Yes. I much prefer fresh pasta to dried.

To me it really depends on the sauce and the application... I think dried pasta has a much firmer texture, and I like dried pasta shapes for certain types of sauces where I want the ingredients in the sauce to get wedged in the little curls or shells of pasta. When making fresh pasta, I like a more uniform sauce which will be used sparingly enough to appreciate the texture of fresh noodles...

Yes, I can tell the difference between the two. The pasta we make at home has a lighter, not as tough texture and more taste then the boxed pasta. I still use the boxed pasta when we have a big group coming over (family get togethers, reunions, etc.) but I prefer homemade. NancyLouise

Very big difference, but dried pasta has its place as well. I use rotini to make pasta salad, and I would never use fresh pasta in that, but then I do not have a machine to make rotini. I do have an extruder that will make various types of macaroni, but I seldom use it. For fresh pasta, I make lasagna, fettucine, ravioli, tortellini, and linguini and not too much else. When I buy dried pasta, I pretty much always get whole wheat, as I prefer the flavor.

Lars

There is a difference - mostly in the texture as fearlessem mentioned. Just as there is a difference between regular pasta and whole wheat, spelt or other grains.

It's also what you get accustomed to... I mill my own durum wheat (the best variety of wheat for pasta), or kamut (the ancient variety of what became durum wheat) for wholegrain pasta and noodles, and if you are unaccustomed to wholegrain pasta, you would also find the taste AND texture very different.

I personally prefer homemade wholegrain noodles to commercial. I make a large recipe of sourdough noodles a couple times a year and dehydrate and/or freeze them.

The worst part about making your own pasta is cleaning the pasta maker, which is why I make it in large batches. Like Lars, I used to have an extruder but I gave it to my sister.

The link below shows how to make pasta and how to clean the pasta machine.

-Grainlady

Here is a link that might be useful: How to make pasta...

My daughter finds dry pasta quite indigestible and will only eat home-made. I agree that it's horses for courses.

Thanks so much for all your responses. I'm going to give it a try.

When we were in Italy (once only, I'm no expert) we were in the hills, off the beaten path.

Visiting relatives we asked about the pasta. They make fresh pasta but wouldn't think of cooking it immediately. They rack it and dry it, perhaps cure it is a better word, before cooking.

Its not as dry as the boxed product but is sure isn't fresh fresh either. Now, I agree that observation is from a pretty small sample but they simply don't have time to whip up a batch of "fresh" for each meal.

I'll go against the flow here...I prefer a quality brand of dry pasta in all dishes. I find the fresh, even from folks who actually use the correct wheat flour, etc., a bit too...(searching for the word)...too slippery. I don't care for the texture of fresh.

And if I was King of the World, I'd make a rule that anyone who eats whole wheat pasta has to wear a special colour of coat so we can see them coming and avoid them.

Homemade Pasta is very easy to make.
This is my favourite recipe. I cut the pasta by hand.

Home Cookin Chapter: Recipes From Thibeault's Table

Homemade Pasta
==============
I watched a friends Italian Momma make her pasta one day. (She did it all by hand) I make it following her directions but I use the Food Processor to mix and knead.

1 egg for each cup of flour( plus an extra egg for every 3 cups of flour, ie. 3 cups flour = 4 eggs, 6 cups flour = 8 eggs.
Salt
1 tablespoon of olive oil, per three cups of flour.

Put the flour on a large board and make a well in the centre. Crack the eggs into the well and sprinkle with salt and oil . Use your fingertips to mix up the eggs and then start to incorporate the flour into the eggs. Eventually it will all come together. (add 1 to 2 tablespoons of water if necessary) Knead dough until smooth and elastical. Let sit covered for 15 or 20 minutes. Divide dough into smaller portions and run through a pasta rolling machine or roll out by hand. Let dry slightly and then cut into desire widths. Leave out to dry or use fresh. When dried she always stored it in a wax paper lined box, in a cool place.

You can also mix and knead this in the cuisinart, which is what I do when I make it.

My friends mom would make 12 and 15 egg pasta at a time and give it to all of her family members (and me, a would-be family member). After she cut the pasta she would lay the strands flat. She would have it spread
Out everywhere there was a flat surface and also hang it from a broomstick strung between two drawers. Once it was dry she would gather up the stiff pieces and put them in boxes. Because I don't make that
Much at a time, I just lay it all over my table and counter.

NOTE: Depending on the flour and the eggs, sometimes you will need more eggs

My dad and aunt went round and round about this forever - Dad bought boxed, Aunt made her own. They'd eat each other's pasta grudgingly, but on the way home we'd all tell Dad how much better his was, and of course my cousins told their mom the same thing on their way home from our house. Honestly, none of us could tell the difference. (But my dad was a much better cook than Aunt!!!)

It was said that when Grandma arrived in the US and discovered boxed pasta, she was overjoyed and never made another batch. None of us kids has ever made our own pasta.

