What to do with left over pasta dough?
When I am making ravioli there is always left over pasta dough. Can I re-roll this and use it to make more ravioli or will they become tough?
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When I am making ravioli there is always left over pasta dough. Can I re-roll this and use it to make more ravioli or will they become tough?
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However, the big problem with recycling pasta dough from ravioli making is that it tends to lose some of its moisture due to evaporation. Drier pasta dough tends to split/crack more easily which is not what you want for making raviolis (you want a pasta dough that is actually a little wetter and more elastic when you make raviolis).
Thus, I generally just run it through my pasta machine and turn the ravioli dough scraps into a regular noodle (e.g., spaghetti, fettuccine). There usually isn't much anyhow for more than one or two appetizer sized portions.
There's an Italian type of pasta called maltagliati (badly cut) which is made on purpose in a roughly cut rhomboid shape.
But it also can be made from badly cut scraps. If you like, save your scraps in the freezer until you have enough to cook a dish. Many sauces can be use - ricotta, cod, lentils, other.
Maltagliati is from Emilia Romagna; strozzapreti ("priest strangler") is another from this region. Pici (Tuscany) would be suitable to make from scraps. Trofie (Lombardia) is also suitable to make from scraps. I'm certain every single Italian region has their own scrap pasta. After all it is peasant food.
In Japan, soba shops would package their scraps for use in soups, often made available as a free bonus to regular customers.
Recycling your ravioli pasta scraps into something like rerolled fettuccine or maltagliati is the path of least effort.
Raviolis are so time consuming that by the end I am eager to move on which is why I just quickly roll out noodles and be done with it.