Making fresh pasta is undoubtedly an act of love. While it might be easier to buy a box of dried pasta at the grocery store or browse the fresh pasta section at your local Italian store, making homemade pasta is a more enjoyable experience. Making pasta is a rewarding experience because you can use ingredients that suit your specific dietary preferences, such as organic or gluten-free flour, or add your favorite extracts, flavor the pasta with herbs or coloring powders. You can also shape the pasta into any shape, such as fettuccine or stuffed ravioli. When pasta is in your hands, the possibilities are endless.
However, one of the reasons people don’t make their own pasta is because the process is labor-intensive and the pasta dough can be finicky. If you’re trying to make your first batch of homemade pasta, we’ve gone to great lengths to ensure you’re truly enjoying your pasta.
If you’ve read pasta recipes, you may have seen something about putting eggs in a well of flour. This step is an integral part of making pasta, not just something added to a recipe to make your life more difficult. Some Reddit users noted that using a well shape means slowly pushing the edges of the flour into the eggs. Once you reach the perfect texture, you can stop adding flour to the dough. Because eggs vary in weight and consistency, your recipe will not always be the most consistent mixture if you add flour and eggs exactly. After all, cooking pasta is an art.
If you are making a large amount of pasta, this flour method is not practical. Instead, you can use a modern KitchenAid mixer with a hook attachment to combine the eggs and flour.
According to Fabulous Pasta, standard pasta flour is double zero (00 or doppio zero). This flour was originally produced in Italy and used to make pizza and pasta (from Fine Dining Lovers). 00 means the flour is ground as finely as possible, to 0, 1 or 2. 00 or sometimes 0 flour is used to make pasta because this flour contains 10 to 15 percent protein. The appropriate level of gluten allows the dough to be stretched without tearing. Food lovers take note: you can buy 00 pizza or 00 pasta; the pizza version has a slightly higher gluten content, but pasta flour can be substituted in a pinch.
Cake or pastry flour, although containing small amounts of protein and gluten, requires lengthy kneading to achieve the texture of pasta dough. Bread flour contains too much protein, causing the pasta to become too sticky and dense.
The ingredients for making homemade pasta are simple: all you need are eggs and flour. Egg yolks give the pasta a beautiful yellow hue and rich flavor. While adding egg yolks can help increase the moisture content of the pasta and make it more pliable, adding too many egg whites can cause problems with the texture and moisture of the pasta. Meryl Feinstein of Pasta Social Club recommends using both egg yolks and whole eggs to get the best dough texture (via Food52).
You may see some pasta dough recipes that don’t use eggs at all, but instead get the moisture from the water. Eggless pasta is typically cat ear-shaped pasta, which is firmer and tougher than egg-based pasta dough. If you are making pasta rolls, you should use eggs as the main ingredient.
To make great pasta dough, you need to find the perfect ratio of wet to dry ingredients. The ideal ratio of dry to wet ingredients is 3 to 4. If you’re making eggless pasta dough with water and flour, you should use a ratio of 1 to 2 (via Pasta Social Club).
The key to getting the perfect proportions is to methodically weigh all of the pasta dough ingredients. That means investing in the most useful kitchen tool ever created: a digital scale. This device allows you to measure weight and volume. For eggs, water and flour you should always use grams on the scale. This will ensure that you get the most accurate proportions of ingredients to add to your pasta recipe. Small mistakes, such as forgetting a container or measuring liquid in fluid ounces, can cause problems later in the cooking process.
In addition to 00 flour, you need to add semolina to fresh pasta. According to Bob’s Red Mill, semolina is a flour made from durum wheat (or “pasta wheat”). At first glance, semolina flour is much coarser than 00 flour and can be more golden in color, depending on the variety. The smell of semolina is more organic and aromatic than that of flour, making it a pleasant ingredient in products such as semolina (basbousa).
Semolina is a key ingredient in pasta because it is high in gluten and protein, which helps the pasta maintain its shape while cooking. If you buy semolina at the grocery store, you should always look for durum semolina rather than corn or rice semolina. Corn and rice grains are simply called “semolina” because they are coarsely ground, not because they replace traditional wheat varieties in pasta.
To keep pasta in shape, you need to knead it—and knead it often. Giada De Laurentiis’s pasta recipe requires almost eight minutes of kneading for the gluten to fully develop and harden. If you do not knead the pasta dough, the pasta may fall apart when exposed to water.
According to Eataly, the best way to knead pasta dough is to press it with your palms and slowly push it away from your body. Then gradually press and move the dough with your knuckles, constantly turning and rotating the dough. Eataly notes that kneading the dough can take up to 20 minutes or until the texture is smooth. If the dough starts to fall apart, you can add a little water or a tablespoon of 00 flour at a time to prevent the dough from becoming too watery.
If you don’t want to exercise your hands, you can use a stand mixer. According to KitchenAid, by kneading the dough using a stand mixer and dough hook, you can be ready to rest in just five minutes.
The dough needs a break between kneading and rolling out. If your pasta dough is hard, elastic, and difficult to knead, it’s a sign that the gluten in the dough needs time to relax and soften. If you let the dough rest after kneading, gluten will accumulate in the dough. Eataly recommends letting the dough rest for at least 30 minutes. Also, be sure to cover the entire dough with plastic wrap to prevent a crust from forming.
According to La Micia Cooking, egg pasta dough should rest for at least twenty minutes, but no more than an hour. While you may think that egg batter should always be refrigerated, think again. The dough is easier to work with if left at room temperature, and leaving it out of the refrigerator for an hour at room temperature does not increase the risk of foodborne illness—just don’t eat the dough raw (from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).
