Recently I was lucky enough to receive a pasta machine from a relative (thanks Cecilia!), and I’ve been giving it a pretty good workout lately – it definitely makes homemade pasta easier to churn out than rolling it by hand. This particular pasta machine was made in Italy but comes under the name “NUDELMASCHINE”, which sounds more German than Italian and prompts me and Nate to put on our best/worst German accents whenever it comes out of the cupboard for a pasta-making session.
A little while ago I came across a recipe for sourdough pasta on The Gingered Whisk (one of my Sourdough Surprises buddies), and as recipes for using up excess sourdough starter are always useful, I gave it a whirl. Like all things made with my particular sourdough starter, the sourdough taste in the pasta was not very assertive (I think I must have a very mild culture in my starter) but I get a kick out of using my starter wherever I can. For the pasta in this post, I doubled my original homemade pasta recipe and added about 1/4 cup excess starter to the dough. It made a really nice, silky, easy to work with dough that I happily ran through the pasta machine and then coiled into little nests under a tea towel.
Unfortunately, this pasta is moister than I’m used to, and by the time I’d finished cutting the last of it into strands of fettuccine, those little nests of pasta had stuck together beyond the point of possible separation and the individual strands of pasta were no longer so individual.
Pasta, stuck together. *Sigh*
I swore a bit (OK, a lot), then had no choice but to run it all through the pasta machine again. This time, instead of coiling the finished pasta into nests, I hung it to dry on a broomstick balanced between two chairs, which worked like a charm.
So this pain-in-the-butt actually had a happy ending, because I learned two things: one, if you are letting the fresh pasta sit for any length of time before cooking it, the drying step is crucial; and two, this dough can tolerate being man-handled rather a lot, and in fact I would recommend it – when cooked, the pasta was silky yet chewy in just the right way, and probably the best I’ve made yet. Also, drying the pasta out allows you to keep it in the fridge for a few days in a sealed Ziplock bag, which is great because this recipe made enough for two meals for me and Nate.
Sourdough Pasta
Makes 1 lb of pasta, enough for about 4 servings. If you are rolling this by hand without a pasta machine, be sure to give the dough a thorough kneading to encourage gluten formation before rolling it out – it should be very smooth and elastic.
In a medium bowl, measure:
2 cups all purpose flour
In a small bowl or cup, whisk together:
2 eggs
1 – 2 tbsp olive oil
Pour the egg mixture into the flour, then add:
1/4 cup sourdough starter (does not have to be active – discard is fine)
With a fork, mix the liquid into the flour, starting in the middle and gradually drawing in the flour from the edges of the bowl. Add water, a few drops at a time as needed, to form a shaggy dough.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead it with your hands until it becomes a cohesive, smooth dough. Cover the dough with the upturned bowl and let it rest for 20 – 30 minutes.
When the dough has rested, cut it into 4 pieces. Flatten one of the pieces into a long-ish shape, dust it with flour, and pass it through the pasta machine’s flat rollers at the widest setting. Fold the dough in thirds and pass through the rollers again. Repeat about 6 more times or until the dough is very smooth and elastic, folding the dough in half or thirds after each pass and flouring it as necessary to keep it from sticking. Don’t worry about overdoing this stage – you are essentially kneading the dough with each pass and the more passes you make, the stronger the gluten in the dough, which means nice chewy pasta rather than limp, flabby pasta.
Turn the rollers to their next smallest setting and pass the dough through about 3 times, folding it in half on the first pass if you feel it necessary. Continue this way, with 2 or 3 passes at each setting (without folding) before moving onto the next smallest setting. Feel free to cut the pasta sheet in half it it gets too long to handle easily. If you are making long pasta sheets for lasagne, continue on to the very smallest setting. If you are making cut pasta (ie, fettuccine), stop at the second-to-smallest setting. Repeat with the remaining pieces of pasta dough.
At this point, I cut the pasta sheet in half and fed it through the fettuccine cutter. As it comes out the other side in strands, catch it on the handle of a wooden spoon (this does a better job than your hands of keeping the strands more or less separate). Transfer the cut pasta to a drying rack, aka a broomstick handle balanced between two chairs, making sure that the strands are not overlapping or they will stick together in the time it takes you to cut the rest of the pasta.
If you are cooking the pasta immediately, you don’t need to dry it out any further – just drop it in rapidly boiling, salted water for 3 – 4 minutes, until al dente. If you want to store the raw pasta for a few days, make sure it is quite dry (no chance of it sticking together) and place it in a Ziplock bag in the fridge. The drier pasta may take a few more minutes to cook.
This post submitted to YeastSpotting.
Way to go, Korena!
Beautiful looking pasta Korena! I remember my aunt had this exact same “nudelmaschine” and always supplied us with the best homemade pasta ever. I need to get my hands on one of these! 🙂
Yes you do!! 🙂
Isn;t it funny how all pasta machines look literally the same… Anyway, what a great idea. I’ve never had sourdough pasta! Yum.
They are, aren’t they? I guess if the design works, don’t mess with it!
Do you know about the BBC documentary (1 April 1957) about the spaghetti harvest in Switzerland? From a summary:
You can watch the brief segment here. (It requires Flip4Mac, which I downloaded and installed with no problem, and so could watch the whole segment—about 3 minutes, totally poker-faced, as it were.)
HIlarious!
Beautiful!
Korena, this looks sensational. Now to convince the hubby that I need a pasta machine…
It is possible without the machine, but it makes it SO much easier! I think it would be a pretty easy sell once he tasted the homemade pasta 😉
My ex-husband is half-German, and I think this might have been a wedding present from one of the German relatives? In any case, you have already used it more than I ever did! Your pasta looks beautiful. 🙂
Thanks Cecilia, I’m definitely enjoying it!
