I attempted to make fusilli by hand the other night with mixed results. The taste and texture was just right....it was more the shaping that I had problems with. I suppose as a novice pasta maker this is to be expected.
The first thing I noticed was that the wooden dowel (the handle of my wooden spoon) was likely too thick. I need to get something much thinner to make a tighter coil. Also, the lengths of pasta I was using at first were too short. The instructions I was following said three inch length strips of pasta but with my too big wooden dowel I soon saw that this wasn't working. I increased the length of the strips and this seemed to have helped.
The inconsistent crooked cutting of these strips by using a pizza cutter didn't help matters in the looks department. I think that I will use my pasta roller to cut uniform widths and lengths of strips next time.
I made one pound of this pasta and that first half pound was a nightmare! I couldn't seem to get my fingers accustomed to making the correct motions to shape the pasta. When my fingers did get used to the motion they couldn't move beyond clumsy. The only thing to do is to practice, practice, practice!
The instructions I was using said that I must let the pasta dry before cooking it with it so it will maintain its shape. I let the pasta dry overnight and part of the next next and it was dry. But the shape still uncoiled a little more than I would have liked. Is this normal? Is there a better method to keeping the coil tighter when it's cooked? Is it because of the too big dowel rod? If you dry fresh pasta overnight to hold the shape--is it no longer fresh pasta?
I have a lot of questions. If there is an 'Ask A PastaMaker' website out there, can someone please point me in that direction?