Sherry

I quite agree about the special coats. And I most severely mistrust the people who claim to prefer it. Do you also like being tied up and beaten?? :-P

"And if I was King of the World, I'd make a rule that anyone who eats whole wheat pasta has to wear a special colour of coat so we can see them coming and avoid them."

Now that is just too funny. And, I couldn't agree with you more.

Ann

Ah well, pass me a hat. A purple one, if you please!

I really do like whole wheat pasta. And I like he regular stuff too.

Linda

LOL Metaxa!!!! You do have a way with words.

I prefer fresh made pasta (doesn't have to be homemade) for certain dishes and dried for others.

After much trial and error I have decided that the best lasagna is that made with fresh pasta and a light sauce and not too heavy on the cheeses.

I also love fresh pasta with any light fresh sauce but if the sauce is a heavier sauce I want a hearty dried pasta that can stand up to it.

My husbands is the pasta maker in our kitchen. It always involves some great music and some even better red wine. Our favourite time is the time while the dough rests ; )

I love fresh home-made pasta with Alfredo sauce. Also agree that lasagna is best made with thin, fresh sheets. I did that for Christmas dinner last year and it was truly wonderful. Very light compared to normal lasagna. Oh, I'll have to add opera the next time I make pasta. With our Italian friends, every day of their lives is opera! So funny!

Oh dear! And I used to feel so guilty not to prefer the healthy stuff...
And Italian opera always makes me crave garlic and pasta!
Went to a young artist's concert today and after the last act of Traviata I came home and threw some garlic into the olive oil.
The Benjamin Britton had me a bit confused though!

I love fresh pasta....just with a bit of butter or oil and cheese...
If you are adding a heavy sauce...it doesn't much matter to me.
Linda C

[Linda....Benjamin Britten....I feel your pain. DH LOVES Peter Grimes, to the point where we drove two hours to see a production in the next city. Ah the things we do for our loved ones! Shudder.....]

Thinking maybe boiled beef and cabbage....

For special occasions, I will make homemade ravioli, pici, and fettucine. But I much prefer good quality dried pastas to the many commercial "fresh" pastas.

In 3 days we leave for Italy. I will be sure to do a very scientific research study on fresh vs dried pastas, their shapes, sauces, etc, and report back at the end of the month!

Metaxa, pass me a hat and I'll stand next to Linda (doucanoe). I don't like white pasta at all, it's much like eating paste in first grade. I avoid it whenever I can. I much prefer the whole wheat but my favorites are actually those with a lot of basil or spinach, etc.

Oh, and I don't like tomato based sauces either and I hate and detest conventional pizza with red sauce.

Elery, however, loves pasta in nearly any form and I bought him a pasta maker for our anniversary. We've used it. Once. He bought a ravioli attachment for it, so that'll happen sometime. Not in the near future if I can help it, LOL.

Ann, I will be waiting for that research. Pictures would be nice too, as Elery wants to visit Italy in the next few year. There are other places I'd rather go, but he really, really wants to, so.....

Annie

What a GREAT THREAD !! Informative, entertaining, and instructional.....all at the same time, too.

I read somewhere that the commercially dried pasta is mainly water and flour. That is why it can be dried so
very hard, and doesn't crumble in handling - whereas, dried home made pasta is extremely fragile but (my opinion)
more flavorful than commercial.

See, I told you: Flour + water = paste!

Annie

Flour + water + cardboard = whole wheat pasta

Yeah, but at least I get some fiber for texture with the cardboard!

Annie

I think we need to start a new thread: 'Deathmatch - white vs whole wheat pasta' LOL

(for the record - white pasta for me, and I prefer mine with sauce or seasoned, even if its a bit of butter or olive oil with S&P. Who eats plain white pasta?!?!)

While your handing out the hats...I'll take a red one, please.

Another here who doesn't eat white pasta if I can graciously avoid the experience. Our favorite brand of dried pasta is whole wheat Bionaturae from Italy. I get it at WFs.

I also don't eat that red pasta sauce stuff. Doesn't matter if it's homemade by moi, commercial, restaurant, etc. That red sauce combined with white pasta gives me a belly ache something awful. And, 3 days later it's still sitting there in my tummy.

Annie, that's why some people recommend putting oil in the cooking water for pasta...the white stuff IS glue so it naturally sticks. :) lol

/tricia

Ah, so that's it with the oil. (grin)

As for the red sauce, I just don't really like it much, but it doesn't really make me suck. Eating tomatoes with onions will result in a case of gastric reflux that'll last a couple of days, requiring copious amounts of Zantac and Tums, so I avoid mixing those two things when ever I can.

Annie

I forgot to give the link..

We love the chiocciola shape for mac 'n cheese much better than elbows. More room for the yummy sauce.