I love your great step by steps shots you make it so simple to follow your directions. Your pasta is beautiful. I can’t wait to see what you made with your lovely fresh pasta.
Thanks Bam. It was fettuccine and meatballs, nothing too fancy!
I have been dying to try a sourdough pasta for some time now. So glad you posted this because I’d love to use your recipe! The fetttuccine looks silky and beautiful!
It was very nice dough to work with, but definitely don’t skip the drying step (unless you really really like cranking a pasta machine! 😉 ) Let me know if you try it!
Haha, I am glad you gave this a whirl! Shelley and I love sourdough pasta, we make it all the time! You should try different shapes with it, too! 🙂 I am glad the dough can be manhandled, but I hate when you have to find out, though!
It’s a great way to use up extra starter, and you really can’t beat homemade pasta. I’m going to try filled pasta sometime soon, I just love the long stuff so much! 🙂
Fabulous! Homemade pasta is the best and something that uses up starter is even better. 😉 Despite the reroll, your pasta looks perfect and delicious.
Thank you! The re-roll actually made it even better 😉
I think it’s a great way to use the sourdough leftovers! And I adore relatives who make such great gifts :))
Agreed on both counts 😉
Maybe it comes from the Italian region Trentino Alto-Adige that speak German as much as Italian. It was part of Austrian-Hungarian Empire until WWII I believe.
I’ve a past machine that looks identical too and I’ve made pasta a plenty on it but with a newly developed intolerance to unsoured wheat products, an addiction to making my own own of everything and an active sourdough starter, well, I am profoundly glad I found this recipe. Thank you. 🙂
Cool, thanks for the history! And I hope the recipe works well for you 🙂
Absolutely fantastic. I am a new sourdough addict and narf from The Road to Serendipity sent me over to check out this recipe!
Oh, nice! These days I’m looking any excuse to use my sourdough starter in stuff – the pasta is a good one 🙂
I’ve never made pasta with sourdough and have being baking loads of bread with my sourdough starter called Tony so am trying it this way for the 1st time. Dough is currently resting so fingers crossed. Hopefully I’ll have it with mussels in cider for me and venison meatballs in a tomato sauce for my wife although I may steal some of the meatballs as I’m making them!!!
I hope the pasta works well for you! Mussels and cider and venison meatballs in tomato all sound like wonderful things to eat with it!
This is a beautiful recipe and presentation. Thank you.
Korena, thanks for the recipe and tips. I an wondering how you topped it, though. Does the sourdough pair well with a traditional tomato sauce?
Hi John, I think this particular batch of pasta ended up with a cream sauce, but it would go well with anything, including tomato sauce.
Hi,
Thanks for the recipe! I had SD discard so this was a great use. I used 00 flour and found that I needed to add another egg it was so dry. Once I did that it was perfect. I made lasagna with my brand new pasta machine I scored on Amazon for $20. I only needed half the dough so I made the rest into spaghetti and threw that in the fridge. Easy peazy.
The lasagna was amazing! You cannot beat home made noodles, especially if you can get the benefit of SD ferment into them!! I did not notice any flavor imparted from the SD, so no worries about off tasting pasta.
Thanks again!
B
Hi Betsey, great to hear of your SD pasta success! Nothing beats homemade lasagne, with homemade noodles to boot!!
How long can this sourdough pasta last after drying? Can it last for more than 1 year
I’m not actually sure, I’ve only ever dried it out partially (like for a few hours, mostly to stop it from sticking together) and then cooked it fresh. You could definitely freeze it for a very long time after partially drying it.
Hi,
This looks like a great recipe! Can this same recipe be made for Ravioli?
Yes, absolutely!
I don’t have a pasta machine – any hints for making it without one?
A rolling pin and some elbow grease 🙂 Just divide the dough into manageable portions and roll it out on a lightly floured surface as thin as you can, then fold it up and use a large sharp knife to cut it into ribbons for pasta. A Google search for “hand rolled pasta” will give you lots of tutorials. Good luck!
Hi there. I just started making my own and have a brand new Marcato Regina Machine. But it likes the doughs a little dryer. To wind around the internal mechanism before squeezing out a fusilli shape pasta.
Would that work? I’m loving the sound of a chewy pasta. Like store bought one really.
I’d be happy with any help.
Greetings from Australia
Mel
Good question – I’ve only ever used this dough with a hand crank pasta machine so I can’t say for sure how it would work with a pasta extruder. Perhaps try adding some more flour (maybe semolina?) to the dough to make it a bit drier / firmer?
Hi there, thanks for these instructions. I just tried it with my similar looking pasta machine, but I imagine mine is a poorer quality knockoff. For health reasons I let the dough ferment about 24 hours in the fridge. But this is where the problems started: since the fermentation makes the dough more soft and elastic the machine can’t fully cut it, it just sort of scores the dough but it still requires manually separating each and every noodle. Any ideas on what to do differently while still giving the dough a good amount of time for the sourdough starter to work on it? Thanks!
Hi Sam, once you’ve rolled out the dough using the machine, you could cut the noodles with a chef’s knife – I’ll link to a video below. Just be sure to flour the dough well so it doesn’t stick to itself when folded. https://youtu.be/5lYbypN95Qo
Thanks for the recipe. Can I ask: how do you manage to dry the pasta without proofing and puffing up too much from the bacterial activity so they stay small and flat?
Sorry for the delayed reply. It wasn’t an issue – the hydration of the pasta is so low that the fermentation activity was very very slow, and it dried before any significant proofing happened. You could put a fan on it to speed up the drying process if you’re concerned about it.