And yet, if you do a quick search for pasta recipes, chances are you'll walk away more confused than confident. Some call for flour and whole eggs, others for additions of water or oil. Weight versus volume measurements, kneading times, resting conditions—it's all over the map.
It's not just a lay cook's issue, either. When I was in culinary school, I had a series of instructors who only left me more disoriented. Some insisted on oil, others on salt, still others on additional yolks or a splash of water. Prescribed kneading and resting times often contradicted each other. One instructor told us to hang the pasta to dry for at least 10 minutes before cooking it; others had us keep it tightly wrapped until the moment it was dropped in the pot.
So how's a girl to choose the very best way? If you're this girl, you obsess. You make batch after batch—dozens and dozens of batches, in fact—to find out. You walk around dusted and streaked with flour, crumbly bits of dough crusted to the end of your sleeves. You make spreadsheets and charts, and sometimes you maybe even cry. You make all-egg pastas, pastas made with just whites, pastas made with just yolks, and pastas made with nothing more than water.
You try different flours and check resting times at minute intervals for almost an entire day. You taste more ratios of egg yolk to egg white to flour than you care to admit.
You add oil, you add salt, you add oil and salt. You wave forkfuls of fettuccine at your friends and family and colleagues, wrangling them into taste test after taste test. You read every book you can get your hands on. Your forearms get totally ripped. Eventually, you realize there's no such thing as the perfect pasta. In part, that's because pasta is very forgiving. It also comes in many shapes and sizes and textures, as well as colors and flavors.
Which means that there are as many kinds of perfect pasta as you want there to be. This isn't to say that making fresh pasta is unusually easy or unusually difficult.
Yes, it's an intimidating process, especially if you're not used to working with flour and water. But it's also an eminently achievable skill, and once you're comfortable with the basic technique, there's really no reason why you can't reap the rewards on a regular basis. First things first. I'm going to give you a simple, versatile recipe for fresh pasta dough. I'm going to take you through it step by step and show you how your dough should look along the way.
And I'm also going to tell you how you can tinker with my recipe on your own time, to get exactly the flavor, texture, and color you desire.
I'll even share a couple of sneaky cheats that'll save you time when you're in a rush and send Italian grandmothers a-rollin' in their graves.
If you've reached this point and you're wondering why on earth anyone would bother to make pasta from scratch when it's just a boiling pot of water and a cardboard box away, then it's time to get acquainted with the fresh stuff.
It's crucial here to understand that fresh pasta and dry pasta are two totally different beasts , each suited to different tasks, and the qualities we look for when making them are accordingly distinct. Your typical fresh, Italian-style pasta is made from a combination of eggs and flour.
As I've mentioned, many iterations of this basic formula exist, but this definition should do just fine for now. The eggs and flour are mixed into a stiff but pliable dough that's kneaded, rested, and then rolled— usually through a machine —and either cut into strips for noodles or left in sheets that are used to make lasagna or stuffed pastas, like ravioli. Pros will adjust their basic dough recipe depending on which kind of pasta they're making; my basic pasta dough will work well for a wide variety of styles.
Dry pasta, on the other hand, typically contains no eggs. It's made by mixing semolina flour—a coarse wheat flour—and water. The two are industrially mixed, shaped, and dried at low temperatures for optimal storage.
Not only is it more convenient than fresh pasta, but the denser, firmer texture stands up to and actually requires longer cooking times. That same firm texture means it holds up beautifully under heavy, hearty sauces. The recipe we'll be breaking down here is for a light, springy, and delicate fresh pasta that's as well suited to slicing into noodles as it is to making stuffed pastas, which require super-thin, pliable sheets of dough. The process of making your own pasta can be broken down into six steps: assembling your equipment, choosing the ingredients, mixing and kneading the dough, resting the dough, rolling out the pasta and cutting it into noodles, and cooking it.
I tested a range of variables within each of these steps, honing the recipe based on my findings, until I had my ideal technique down to a science. There are a lot of pasta-making tools on the market, from pasta-rolling attachments for a KitchenAid stand mixer to fluted pastry wheels and special drying racks.
Here's a complete list of essential tools for making, cooking, and serving pasta. All of these things do perform useful tasks, but pasta predates them by a long shot, and they're far from necessary. If you have pasta-making experience and you're looking for a good workout, all you really need is flour, eggs, and a rolling pin.
Actually, you don't even need a rolling pin if you're going for pastas like pici , orecchiette, capunti , and other hand-shaped or hand-rolled doughs. But—since I don't really like to exercise—I use a pasta maker. At work, I use a stand mixer attachment; at home, I just use a simple, hand-cranked pasta roller. I also like to keep a bench scraper around, which makes it easier and neater to portion the dough and keep my work space clean.
The only other thing you'll need is a few square feet of surface space. A wooden table, a marble countertop, a big cutting board—just find yourself a spot where you can make a big, floury mess.
Pasta recipes call for all kinds of ingredients. But there are two things any pasta recipe absolutely needs: flour and water.
That's because flour and water are how you create gluten, the network of proteins that gives pasta its stretchy texture and bite. The more you work that dough, the more elasticity it will develop. Striking the right level of gluten development is key to fresh pastas, pizza crusts , and most baked goods.
There are, of course, gluten-free pasta doughs, which substitute that protein network with standard gluten alternatives, like xanthan or guar gum and even eggs. This recipe , for instance, uses a combination of xanthan gum, brown rice flour, and tapioca flour.
There are many manipulable variables within a pasta dough, and I wanted to try them all. Would the type of flour make a difference?
What kind of ratio of flour to egg yolk to egg white would yield the best pasta? Does adding salt or olive oil matter? Yeah, it's a lot to test. Aren't you glad I did it all for you?
Before we go any further, let's take a minute to talk flour. Specifically, the three kinds of wheat flour you'll find mentioned in pasta recipes: semolina, all-purpose, and high-protein, finely milled "00" flour. At the end of the day, I settled on using all-purpose flour for my recipe. It's the flour most people already have in their pantries, and it makes great pasta.
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Reset Password Cancel. First Name. Last Name. To learn more about how we collect, use and protect your personal data please read our privacy policy. Create Account. I agree with the terms and conditions. Fresh, restaurant-quality pasta deserves restaurant-quality cooking after all. And whilst this might seem like a cryptic culinary code for pasta perfection, it encapsulates everything we think pasta ought to be… But what exactly does al dente mean? We want to avoid overcooking the pasta at all costs.
Firm, yet tender. A middle ground, if you like. First, remove pasta from package and place in one layer on a cookie sheet. Cover with plastic wrap and place in freezer. Once frozen, pack pasta into freezer-safe containers for storage. For the best texture and flavor, we recommend freezing no more than one month.
How to Cook from Frozen When cooking from frozen, do not defrost. Follow regular cooking instructions for the type of pasta you have, adding just 30—60 seconds of extra cooking time.
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How To Cook Fresh Pasta. Fold the dough in half and pass it through the machine a few more times until the dough is smooth. Once you have a smooth dough, gradually decrease the setting on the pasta machine, rolling the dough through twice on each setting until you achieve the desired thickness do not fold in between rolling.
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