I make lasagna at least five or six times a year and have never made the pasta from scratch. I applaud your effort, but if you've already bought the cheeses, I would buy a box or two of Barilla lasagna noodles just in case.

Ricky, I have dry lasagna pasta in the pantry which I could use, thanks. I just want to make it better, and practice pasta making at the same time. If the pasta fails, I'll just march on with it, but fresh pasta (with eggs) is better for this recipe.

I used to make it with semolina and rolled on a machine. Last time I made it I tried a gluten-free version that I rolled by hand -- a much softer dough. I've never seen dish size sheets, but the cut/shape really doesn't much matter in the end. Pumpkin lasagna sounds good.

Oh, yeah. Pumpkin lasagna is a whole big ordeal, but worth it. It's more cheese lasagna (fontina, provalone, mozzarella, romano) with pumpkin and besciamella. :)

Annie, thanks for the recipe. It looks easier to follow than my old standby.

Congrats on your electric win! What an amazing thing! The contest. That you'd at least place is something of a given. :) No surprise that you won.

FWIW, the kind of fresh lasagna that comes in a proper package is regular pasta machine wide long strips, same as you might make at home. The only place I know of that has lasagna pan sized pasta is the Italian deli. I don't know if they make it or if there's a distributor that has it or what, but it's not a factory style package. It's very even, so my guess is that they use some kind of sheeter, like they use for fondant on TV. They're not too big for a good sized restaurant or commercial kitchen. I'd guess it would be too expensive if it were rolled by hand.

You've both given me the courage to try both the machine and hand rolling. It doesn't really matter so long as it gets flat. I sometimes tear commercial pasta and fix it, and with dry, I have to patch where the bits aren't quite long enough, so even if I make a mess, I know I can piece it back together and make it work.

Thanks!

1 egg to 100g plain flour, more as you need it. Put it through the machine. There really isn't any more you want to do with it. It is, after all, a vehicle for your filling.

There's nothing like simple. ;). Thanks! Like my auntie's soup noodles. A cupful (cup, not measuring cup) of flour and an egg. :). I do need more structural integrity for the lasagna, but I take your point.

I tend to be lazy and just roll it out thin enough I can see my hand, cut it to fit the size of my pand. I have a pasta machine, but I find this easier.

Thanks, Nancy. That's what I was thinking today, but I had a terrible rain headache so have pushed it off. Maybe tomorrow. :)

I use the pasta machine because I don't want to knead the dough, I let the machine do it. My carpal tunnel thanks me, LOL.

Hey, I was excited to win that prize. It's so much better than the pie server I won before and the Fair give me $3 for a Grand Champion winner, so I'm just happy. Definitely not the Pillsbury Bake Off, but it'll do. (grin)

Annie

I'll just Stand confused. You are, and have been, expertly wikipedia, near verbatim, on all things cooking, and cannot roll pasta through a roller? Such a simple tool.

Lazy does not apply. Simple tool, roll it to easy perfection. Through the simple hand crank without any effort ...rest the dough,

So much more complicated using a rolling pin and why? with a pasta roller. If you have one as we know you have.

Buy dry sheets, buy Barilla off the shelf. they are fine.

Make it simple and it will be good.

What's with the shade? I know a little about lots of things, and try to contribute because I get so much out of this forum. I have been known to quote Wikipedia, as well as other sources, but I give attribution. I sometimes use Wikipedia for spelling or diacritics--my laptop most annoyingly does not take alt codes and it's easier to copy/paste. I do not give attribution for that.

I freely admit that which I know little about, try to learn fro my mistakes and acknowledge when I'm wrong, and only claim expertise in that which I have actual expertise. If you actually read my posts, you'd know I have no expertise using the pasta machine. Quite the opposite. For that matter, I'm not an expert with a rolling pin, but still very comfortable using it, and I rolled out pasta dough long before I had a machine. The whole reason for making my own is that fresh pasta is just better in pumpkin lasagna, plus an excuse to improve my pasta making skills through practice.

i believe you that using the machine is simple. Making choux puffs is dead simple to me--literally childsplay--as is making quenelles. I learned at my mother's knee. Other people find both tasks (which are often employed together) difficult and challenging, because they're inexperienced and uncomfortable.

I do not understand why my seeking help and encouragement for a daunting task--I need a lot of pasta--is so annoying to you.

Here's my recipe for lasagna pasta dough:

1/2 cup semolina flour
1/2 cup unbleached white flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
3 eggs
1/4 tsp salt

Basically it is one egg per 1/2 cup of flour, but of course it depends on the size of the eggs. If the eggs are very large, they will need more flour. I find it better to start with less flour than needed and then add it if the dough is too wet.

For lasagna, I do not roll the dough that thin and generally stop at #5. I have a pasta attachment for my Kitchenaid mixer, and that makes quick work of rolling out the pasta.

Intended as a compliment as you know so much about all corners of a kitchen...then a blank wall drops in front.

I'm an information hound as well. But often go blank. A pasta roller is dead drop easy and then not at all, in the same breath, sentence, if the task is 'I'm not at all in the mood'...but the desired dish is wanted. Or, you have the key ingredient that needs to be used up, but need to re-visit a task not attempted in years.

