How to Use a Pasta Machine

Preparing Your Dough

Divide your dough into 4 even pieces. Your pieces should be roughly the size of a handful so that it will be able to fit in your machine. Your dough should be freshly-made and have rested in plastic wrap at room temperature for around 20 minutes. You’ll only be working with one piece of dough at a time, so you can keep the remaining 3 wrapped in plastic so that they don’t dry out. The best tool for this is called a “bench scraper,” which is a flat scraping tool. You can also use a large knife. You should make your dough right before you start using your pasta machine so that your noodles are fresh and taste the best.

Flatten your dough into a rectangle shape to prepare it. You can spread out your dough piece into a rectangle shape that’s about as wide as your pasta machine’s opening. Use the heel of your palm to gently knead the dough into shape. Keep your dough about 0.5 inches (1.3 cm) thick and don’t spread it out too much. This step is to get your dough ready for the machine, not to make it thinner. You should just use your hands for this step. A rolling pin will flatten out the dough too much.

Dust your piece of dough with flour. You’ll want to flour your dough every time you feed it through your machine. Flouring it also makes your dough easier to work with and less sticky. Don’t be afraid to cover your hands in flour too so that you can grab the dough without sticking to it and tearing it.

Using Your Machine

Clamp your machine to your counter, table, or cutting board. Make sure your pasta machine is attached to a secure surface, and that you have enough room to turn the crank. Set the opening of the machine to the widest setting, usually called number 1 on most pasta machines. Make sure to read the manual on your machine before you start using it, so you are aware of all safety regulations and precautions that you need to take, like setting up attachments and anchoring your machine properly.

Feed the first piece of dough through the roller. Starting with one of the shorter sides of the rectangle that you made, slowly insert your dough into the pasta machine while turning the crank. Use your crank slowly and steadily, as you want your dough to be evenly spread. Try not to turn the crank too fast or force it to turn, because this can damage your machine. Be sure to catch the dough before it falls onto a hard surface so that it maintains its shape. It may be helpful to have a friend turn the crank while you feed the dough through the machine, or vice versa.

Fold your dough into thirds to make it shorter. Take each end of your dough and fold it toward the middle, creating a smaller rectangle out of it in a kind of envelope shape. Press lightly on the top of the dough to stick each layer together, but not so hard that it changes the shape of the dough.

Sprinkle flour on your dough each time it comes out of the machine. You’ll want to keep your dough from sticking to the machine or your hands, so you need to dust it in flour each time it comes out of your pasta machine. You can dust both the dough and the surface around it with a light coating, just enough to keep it from tearing or sticking. You can also keep your hands coated in flour to make sure the dough doesn’t stick to you as you handle it.

Put the dough into the machine about 5 more times. Keep folding your dough into thirds and flouring it each time before you put it into your pasta maker. This will make your dough thinner each time it goes through. Make sure to grab the dough with your hand each time it leaves the machine so it doesn’t fall onto a hard surface. You should keep your machine on the largest setting for the first five pass-throughs so that your machine doesn’t clog with dough that is too thick.

Turn your machine to a thinner setting for a thinner dough. Depending on how thin you want your noodles to be, you can turn your machine to a smaller setting as you put your dough through the machine each time. Check with the recipe that you are using to decide how thin you would like to make your dough.

Create the noodles with your pasta maker’s attachment. You can use an attachment on your pasta machine to cut your dough into a noodle shape. This attachment will look different based on what type of pasta you are trying to make. Attach this to your machine based on the manual’s instructions, and feed your dough into it, catching it with your hands before it hits a counter or table. To make stuffed pasta, you should cut your dough by hand with a knife, and not with your machine. That way, you can have a decent sized pasta piece to place your filling in.

Repeat these steps with each piece of dough that you have. After you’ve made noodles out of one piece of dough, you can repeat the process with the rest of your dough to use it all up. Once all your noodles are made, you’ll want to cook them right away so that they don’t dry up and become hard. You can keep your noodles that are already made on a drying rack or a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Dusting your noodles with cornmeal will help keep them from sticking together.