Wow is right!
And I guess I WON’T be buying a pasta machine!
#FúckYourPastaMachine = #ImaMassiveDouchebag if you ask me. If I had to knead by hand, roll out, furl and unfurl, blah blah fúcking blah, I’d never make pasta. It actually makes me angry to see somebody like Linda cut off at the knees before she even starts because, well; who the Fuck could ever compete with the impresario of fúcking flour and eggs?!?
And no, I haven’t been drinking. But I’m gonna start! ![[soap.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/a/a7ea1fffd3ef237e8f19d17a83270ad8452218ca.gif "soap"){kind=small}
Don’t listen to that BS. I’m sorry, if you make pasta every day and getting the right thickness becomes second nature to you, go ahead and take the pompous view that rolling by hand “breathes life” into the pasta. Guys like this are just trying to put unnecessary barriers to entry for average cooks so that they can make themselves feel better.
If Thomas Keller is comfortable taking his dough and running it through a machine, then I don’t think the pasta gods are going to punish the mere mortal cook for using one.
Preach, brother !
Absolutely
Point taken.
I don’t really care about following some Nonna rule though. That was just my rule!
I was just talking from experience. The resting of the dough makes it really easy to roll out. I’ll make it in the morning before work and then make the pasta for dinner or the next day. I used to know Jacques Torres a little bit and he told me that you should always rest cookie dough because it takes flour a long time to absorb egg, so resting for a day or two makes a far more supple cookie with a better spread. First few times I tried making pasta it was such a mess I gave it up for years. Then I figured out that the resting really mattered.
I’m with you on the extra thick noodles too. My wife’s fave.
Jealous that you have those awesome eggs though!
I’m excited to try some of the meat, too. Sam says it’s completely unlike store bought birds
+1
No air fryer; No counter top instapot/rotisserie/comvection oven; no induction hot plate; no pressure cooker; no electric smoker (have to use the BGE); no deep fryer. It’s a wonder I do not shrivel away to nothingness.
True. I only cook for myself, not for paying customers. I’m not going to ask me for my money back. ![[wow.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/7/7d450e9830889c8943b674446a21b7254cad657e.gif "wow"){kind=small}
Actually, no. Funke saw an Instagram post from my son about making pasta at home using a Felix coronavirus make your own pasta kit and offered encouragement and advice. He even offered to send my son a mattarello rolling pin as a gift once Felix is back up and running.
That’s great and good for him. Then I will amend my comment to say that he unintentionally creates barriers to entry for most people who want to make pasta. I have no problem with people making it by hand, more power to them. But to mock people for using a rolling machine By saying fuck your pasta machine is both silly and pompous.
Tom, Funke is totally obsessed with making pasta. Like all obsessions, it isn’t normal. But in this instance, it is incredibly inexpensive (unlike wine collecting). All it takes is time, practice, and good, inexpensive ingredients. Funke’s pastas are consistently excellent. My son is achieving great results following Funke’s instructions. There are many more harmful things to be evangelical about than pasta making. And I have no doubt that Linda will make excellent pasta; it is easier than making wine (and the gratification is immediate). ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
The issue we have isn’t Funke’s obsession, it’s the idea that if you’re not doing it his way, you’re doing it wrong. That’s bullshįt, but… I can live with it. The problem is how it creates silly barriers to entry. To your point, it’s flour and eggs. It’s Playdough, not rocket surgery. He’s not a poseur. His tortelloni are beautiful. He’s really good at that and a hundred other aspects of pasta making… but your fugly imperfect homemade pasta will be awesome. Don’t let this guy intimidate you.
Agreed. And putting it into a roller is going to do exactly what he’s doing.
You don’t roll pizza dough because you don’t want to pop the air bubbles, so you stretch it instead. But if you’re rolling, it doesn’t matter whether it’s wood or metal. I don’t get it. And at Locali’s in Brooklyn he rolls it.
And a lot of what he does is just because that’s how he was taught, not because it affects the outcome. You don’t need to make your pasta by making a well with flour. You can do it in a bowl. You can scramble your eggs before adding.
I was thinking about this very thing today while I was making pasta.
Mark, I love the guy’s passion and, while I have never eaten at Felix, I know enough who have to have admiration for his skills.
If you want to relate it to wine, I feel like his approach is a akin to biodynamics. Do I really think burying bones actually has an impact on wine? Nope, but I can appreciate the winemaker who has the passion to follow his dream and approach. What I do not like, however, is when the biodynamics crowd pretends like the burying of bones is a litmus test as to whether a wine is truly “of the earth.”
My wife is full-blooded Italian and has been making pasta her whole life with her off-the-boat grandmother having taught her as a child. Using a machine to roll the dough allows her to make pasta almost every Sunday, but if she had to do it with a wooden rod, she might choose to do it only do it a few times a year like when we were first married. Candidly, the machine version of her pasta is better than ever and my family is the beneficiary. His suggestion that she should F#ck off because she uses a machine is petty and arrogant, even if it is meant tongue and cheek.
Sorry to doddle on about this, but I have seen a generation grow up watching celebrity chefs and the Food Network and yet they cook less than ever. I think they believe these chefs have these unattainable skills they will never have and so it is not worth even trying. I love the fact that your son is taking this passion on, but most people just want to be able to make a nice dinner without having to get a Ph.d in pasta making.
but that’s really the point…it’s only playdough to the people that don’t fully understand it. it’s substituting your right to an opinion for actual expertise and achievement. funke doesn’t say that a machine is “wrong” - he says he would never use it. his achievement in pasta making is a result of his process. and if someone is intimidated by this video, instead of being inspired by it, that says nothing about funke and everything about the viewer.
I’m not sure I agree Yaacov. The other day I looked at someone’s baking blog. There’s a reason I usually avoid those. These people probably meant well but they had something like ten pages on how to make a sourdough starter, and they had a checklist and everything.
That kind of stuff is like mumbo jumbo from the witch doctor. It’s nonsense.
Two days ago I made a sourdough starter because I got some new flour.
I took a spoonful of flour and mixed it with some water to make a paste and waited until it bubbled.
That’s it. One sentence. Not pages. No measuring, no gram scale, no mystery.
Pasta is the same. He can get a really big stick to roll it. That’s cool. But it’s theater. And unless you know what you’re doing, you don’t know where the theater ends and the actual useful stuff is hiding.
I respect anyone who’s developed the skill level he has. But basic pasta is really easy and to make it more complicated than it needs to be doesn’t do anyone any good. He is better when he’s filling the shells and forming them. That takes a lot of practice.