Storing Homemade Pasta

Have you found the perfect homemade pasta recipe, only to get a little carried away? It's not that hard to do considering just how far pasta dough can go. But what can you do when this happens? Well, frankly, you really only have two choices. The first is to store it all away until you can use it again, or you can throw it away. Since throwing it all away can get to be a bit expensive (not to mention wasteful), the best choice is to learn how storing homemade pasta works. Luckily it's not particularly difficult. All you really need is to follow these simple steps.

Materials needed:

• Fresh homemade pasta
• Refrigerator
• Freezer
• Sealable freezer bags
• Drying rack
• Large plate
• Waxed paper.
• Flour
• Masking tape
• Permanent marker

Procedure:

1. Lay it out. For large noodles (such as linguini or fettuccine) use a drying rack to help prepare your noodles for storage. For smaller noodles, such as macaroni or rigatoni, use a plate covered with waxed paper.
2. Space-saving idea. Larger pastas can take up a lot of space, so one way to reduce the size of your package is to make a coil of the pasta. Simply place the pasta into a bag, and then toss in a bit of flour. Shake it all up so that the pasta is nice and covered, and then lay the pasta out on a plate like you would a coil of rope. The flour will help prevent the pasta from sticking to itself.
3. Dry it out. Depending on the type of storage you have in mind, you will need to dry out your pasta in one of two ways. For short-term storage (usage within three months) just leave the pasta out for an hour. For long-term storage (longer than three months, but usage within six months) let the pasta dry completely, which should take about 24 hours.
4. Mark and fill the package. While the pasta is drying, begin marking the packaging. Place a strip of masking tape on a sealable, air tight freezer bag and write two dates on it. The first should be the day that you are placing the pasta into storage and the second is its "use by" date (depending on storage goals). Once the pasta has dried out, fill the package.
5. Place it in storage. For short-term storage place the pasta into the freezer. For long-term storage simply place it in your pantry.