/t

Here is a link that might be useful: bionaturae pasta

I made homemade pasta for the first time the other day. I followed ann t's recipe sort of...The short story is I made a huge batch of Cretons and had quite a bit left over. I thought it might make a good stuffing for squash (pasta) ravioli so...
To make the pasta, I used 3 cups of semolina flour, 3 eggs, 1 tbs. Olive oil and 1/2 cup of cooked mashed acorn squash.

Made the dough, wrapped it in plastic and refrigerated it overnight. Next day I rolled it out and put a 1/2 tsp. of creton in each ravioli. Dried them for a while on plastic wrap lined cookie sheets then popped the cookie sheets in the freezer. Once the ravioli were frozen, I transferred them to ziploc bags. I took a few of the frozen ones and cooked them. Served them with a simple sauce of EVOO, gralis scapes and white wine. Yum!

Will do, Annie. Somehow I think you'll fit right in in Italy. And don't worry about the red sauces... there is so much more in food in Italy than red sauce and pizza...

In the meantime, should I add to the mix.. rice pasta??? We tried it when I was attempting to reduce my intake of processed wheat products. The family's conclusion... marginally acceptable in dishes where the sauce and flavors in it were strong. Awful in my favorite simple pasta dishes like spaghetti tossed with olive oil, parmesan, broccoli rabe and black pepper.

As for the whole wheat pastas...I'm still looking for a good one... I'm open to suggestions... too many taste like cardboard to me!

I am with you on the cardboard....
And what are Cretons?

And no one noticed my typo on the red sauce. That would be "sick", not "suck". LOL

I'll love to see those pictures of Italy, Ann, which part of Italy are you going to? Elery is kind of leaning toward Tuscany, but he'd also like to take a side trip to Greece.

Annie

On our last trip, we spent most of our time in Venice and Tuscany. This time, we're revisiting the Val d'Orcia (Tuscany area just south of Siena), then heading south to Pompeii, the Amalfi Coast (Positano and Ischia), then ending in Rome. I will be most happy to give you tons of info on Tuscany. (I wasn't sure about the sick/suck, so I just left it alone... figured Jessy would have a comment there... Hey J!)

A

I am all for the deathmatch. . . as long as no one dies. It wouldn't be the same without Annie's stories.

And just so I can pretend to be on topic, I, too like homemade noodles. Really good eggs with orange yolks make all the difference, I think. I like the silkiness, and I do 1/4 hi maize to 3/4 flour, so the fiber content is better if I make my own. I usually don't do sauce, because I want to taste the noodles- just some parmesean.

lindac,
Cretons are a French Canadian dish sort of a poor man's pate made with ground pork. I made a batch of each of the recipes below but the traditional version came out a little bland so I used it to stuff the squash ravioli. It was yummy.

Here's the traditional version:

Creton

3 lbs. ground pork (Have it triple ground)
½ large yellow onion, minced (Make sure itÂs a pungent yellow onion; it makes a huge difference in the flavor.)
3-6 cloves garlic, peeled and minced fine
Ginger, nutmeg, dry mustard, cloves, salt & pepper

Place the pork, onions and garlic in a pan and just cover with water. Bring to a boil. Break the meat apart with a potato masher. Add spices to taste. Reduce heat & simmer until water is almost gone. Cool the meat mixture and refrigerate.

Serve chilled or at room temperature with Dijon or grainy mustard and toast points or crackers. My mother used to make homemade mayonnaise to go with it as well. She would mix the mustard and mayo together. And of course pickles, always tiny but the debate has raged on in the family for years whether they should be sweet or dill pickles. I prefer sweet.

I've never measured the spices but I'd guesstimate about 1/2 tsp. each of nutmeg and ginger, 3/4-1 tsp of cloves and 1 tsp. of dry mustard. I sometimes add cinnamin but just a dash so maybe 1/4 tsp.

Yes it artery clogging but it's yummy. Traditionally once cooled the Creton should have a layer of fat on the top. I usually remove some of the fat at the end of cooking so there is no visible fat on the top once chilled but I leave enough to hold the meat together.

Here's another not so traditional version:

Savory Creton

2 lbs. fresh ground pork
5 oz. salt pork, minced very fine
1 large shallot, minced fine
1 small yellow onion, minced fine
6 large garlic cloves, peeled then minced fine
2 tbs. dry vermouth
¼-½ tsp. ground sage
1 tsp. herb de provence, rubbed in your hand until very fine
1 bay leaf
2 cups of water
½ cup very strong pork or chicken stock

In stock pot, slowly brown salt pork until crisp. Remove from pot, cool and mice fine. Add onions, garlic, and shallot to pot and sauté slowly until just cooked. Add sage and herb de provence and sauté until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add ground pork to pot, breaking up with your hands as you add it to the pot. Add vermouth, water, bay leaf and chicken stock, stirring to gently break up pork. Bring to a boil reduce heat to a simmer add crisp salt pork. Simmer about 45 minute then remove bay leaf, continue simmering until all the water is gone. This one is very fatty so I always drain some of the fat off before coling and chilling.
Cool the meat mixture and refrigerate.