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Freezer Pantry: fresh pasta

I recently received a KitchenAid pasta roller attachment as a gift. I asked for just the single pasta roller, none of the other cutter attachments, because my kitchen is tiny and I’m happy enough to cut my own noodles into wide strips. And if it comes down to something as thin as linguine I’m far more likely to used a boxed pasta anyhow.

It is so much fun to make pasta but with all the flour being scattered about it’s worth making a whole lot of noodles at the same time. A little research tells me that freezing fresh pasta will preserve the flavor better than drying it and the best way to freeze it is in bundles or nests.

Technique: Toss your just-made pasta with extra flour so it won’t stick together. Let it dry for a few minutes then fold and twist into bundles. Freeze those on a parchment lined baking sheet, then transfer to an airtight container. When you are ready to cook simply drop one bundle into boiling water, the noodles should separate from each other easily. Also, voilà, fresh homemade pasta appears before you like magic!

Before I did nests I decided that individual pasta strands rolled up, frozen and stacked together would be charming. And they were, but obviously they stuck together like mad in the boiling water. Oops.

· comments [9] · 03-4-2014 · categories:food · freezerpantry ·

9 responses so far ↓

  • 1 KC // Mar 4, 2014 at 4:22 pm

    Ooooh. Is the width of the pasta roller about right for wonton or dumpling wrappers? I love having homemade dumplings/potstickers in the freezer; I do not love rolling out the dough, though, and am going to be moving away from my current source of packages of dumpling wrappers.

    (also: I think nests are charming)

  • 2 megan // Mar 4, 2014 at 4:32 pm

    KC – The total width of the rollers is about 5.5 inches. I’ve wondered about this too but I’m not sure, I’ve only made dumplings once and we hand rolled the wrappers. Googling it turns up plenty of wonton mentions using a pasta roller though.

    As for dumplings I believe you want the wrappers round, and the pasta roller stretches things lengthwise as you feed dough through it and I think it would be impossible to produce a circle. Maybe a huge circle cutter?

    I will have to investigate!

  • 3 Christy // Mar 5, 2014 at 3:53 pm

    This is great, thank you. I have been wanting to make my own pasta, but the thought of doing it right before eating it means that it has to be done on the weekends or a day when I get off work early. This would solve all of my problems, well most of them anyway. I can’t wait to try.

  • 4 megan // Mar 5, 2014 at 6:20 pm

    Christy – It does take up a bit of room in the freezer but it cooks just as quickly as freshly made, only a few minutes!

  • 5 KC // Mar 6, 2014 at 8:57 am

    Yeah, for dumplings a circle cutter would be good, but starting with a nice sheet of pasta would make it just-cut-out-ish rather than roll-each-dumpling-wrapper-out-ish.

    I not-infrequently use empty-and-clean cans as biscuit cutters, so that might be a possibility if something comes in the right size. I have a water chestnut can that is the right size for my regular biscuits, and I use a tomato paste can for tea party biscuits. (and when they inevitably get dented or bent out of shape from clattering around in the drawer, they go in the recycling and I harvest a new can)

    Okay, I’ve also been drooling over a nesting circle-cutter set in a tin on Amazon. But opened-at-both-ends cans honestly do well enough for most things.

    Thanks for the info on how wide the pasta comes out!

  • 6 Jen // Mar 6, 2014 at 9:29 pm

    Megan, can you share your pasta recipe? Do you use pasta flour or all-purpose?

  • 7 megan // Mar 6, 2014 at 10:19 pm

    Jen – so far I’m using the basic egg pasta recipe that appears in the booklet which comes with the pasta roller. It calls for 4 large eggs, 1 T water, 3.5 C all-purpose flour and .5 t salt. Whirl in the KA using the dough hook for 2-ish minutes, knead by hand for 2-ish minutes, rest for 20. I cut the dough into 6 parts and roll to #4 then cut into wide strips using a pizza cutter. All of that said — every time I’ve made pasta so far I’ve had to rather dramatically shift the amount of water or flour based on how dry the day is. I even found a forum wherein a past KA employee said the flour/water amount published in the booklet could be way off. I’m finding it’s easier to add flour than to add water, so I tend to reserve flour when I first set out.

    In the end I’ve found that I need to toss the just made pasta in a lot more flour that I expected in order to keep it from sticking during the drying-and-freezing stages. So, make sure you have extra flour in that bag or you might be sorry :)

  • 8 Tzevai // Mar 14, 2014 at 5:49 am

    Why have I never thought of freezing fresh pasta?! *Adds to list of things to do on the weekend*

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