip, I'm sure it will be quite life-changing!
Matt.

Click here to add your own comments

Join in and write your own page! It's easy to do. How?
Simply click here to return to Fresh Pasta Q&A


pasta cookbookBuy Pastastic - The Recipe Book!