Garganelli and penne are like brother and sister. They look very similar. According to wikipedia, “they differ in that a “flap” is clearly visible where one corner of the pasta square adheres to the rest, as opposed to a perfect cylinder in penne“. It is impossible to make “penne” at home, so homemade penne is always garganelli. 🙂
The garganelli and gnocchi stripper costs only $13 (I purchased from Amazon.com). If you like to make homemade pasta, I really recommend this little tool.
INSTRUCTIONS BELOW are all from www.cuisinivity.com; awesome job – thank you Yuko!
Ingredients: Pasta dough (click here for fresh pasta dough notes)
How to:
1. Make fresh pasta dough and roll out the dough to very thin sheets by either a pasta maker or rolling pin.
2. Cut sheets into 1-1/2 inch (4 cm) strips and then into squares.
3. Put one square of pasta dough on a garganelli board with one of the corners toward you. Then roll the mini rolling pin (comes with the garganelli board) from one corner to the other to make the ridged texture. Then roll the dough around the mini rolling pin and roll back toward you. At the end, give a little pressure to seal it. The animation below shows how to shape garaganelli.
I found that the mini rolling pin that comes with the garganelli board is a little too thick. It makes giant garganelli. So I decided to use a much thinner round chopstick for a more ideal size. You can use a round pencil as well.
Left is 2 inch square of pasta dough rolled with mini rolling pin which comes with the board.
Right is 1-1/2 inch square pasta dough rolled with a chopstick.
4. Remove the garganelli from the rolling pin (or chopstick) and put it on a baking sheet covered with a dry towel to let it dry. Continue to make as much as you want – or have the patience – to make. From the pasta dough recipe here, you can make about 1 lb garganelli.
