Do you know what is wonderful about cooking at home? Making food from scratch and feeling accomplished. Did you know that fresh pasta is surprisingly easy to make at home? I would watch cooking shows on TV and see a people who have never made pasta struggle in their cooking challenges. It made me think pasta was hard to make, and that I would mess it up for sure.
It wasn’t until I made the decision to start this blog and really started to work to improve my cooking that I stumbled upon a documentary about different flavor profiles of food. This documentary showed how pasta was made at home, and I thought, hey, I could absolutely do this!
I found the recipe online for a beef Ragu with homemade pasta, and with my moms help we made delicious homemade pasta. I was so proud of myself for having made that pasta without any major issues. Knowing how easy and tasty homemade pasta was, I made the decision to create more recipes with pasta made from scratch.
As fun as it is to make fresh pasta, it is more fun to make it with someone else. Not that you can’t make this pasta on your own, but having an extra hand is always nice.
The trick for homemade pasta is to not overwork it and save the salt for cooking the pasta. This is because salting your pasta beforehand can slow down gluten formation and require you to work the dough for longer, which can lead to overworked dough. Salting the water during the cooking phase is just fine and will still lead to tasty pasta.
So, let’s get started!
Eggs and flour
The base of all fresh pasta is eggs and flour. There are soooo many different ways to make pasta, and really, how you enjoy your pasta is completely up to you. This is the egg/flour ratio I use for my pasta, but if you feel like you want to experiment then I salute you! If you are happy that is all that matters to me.
OK. So. First, you need a clean, dry surface, where you can work your dough. You can use a large cutting board, or a special baking surface for rolling if you would prefer. If you do use a secondary surface on top of your counters, make sure this surface does not slip, as this can cause issues for you when you are rolling.
Measure out your flour. Use a knife or something similar to even out the flour measurement. We don’t want to add too much flour, or your dough will be too dry.
Next, create a volcano with your flour and drop your eggs into the dome of the flour volcano.
Beat the eggs together with a form until they are mixed well, then start bringing the flour rim into the crater with your fork, and mix gently. Keep mixing the egg and flour together until the eggs start to blend with the flour.
Working the fresh pasta dough
Remember not to overwork the dough, but you want to kneed the dough by hand until the flour and eggs are combined well. If at this stage the dough is dry and the flour has not been incorporated completely, add one egg yolk, and mix. You should have a nice-looking ball of dough now. Wrap the dough tightly in plastic wrap and set aside to sit for at least an hour at room temperature.
Rolling out the fresh pasta dough
Lightly dust your surface with flour so the dough does not stick, remove your dough ball from the plastic wrap and begin to roll it out. If your pasta is a bit stick lightly dust until it is just no longer sticky.
Rolling pasta with pasta maker
Set the machine to the “0” position, and roll the dough to a thickness roughly the size of the opening in your pasta machine and no wider than the width of your machine.
Starting with the “0” position roll the pasta through the machine, then change to “1”, and roll the pasta again. Continue this through the rest of the levels on the pasta machine. I stopped at “7” as my ravioli pasta was the thickness I wanted it to be.
Rolling pasta by hand
Roll the pasta until it is thin. You may need to rotate the pasta a bit to get the dough thinned evenly.
You want your pasta to be thin. I mean think enough to let light through were you can just about see your fingers through the dough.
Cutting the fresh pasta
Here is where you can really get creative. If you have a machine, you can use the machine attachments to cut the dough to the shape/size you want. I have a basic pasta roller that I used to cut my ravioli’s. You can also just use a knife to cut your pasta. If you fold the pasta as you would a letter, you can then make thin and even cuts on your pasta so they will all be the same width.
You can pinch your pasta together to make a farfalle (bow tie) shape. It is honestly up to you! Have fun with it. Remember this is your kitchen and your meal, do what makes you happy.
Cooking the pasta
I like to use a bigger pan for my pasta, because in a bigger pan, when the water boils, it helps move the pasta around to keep them from sticking to each other. You want to fill your pot up a good way, I will do about two inches or less from the top of my pot. With my ravioli I filled my pot to about two inches from the top, but with other pastas you may not need to.
Bring that water to a boil. Now, you can either salt the water now, or wait. If you salt the water right when you put it on the stove, it will take a bit longer to boil, but it shouldn’t make much of a difference on the flavor of the pasta. Either way, you want to use a good amount of salt. I use almost a handful of salt. Yes, the water will be salty, BUT your pasta will not be in the water long enough to absorb all of that salt, but it will be in long enough to absorb some of the salt to give your pasta a good flavor.
If you are making a sauce to go along with your fresh pasta, you can use a bit of your pasta water for that sauce.
Check out this Butternut Squash Ravioli & Brown Butter Sauce recipe to try out your new pasta making skills!
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How to Make Fresh Pasta at Home
- Prep Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 5 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 35 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
Description
Making fresh pasta at home is super easy and you can create all types of fun pasta for your family when you make it at home. All you need is eggs, flour, and some love!
Ingredients
2 cups flour
3 whole eggs
2 egg yolk
salt
Instructions
1. Mound up your flour like a volcano.
2. Add eggs to the crater of the flour mound.
3. Beat eggs together within the crater of the mound.
4. Begin to bring flour into the beaten egg and mix together.
5. Kneed the egg and flour mixture to form a dough ball.
6. Wrap dough ball in plastic wrap and set aside at room temperature for at least 1 hour.
7. Roll out pasta dough using a rolling pin or pasta maker.
8. Use a pasta maker, knife, or pasta cutter to cut the shape of your choice.
9. Bring a large pot of water to a boil, and add a small handful of salt to the water.
10. Add the pasta to the water and cook for approximately 5 minutes. (This time may change depending on the size and type of pasta you have created).
11. Drain cooked pasta and add to sauce of your choice.
Notes
*If your dough is too dry, or if flour is not incorporating well add one more egg yolk.
*If dough is too wet, add a tbsp of flour at a time until your flour and egg are incorporated well.
- Category: Dinner – Pasta
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Italian
