Hi, Folks. My wife and I (and kids) love making pasta from scratch. That said, I think without exception, we consume said pasta right after we make it. I don’t think I’ve ever made the pasta and then needed to wait for any significant amount of time. This weekend we’re hosting dinner with guests coming over and the last thing we want to be doing is cranking out pasta as everyone arrives. The day will also be busy, so an ideal scenario would be for us to make and roll the pasta the day before.
I’ll clearly need to refrigerate it because it’s got raw eggs in the dough. I’m concerned, though, that the time in the refrigerator will cause the pasta to stick together. If it doesn’t, the condensation as it warms up might. Should I heavily flour it and dry it a bit on racks? And so on and so on… Anyway, we’re making pappardelle and our dough is roughly 50-50 AP flour and semolina. What tips do you all have for someone want to make and roll out fresh pasta the day before it’s to be served?
Anything not stuffed can be stored easily in the fridge for a day or two. Hang it a for a bit, then light flour/semolina either in a big freezer bag or on a sheetpan, then wrapped in plastic.
You don’t mention it but stuffed pastas can get either spongy (if the filling is too wet) or change colour as the filling bleeds into the uncooked pasta, so keeping uncooked stuffed pastas are a bit more finicky.
Thanks, Chris. I’ll definitely hang it to dry a bit and then liberally flour. I’ve seen papparedelle left in rolls after being cut, so I might very liberally flour the pre-cut sheets and leave them rolled or turn them on their sides so they’re not pressing down on the layer below.
I’ve found that freezing it for a short period doesn’t hurt too much. I flour it liberally, then just stick it in the freezer on a sheet. Once it’s frozen i’ll pull it out, stuff it in a freezer bag, and put it back in.
Also consider getting a pasta press. Those can dry on the counter overnight and still produce perfect pasta the next day, while being able to save dried leftovers.