At this very moment I would rater eat glass than roll pasta by hand but I've never done that. Maybe it is easy. The Atlas was one of our first purchases even before we were married. Such an easy spin through the rollers. And evenly thin. I'm just guessing, knowing pasta dough, a rolling pin for lasagna sheets would do a number on my back and my arthritis. I'd have a meltdown, lol.

Three sheets for a small lasagna for 3 or 4 servings maybe.

DH is obsessed with this video. So am I since he will be making by hand various pasta shapes....I hope to have the patience someday...

Phew! I'm glad it was that I mistook the tone! Apologies for the misinterpretation. And thanks for the compliment!

Rolling pasta thin with a rolling pin is just work. I'm sure it's not good for your arthritis! I have some questionable tools that help with evenness, but since I'd have to do overlaps with other pasta, I can't make myself care too much. I make ugly pies, but they're good eating. ;). i think I'm going to take the hint from PM and Lars if I hand roll, and make a wetter dough. I'm used to a dryer pasta dough that kneads like rubber. (Exaggeration, but solid ball, too hard for the dough hook.). I take Annie's point about letting the machine do the kneading as it rolls, but I don't mind kneading.

I hope you'll let us in on the results of your husband's project. I'd like toget good enough at the machine to use the ravioli maker, and some evil influence in my inner subvoice wants me to make soup filled dumplings (i.e., tragic if they leak), but I can't see myself wanting to fiddle over shapes. I'm all admiration just at the thought!

Okay. Rain and sneezles killed my afternoon. I did go through my pantry, refill my flour bin and salt grinders, found dark brown sugar bought three times, but durum none. Plenty of 00. Found my mixing bowls that some helpful soul hid in the wrong place. I took out five eggs to warm up and started the dishwasher. Then crawled into nap with blankie position per rain.

So, come time to make dinner, I thought, given the encouragement from Sleevendog's misunderstood then reunderstood prodding, I should at least get out the pasta machine. Cutter missing? No in a plain box in the drawer. And then remembered one of my issues. My beautiful, personal kitchen doesn't have a place to clamp the machine down! I don't remember what I did when I first tried it a few years ago, but it was on the sink counter, which is probably too low for my cranking comfort as well.

Inspiration hit! I have that lovely Boos board that I don't really have much use for. It's heavy enough to counterbalance the machine, and hang off the edge enough for the clamp. When I started cranking, it walked. Easily solved by scooching a silicone mat underneath. At the very end, enough stay flour and gotten under to make it move a little, but otherwise very good.

But what recipe? My old very detailed and a mess to follow but very good pasta recipe calls for oil and salt as well as the flour and eggs. Annie's recipe--the same as Islay's with more commentary, and pretty close to Lars's--sounded straightforward and had better instructions for the machine. The recipe that came with the machine seemed less so, but I don't remember why. One thing I like about the one egg to 100 g flour recipe (or half the weight of egg and water as weight of flour) is it's more like baking recipes, which I know so much better. I know how to bake bread by volume, but there's a lot of experience behind it. By scale makes a new recipe so much easier to follow. None of the "feels right" part. So I did that. Used my Danish dough whisk rather than a fork to start the mixing.

With none of the optional durum, I emptied the 00 canister and added about 50g of AP rather than opening a new bag. La-di-dah, it's flour. :) I'm going to try Lars's three flours for pasta that's more of a hero of the dish. Having found the cutter. :) I didn't really do the wetter dough because I was going to use the machine, but my hand slipped adding the water (it's only about 20 g out of 250 to fill out the eggs). I was about 10 g heavy. So I figured no problem. I'll just be generous with the flour on the board.

The dough was a different texture than I'm used to. Less elastic and not as smooth. I assume from the 00 flour. I did knead it, but not for a long time, and I did rest it, but not for a long time.

My machine goes from 1-9, and the instructions go from 0-6. I followed the directions to put it through and fold a few times on the bottom number, then once, no fold, through each number up. I thought the number 7 level was a nice thinness. Lasagna should have some tooth and body. It's thin, but not transparent. I just floured it and loosely folded and stacked in a container.

The lasagna I'm making is something of an ordeal. It's supposed to pour again tomorrow, but rain willing, I'll make it then. I've been too chicken to check the pumpkin. I have a couple of pie pumpkins I can use if it's dead. :) I now have pasta! I don't know if it's enough. If not, I'll probably just weave in some dry, but if I'm very ambitious I could try another batch. For cheap and basic, my little machine came through. But it squeaks. :)

Thank-you all! I couldn't have done it without you!

... Each piece turned out to be just right, cut in half, to fill the dish. There was one sheet plus some patches left. It made up much flatter than usual. If I'd had more filling, I'd have added a layer. :)

...

Oh yum, plllog, that looks delicious. Double delicious. Did I mention yum?

Oh, and when I make pasta I make a double batch, it freezes really well.

Annie

Thanks, Annie! It was all I could do to get through the single batch, given how I felt (I used determination to finish the last two pieces). I will keep freezing in mind for the future. I can make the pasta ahead, now that I know how. The assembly isn't that bad. It's making all the parts that's killer. But it is indeed yum! Toe curling yum. And the lasagna freezes well too. I knew there wasn't enough pasta in the one batch to use one of my really big dishes, so I used my regular lasagna, and used the bits left over to make a 9x9 to freeze for next weekend's dinner. I mostly used leftover dry sheets, of which I had a few pieces of different varieties, and the last piece of the homemade. :)