I love making homemade pasta. I have dabbled with creating dishes using homemade fettucine, spaghetti, ravioli, and tortellini. Some are more complex and time intensive than others, and yet are a true labor of love. Sometimes I will sneak herbs or veggies into the pasta for additional flavor, color, and nutrients. Because they get to help me roll it out or cut the shapes, the kids overlook that every time! I would say something like, “Oh, I decided to make this orange for fun!” (read: shredded carrots or roasted red peppers and green would be spinach or herbs) Ha ha ha!
My experiments with homemade pasta have turned out wonderfully! This is thanks to my handy-dandy KitchenAid pasta attachments, ravioli shaping plates, and pasta drying rack! I will never forget the time my father-in-law declared the Three Cheese Red Pepper Ravioli I made for dinner was “restaurant quality!” On a another visit, I mentioned my newest kitchen gift that Mike had gotten me, the pasta press attachment. How it came with interchangeable plates that can create shapes such as rigatoni, fusilli, macaroni, and bucatini. He said bucatini was one of his favorites. So I just had to tell him about the homemade bucatini I had recently made after getting that newest gift along with Mamma’s Italian Meatballs. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the luxury of time to prepare those for him on that visit but made a mental note to do so in the future.
Making pasta is pretty simple. You prepare the dough (I leverage my mixter with dough hook) and wrap it in plastic wrap so it can rest at room temperature. If you are using the dough right away do not refigerate. You can refrigerate all or part of it to use another day. I prefer to use semolina flour, however you can use whatever flour you like or have on hand. After the dough has rested for 1 hour, unwrap it and cut off a portion. I re-wrap the remaining dough to keep it from drying out on me as I work. When making shapes that are flat or use flat pasta like fettucine, linguine, ravioli, or tortelli, use the pasta roller and pasta cutter attachments. For shapes like the homemade bucatini, rigatoni, fusilli, or macaroni that have a hole in the middle, use the extruder and the pasta plates for the desired shape.
To make the homemade bucatini, I used the extruder. In doing so, I cut off a small piece of the prepared pasta dough and worked it a little bit so that the small ball of dough had a nice, pliable consistency. Then I popped it into the extruder tube and pushed it through cutting it to my desired length. I like to have a little flour on the counter top below the pasta attachment so that I can lightly flour the pasta as it comes out so it doesn’t stick to itself.
Finally, I hang the pasta or set it aside on a prepared sheet pan to dry. I like to hang the longer pastas to dry on this drying rack made by KitchenAid. It has feet that fold up into the base and the arms swing out as you spin the knob at the top, so it stores away fairly compact. For the homemade bucatini, I was concerned it would flatten too much in the middle as it hung on the arm, but it did okay. The nice thing about bucatini is the hole allows your sauce to both coat and fill the pasta!
One thing to keep in mind when making fresh pasta like this homemade bucatini is that it cooks much quicker than store-bought dried pasta! And well, I suppose a second could be that, if you are like me, you will get flour everywhere, ha ha, but remember what I said, it’s a labor of love!
Homemade Bucatini
Ingredients
- 3 eggs
- 3 Tbsp olive oil
- 1-2 Tbsp water
- 1/2 tsp salt plus more for cooking pasta
- 12 - 16 oz Semolina flour plus more for bench flour
- 1/2 cup all purpose flour for bench flour
Instructions
- Beat eggs, olive oil, water, and salt with mixer
- Add 12 ounces of the semolina flour
- Use dough hook to combine
- If the dough is too sticky or wet, add additional semolina flour a little at a time or if it is too dry, add additional water a tiny bit at a time
- Knead the dough with the dough hook for 3-5 minutes, you want a smooth pliable consistency
- Put additional semolina flour on your clean work surface
- Turn out dough from mixer bowl and coat with semolina, knead a bit more until it is smooth and velvety
- Cover tightly with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 1 hour, if you are using right away do not refrigerate
- Spread out all purpose flour on your work surface
- Cut off a 1/2 inch slice from the prepared dough, re-covering the remainder of the dough so it won't dry out as you work, and work the piece of dough until pliable and smooth
- Place the desired pasta plate into the pasta extruder attachment and attach to the mixer
- Place the portion of dough into the extruder and push through, cutting to the desired length and dust with additional flour so it doesn't stick to itself
- Hang or set pasta on a prepared sheet tray to dry
- Prepare water to cook pasta, once boiling add a small handful of salt to the boiling water
- Cook pasta for 2-3 minutes, remember it cooks quickly because it's fresh
- Serve bucatini with your favorite sauce and accompaniments and enjoy
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