If you have never made easy homemade pasta before, you are seriously missing out! I used to be intimidated by this process. Once I made them I couldn’t go back to boxed pasta. Its just not the same. I will walk you through a step- by- step process on how to make homemade pasta! Its a skill that everyone should learn if you love cooking!
AS AN AMAZON ASSOCIATE, THIS POST MAY CONTAIN SOME AFFILIATE LINKS. THIS DOES NOT CHANGE YOUR PRICE. BUT IT DOES SHARE A SMALL COMMISSION WITH OUR FAMILY. READ THE FULL DISCLOSURE HERE
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cup flour
- 3 room temperature eggs
- 3 tbl warm water
- extra flour for dusting
That’s all the ingredient’s! Can you believe something so delicious and famous is this simple!?
Tools you will need to make easy homemade pasta
- Blender (optional)
- Measuring cups and spoons
- Pasta machine ( this is the one I use and love)
- Rolling pin
- Ziploc bag
How to make easy homemade pasta
In a blender place the flour, eggs, and water. Close the blender with the lid then blend for about 30 seconds on the lowest setting until the dough forms a ball. Do not over pulse it, you only want the dough to come together. D NOT blend more than 30 seconds. If you keep blending it you might burn out your blender motor. You can also do this in a food processor! This is the blender we use and love!
To easily clean the blender, add warm water and a dash of dish soap, close with the lid and blend on high. rinse and dry.
IF YOU DO NOT HAVE A BLENDER:
Place the flour on a clean countertop, gather it into a circle then make a well in the middle. Crack the eggs into the middle and pour the water. Slowly start mixing the flour with the eggs and water till it combines. If doing this by hand it will take about 10 minutes to combine.
Take out the dough from the blender onto a clean counter top, knead the dough for 2 minutes just to insure it is smooth.
The dough shouldn’t be too sticky, when you touch it. It shouldn’t stick to your finger. If it does, dust your work surface with flour and knead until smooth and firm. (Add 1 tbl of flour at a time and knead till it all comes together)
The dough is ready when you can knead the dough on the countertop without it sticking
Divide the dough into 4, and round them into a ball shape.
Then place the dough into a Ziploc bag for 30 minutes-1 hour. This helps the dough to fully absorb the moisture and it gives the gluten a chance to relax. This step makes the dough easier to work with — keeps it from shrinking and snapping back as you stretch it.
Okay, your pasta dough has been portioned and has relaxed. Now you’re ready to make some pasta noodles!
Dust the counter top with flour. work with one part at a time, keep the other ones covered with a towel so they don’t dry out.
Roll the pasta sheets
If you are using a pasta machine, dust the blade with a little bit of flour just to insure the dough will not stick to the metal. You can also roll the pasta sheets using a rolling pin.
Flatten the dough on the end you’ll be feeding into the pasta machine. The rollers will catch it and pull it through. Set the rollers to the largest (thickest) setting ( on my pasta maker this setting is 1). Feed the dough through the machine.
Repeat this process, narrowing the roller settings as you go, until the dough is the desired thickness. My machine goes to number 8. (that’s the number I roll my pasta sheets to)
Now that you have rolled your dough to your desired thickness, Let the dough dry for 30 minutes. No longer that that, or it will dry out and become brittle.
Dust the sheets with flour then set them to dry. I don’t have any fancy technique for this, I use sheets on the couch method. I lay clean sheets on the back of the couch then I lay the pasta sheets on them to dry.
At this point, you can cut your pasta sheets into any pasta shapes you desire. For lasagna you will keep them the width they are, you will only cut the length to fit your pan. Or feed the pasta sheets through the rollers to achieve your desired cuts on the pasta machine. The pasta will emerge as beautiful noodles.
Allow the entire sheet to go through the cutters, then dust the noodles lightly with flour so they don’t stick together.
No pasta machine? No problem.
To make noodles, cut the sheets into the noodle length you want, then roll the sheets into logs and cut the logs into the width you like. For fettuccine, you would cut the logs into 1/4 of an inch, and then unravel the noodles and sprinkle with flour.
Cooking and Storing Fresh Pasta
Fresh pasta cooks fast! Add noodles to salted boiling water, as soon as the noodles float up they are ready. Usually takes 3 minutes. You can store fresh pasta in the fridge for a handful of days, or frozen for up to a month.
Use homemade pasta in these dishes
Reader Interactions