How is pasta prepared and shaped?

Answer 1

Step one is to prepare a dough from some type of flour. Semolina wheat flour is traditional because its high gluten content makes a sturdier pasta.

The dough needs to be on the dry side, using just enough liquid -- usually eggs and/or water -- to make it moist and pliable. Too dry and the dough will be so firm it can't be formed into pasta. Too moist and it becomes a sticky mess. The dough gets well kneaded to develop the gluten.

Then the dough is shaped into pasta. Of course, different shapes call for different methods. For completely hand made fettuccine or linguine noodles, you would use a rolling pin to roll the dough out to the thickness of noodle you desire, sprinkle with flour, roll into a cylinder and slice across the cylinder to make noodles.

Pasta machines simplify the process. You roll the dough out to about 3/8" thick in strips narrow enough to fit into the machine. Crank the crank, pass the dough through the rollers, narrow the gap between the rollers, roll again, etc. until the dough is the thickness you want, then use the machine to slice into strips. Some pasta machines include a set of rollers to form spaghetti noodles.

Answer 2

by machines