How is spaghetti made?

Answer 1

Spaghetti and other pasta styles are simple to make by hand: you just make a dough, roll it out (either with a rolling pin or pasta roller) and cut it to shape (using either a sharp knife, roller - Pizza-style - cutter, or pasta cutter attached to pasta roller machine) and then cook for a minute or so in boiling, salted water.

Once you've made it a few times, you'll be able to practically do it in your sleep. It's that quick and easy, and the difference from store-bought pasta is remarkable.

Pasta is traditionally made by mixing flour (I use durum wheat flour - semolina), with eggs (at room temperature) and a little oil.

The proportion of eggs to flour is at least five and up to ten eggs per kilo.

Flavorings such as puréed spinach, tomato, and so on, can be added at the proportion of around one-half eggshell per 200g flour. The flavoring must not be too wet. The dough should never be sticky, and salt is never used with a pasta machine.

Various other flavorings can be used, but I think it's best to keep the pasta plain and dress it up with a good sauce. A freshly-made sauce using onion, garlic, olive oil and canned Italian tomatoes is perfect!

Once cut, the pasta is dropped into rapidly-boiling salted water for only a few minutes - much quicker than ready-bought pasta. The pasta is usually cooked when it rises to the surface.

I use a Marcato Atlas pasta machine; see links below for recipes. Pasta machines have attachments for cutting different types of pasta. Marcato also makes a ravioli-maker which is fun and easy to use.

A charming and attractive variation is to roll the pasta thinly and then cover half of the pasta sheet with washed and well-dried flat Italian parsley leaves. Fold over the other half of the dough and pass it through the rollers again. Use a plain or fluted cutting wheel to cut into squares, around 2 to 3 cm. Put without too much overlapping in a flat soup plate and pour in very hot clear broth (consommé). The heat of the soup will cook the pasta, and the result is decorative and appetising. No side dishes are needed with this.

To cook ready-made spaghetti, you simply boil the noodles in the broth or water for about four or five minutes, or according to packet instructions.

Answer 2

The dough is made from flour, egg and oil, perhaps a touch of water depending on the day and humidity. All mixed up into a nice thick paste.

This is then forced through special shaped holes under pressure. The holes are shaped so that the pressure often causes the pasta dough to curl, which creates many of the shapes of pasta. A knife cuts the pasta at that right time to make the correct length. Spaghetti is just a lot of round holes.

The pasta is then dried and packaged.

Answer 3

spaghetti is produced from the farm to the stores to the the people who want to buy it