Homemade Pasta Recipe
Nothing for nothing, but fresh pasta is so much better than the thick dry cardboard you get in a box. Even the ‘fancy’ stuff that costs $6 a pound is bland and grainy compared to pasta you make at home. And it’s really not that time consuming or difficult. Plus you get some quality time stretching dough. Make enough pasta and you’ll have Lou Ferrigno’s forearms.
About 30 minutes of active time and 15 minutes (up to a few hours) of waiting. And the ingredients are about the cheapest stuff you have in the house.
And it’s so simple to make it seems almost silly to create a recipe for it. If you mix flour and eggs together and knead them for a few minutes you have pasta. After that, you just have to roll and shape.
Okay, here’s the recipe. And some photos of us making pasta.
Ingredients
- 8½ ounces 00 flour (about 2 cups). You can use regular flour but 00 flour makes a smoother pasta.
- 2 whole large eggs
- 2 egg yolks (or a tablespoon of olive oil)
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
Preparation
- Mound flour in the center of a smooth clean surface. Be sure there is a good solid hill around the edge.
- Pour eggs and egg yolks in center of flour mound.
- Sprinkle salt over eggs.
- With a fork mix the eggs and yolks together.
- Continue mixing and slowly pulling in flour from the edges.
You will need to continue shoring up your flour well as you work. Try not to let the eggs escape. If they do it’s not a catastrophe. Just rebuild and keep mixing.
- Once enough flour is incorporated the pasta will begin to form a very soft dough.
- Abandon the fork and begin to incorporate flour using a bowl scraper if you have one. If you don’t have a bowl scraper your hands work fine – you’ll just be messier when this is over.
When the pasta holds together and is getting fairly firm, it’s time to scrape your board and get ready for kneading
- Move the pasta ball to one side and, using a bench scraper, scrape up and discard the messy bits stuck to the board.
- Spread a little more flour on your now-cleanish board.
- Knead the pasta dough for 15 minutes, incorporating only as much flour as needed to prevent sticking to the board. Seriously, look at the clock. Kneading for the full 15 minutes creates a stronger pasta. Stretchier. Betterer.
- As you knead the dough will transition from a bumpy lump of flour and egg into a smooth ball of dough and develop a light sheen.
- When the dough is very elastic and smooth, wrap tightly in plastic and rest on counter for 30 minutes to relax.
I have no idea how long it can rest on the counter, but I’ve rested pasta dough up to 3 hours at this point with no adverse effects.
Shaping Pasta
Shaping pasta is pretty simple – if you have a pasta machine. Even the most basic hand-cranked model is fine. No fancy, electric or mixer-mounted attachment is necessary. Just a machine that can roll pasta to increasingly thinner sheets. If you don’t, you should recruit some strong-backed friends to help with the rolling. I will continue as though you have a machine. Because…- Clamp your pasta machine to the edge of your countertop.
- Lightly dust the countertop with flour
- Unwrap and divide your pasta ball into four equal pieces.
- Remove one piece and re-cover the remaining pasta.
- Roll the pasta piece on the counter to create a tube about six inches long.
- Mash one end of the pasta tube, insert into the pasta machine and slowly crank the handle, feeding the pasta in as you go.
- When the pasta exits the machine, fold it back over itself so it is half the length it was.
- Insert the ‘bitter ends’ into the machine and again roll the pasta through.
- Without folding, insert the pasta into the machine and roll it slowly through again.
- Adjust your pasta machine one notch smaller and roll the pasta through the machine.
- If making noodles (fettucini, linguini, etc.) continue down to (for me) the next-to-last thickness setting, lightly dusting with 00 flour if pasta gets sticky. The last time through the machine will considerably increase the length of the pasta sheet.
The thinnest setting on my pasta machine creates some seriously thin sheets and I’ve found they’re perfect for ravioli and lasagna.
- Move the completed pasta sheet to a clean baking sheet and sprinkle with semolina if you have it. Otherwise, use regular flour to keep the pasta from sticking.
- Continue with the remaining pieces of pasta.
- When the last piece of pasta has been rolled thin attach the cutting head to the pasta machine and move the handle to operate the cutting head.
If you have a helper now is the time to enlist them. They will be invaluable helping catch the pasta as you cut it.
- Insert one end of a pasta sheet into the cutting attachment and slowly turn the handle, feeding the pasta into the cutter as you turn.
- Have your assistant catch the pasta, hand over hand, and try to keep it from tangling.
- Arrange the cut pasta on (another) clean backing sheet, being sure to separate the pieces, and sprinkle generously with semolina (or regular flour).
- Continue until all pasta sheets are cut and arranged on the baking sheet.
- Cover the baking sheet loosely with plastic wrap until ready to cook.