Pasta Making 2015

11/22/15:     

2 batches of spaghetti.  

3 batches of ravioli.  

    fillings - traditional cheese 77.  sausage, mushroom, & spinach 44.

Traaaaadition! Tradition!!

Hi family and friends,

This blog was created to keep track of our homemade pasta making through the years.  It's our family's Christmas tradition, passed down from Grandma Rose Iafigliola.  Turkey and ham for Christmas?? No grazie! Pasta per favore!

Grandma Rose used to roll the dough by hand and crank the pasta machine by hand.  We have an electric crank so we don't have to do all the work.  We prefer to call it "automated" rather than "lazy".

It all starts with the dough! Without proper dough, all else fails. Setting yourself up for success is KEY!

Next you have the flattening machine. This flattens the dough to consistent strips so everything cooks evenly.  This one pictured has a manual crank handle. That's the way Grandma Rose used to do it! Of course now we have an automated replacement (work SMART not hard!)

Here's what the Lazy Italian's Crank looks like.

The dough is placed on the Rav Tray, then ravs are filled, then another layer of dough on top.

The dough has a limited number of cycles that it can make through the Flattening Machine.  After 2 passes, the dough is set aside to be made into non-ravioli pasta (Fettuccine & Cavatelli are two Iafigliola staples).

Christmas get together 2014

This year we tried different flour types: bleached & unbleached. The verdict is that there was not a noticeable difference in taste. We cooked WAY TOO MUCH again, and determined the final count: 48 raviolis eaten!!

Then there was a long discussion of whether or not gluten allergies exist... Michelle's feelings differ from those of the rest of the family to say the least. Haha

Then the Christmas Mayhem began...