My information for this section will partially be limited to the Kitchenaid pasta rollers. Those are what I use. I have collected information on the thickness settings for the Marcato Atlas for different pasta shapes and some pasta rolling knowledge will be applicable to any pasta machine.
When making stuffed and handcut pastas, one starts by rolling the dough out into sheets. You can use a rolling pin, but a pasta machine will make this task easier and your pasta sheet will be a consistent thickness. Further down will be a table with the recommended thicknesses for certain pastas.
Start by portioning the dough into an amount that the machine can handle. I usually split by dough ball into thirds or quarters. Keep the remaining dough covered so that it does not dry out. Keep some extra flour nearby. I usually put some all-purpose flour in a pile on the countertop where I will be working.
Set the pasta machine to the widest setting, which will be a 1 for KitchenAid attachments.
Using your palm or a rolling pin, roughly flatten the dough until it is about 1/4 inch thick. I try to make it as rectangular as possible, but in reality it will be an oval. That is okay, we can work on squaring it up as we roll. Dust the outside of the dough with some flour on both sides
If you try to feed the dough into the rollers while it is too thick, it can put a lot of strain on the machine, can tear your dough, or the dough can be too thick to even be fed into it.
Run your dough through the roller and it will elongate it as it rolls it thinner. Catch the dough as it is rolled through so prevent it from tearing.
Turn the dough 90 degrees so that it is running long ways on the counter in front of you from left to right. Fold the ends towards the center so that you are folding the pasta mostly into thirds. The goal here is to have the resulting width to be a little less than the width of the machine’s rollers. You can hold it up to the machine to check. So it might fold perfectly into thirds, there might not be any overlap. As long as they are a little less than the width of the rollers. If you need to add more flour, do the folding first and then flour the new outside of the dough.
Flatten your folded dough and feed it through the machine again, still on its widest setting.
Repeat again about 2 times. This helps laminate the dough and give you a nice rectangular piece of dough to feed through.
After this, there will not be any more folding. We will be running the dough through the rollers at progressively smaller settings. In doing so, the dough will gradually get thinner and longer. I feed it through once on each setting. Use your forearms or wrists to gently support the dough sheet while it is being fed into and rolled out of the machine. Letting the dough sheet hang without support will cause tears.
After each run through the machine, assess the dough’s surface and how sticky it is. If it is sticky, flour each side of the dough by sprinkling it onto the sheet and using your hand to spread it around evenly. Remove any excess flour. You do not always need to flour it before each run through the machine but you need to keep an eye on its surface. If it is too sticky, it will get stuck and tear in the machine.
When you get to the setting of the final thickness, I often run it through the machine twice, as the gluten of the dough can cause the dough to spring back. Rolling it through twice helps to ensure that you are really there at that final thickness setting.
Roller Settings
| Shape | Style | Marcato Atlas 150 | KitchenAid |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lagane | Hand Formed | 4 | 4 |
| Strozzapreti | Hand Formed | 5 | 5 |
| Fettuccine | Hand Cut | 6 | 6 |
| Lasagne | Hand Cut | 6 | 6 |
| Pappardelle | Hand Cut | 6 | 6 |
| Tagliatelle | Hand Cut | 7 | 7 |
| Tagliolini | Hand Cut | 4 or 5 | 4 or 5 |
| Corzetti Stampati | Short Cut | 5 | 5 |
| Farfalle | Short Cut | 6 | 7 |
| Garganelli | Short Cut | 5 | 5 |
| Sorpresine | Short Cut | 7 | 7 |
| Agnolotti & Agnolotti del Plin | Stuffed | 6 | 7 |
| Cappelletti | Stuffed | 6 | 7 |
| Caramelle | Stuffed | 7 | 7 |
| Classic Ravioli | Stuffed | 6 | 7 |
| Double-Stuffed Ravioli (Doppi Ravioli) | Stuffed | 7 | 7 |
| Egg Yolk Ravioli (Uovo in Raviolo) | Stuffed | 7 | 7 |
| Scarpinocc | Stuffed | 6 | 6 |
| Tortelloni | Stuffed | 6 | 7 |
Rolling Gluten Free Dough
Without gluten, this dough will be prone to tearing as it is not able to stretch as well as dough with gluten can. Here is some general tips for when working with gluten free dough.
- The dough will have cracks along the edges. While we want to do our best to reduce tearing, these cracked edges are just going to be there no matter what you do so don’t worry about them.
- Focus on making wider cut pastas like fettuccine and pappardelle, farfalle, and sorpresine.
- Avoid thin and/or narrow pastas such as ravioli or spaghetti.
- Starch-heavy gluten-free blends will leave behind a sticky film on the surface of the rollers (this goes for naturally gluten-free flours like chestnut and chickpea, too). Make sure to clean it off, gently, with a dry cloth.