Once you have kneaded and relaxed the fresh dough, you are ready to roll out the pasta. While your old Italian grandma may not have had fancy equipment and pasta rollers, you’ll want to grab a pasta roller instead of a rolling pin. To keep your pasta dough very thin, you will need a handheld pasta roller.
There are many types of pasta rollers you can purchase. If you already have a stand mixer, you can purchase a pasta attachment that comes in eight sizes to help you roll out your pasta to the perfect thickness. If you prefer a tabletop pasta roller, you can buy one on Amazon for under $50. These metal utensils attach to your countertop and won’t move while you cook your pasta. You need to cut the dough into small pieces so that you can roll it through the pasta machine on maximum power. You will then begin to slowly thin the pasta until it reaches your desired thickness.
You may have heard the term “laminate” to describe croissants and buttery dough, but what about pasta? According to experienced chefs, the process of rolling out pasta dough involves feeding it into a roller, rolling it up and then returning it to the roller. After rolling out the dough to the thickest part, sprinkle it with flour and fold the dough in half. You should then trim the edges of the dough to form a square shape. Lamination is an important step in dough preparation and is important for strengthening the gluten, thereby preventing the dough from tearing as it passes through the rollers.
Experienced chefs note that only the first two or three circles need to be laminated, and using the lamination technique you can also add fresh herbs to the dough. Once the squares are ready, you can cut off the edges of the dough and add it to the scrap pile.
If you are working with the dough and the pasta starts to stick together, you may be tempted to add more flour to coat the pasta. When you are ready to cut the pasta, you should use rice flour or semolina to prevent the dough from sticking together. If you add 00% flour, it will seep back into the pasta, leaving you in the same predicament. When you start cooking the pasta, you will notice a jelly-like residue on the outside of the pasta. When you cook pasta, denser flours like semolina will sink to the bottom of the pan and prevent the water from clouding.
Another great tip is to add a few teaspoons to the bowl under the machine. This way, if you treat it with semolina, you won’t have to further activate the gluten.
There are many misconceptions and questions about how much salt you should add to pasta water. If you don’t add enough salt to your pasta water, your pasta will be bland and tasteless. According to numerous retail outlets, the average amount of salt added to water is 1.5 teaspoons per liter of water. Other sources recommend using up to one tablespoon of salt per pound of pasta. America’s Test Kitchen notes that any type of salt can be used to season pasta water. But since you still have to cook it, it’s better to use cheap table or kosher salt instead of expensive Maldon salt.
AstroCamp recommends adding salt after the water boils. This is because the chemical composition of the salt raises its boiling point, which means you’ll have to wait for it to boil on the stove. After adding the salt, you can add the pasta to the pan and cook it accordingly.
Any pasta is easy to overcook. But fresh pasta is especially easy to overcook because it takes less time than dry pasta. To make perfect fresh pasta, you need to bring a pot of salted water to a boil on the stove. Be sure to stir the pasta immediately after adding it to the pan to prevent the noodles from sticking. The exact cooking time depends on the thickness of the pasta and whether you want the pasta al dente. The average time needed to cook most fresh pasta is between 90 seconds and 4 minutes.
Do not rinse the pasta with cold water after removing it from the pan. DeLillo says rinsing the pasta dough will quickly cool it, reducing the chance of sauce sticking to the noodles. This is only acceptable if you are using pasta for a cold salad.
While we admit that the yellow hue of egg pasta is beautiful, you can get more creative with the color of your pasta dough. The different colors of pasta come from dyes and dyes that are added to the dough along with other ingredients. If you want a bright, rich red color, use beetroot juice or powder. This powder is great for pasta because adding liquid gets rid of the unstable liquid to flour ratio. If you want mysterious black pasta, add some squid ink to your pasta. Add ink to pasta along with egg yolks and a little olive oil to create a deep black color. If you want a green pasta, add some dried spinach and flour to the pasta—the mild flavor of the spinach complements the fresh, nutty pesto with the flavors of Parmesan, basil, and pine nuts.
Proper care of your pasta machine is key to ensuring consistent pasta recipes. To keep your pasta machine in working order, you can clean it. Remember, never wash your pasta cooker in the dishwasher or sink. Mixing water with leftover flour or dough pieces creates a sticky mess that makes cleanup difficult.
Rolling polymer clay inside the machine can help clean the machine (using a paste spreader). To use this method, form the clay into a ball and roll it out in the machine like pasta dough. You can also use a machine cleaning brush or a damp cloth to remove any remaining flour. To avoid rust, be sure to air dry your car before storing it. Rust inside the machine can discolor the pasta and give the lasagna a metallic taste.
Pasta is nothing without sauce. If you’re making bolognese, a thick meat sauce with tomatoes and Italian herbs, you’ll want to pair it with a thick pasta that can support the weight of the sauce, such as spaghetti. If you’re making a batch of pesto, you’ll want to pair it with pasta that can hold and absorb sauce—like fusilli, rotini, and farfalle.
A general rule of thumb for pairing pasta is to use delicate noodles with mild sauces and thicker noodles with thicker sauces. Long, thin noodles such as bucatini and perciatelli work best with thin sauces running through the noodles. If you’re making pasta casserole, try using short-form pasta with lots of tubes to add to your favorite creamy sauces and dreamy mac and cheese recipes.
Post time: Oct-22-2023