Make homemade pasta

Mix flour and eggs, knead the dough, and roll out fresh pasta—the taste and texture are incomparably better than dried.

Time:: 60 min
Cost:: low
Difficulty:: moderate
Where:: Indoors
Best:: Solo

To make homemade pasta you need flour, eggs and about an hour, most of which is the dough resting while you do something else. No machine is required, though a rolling pin and some patience are. The result is genuinely different from dried pasta rather than simply fresher, which is the reason to bother.

Why make homemade pasta is worth an hour

The resting stage is doing real work: it lets the gluten relax so the dough stops springing back, and allows the flour to hydrate fully. Skipping it is why people conclude that rolling pasta by hand is impossible. The egg to flour ratio matters similarly, since too little liquid gives a dough that cracks and too much gives one that sticks to everything.

How to make homemade pasta step by step

1
Start from the classic ratio
One egg per hundred grams of flour. Adjust slightly for egg size and flour type, but start here.
2
Knead for ten minutes
Until smooth and elastic. It feels far too firm at first and comes together more than you expect.
3
Rest it for thirty minutes
Wrapped, at room temperature. This is not optional; unrested dough fights every attempt to roll it.
4
Roll thinner than feels right
You should be able to see your hand through it. Fresh pasta swells noticeably during cooking.
5
Cook for two to three minutes
Fresh pasta cooks far faster than dried. Taste one at two minutes rather than trusting a timer.

Tips to get more out of it

Dust with semolina rather than flour to stop sheets sticking. It does not get absorbed into the dough.
Salt the cooking water properly. It is the only chance to season the pasta itself rather than the sauce.
Keep a little cooking water back. The starch in it binds sauce to pasta far better than plain water.

Ways to mix it up

If eggs are not an option, a flour and water dough is the traditional southern Italian approach and works well for shapes rather than sheets. If you want to go further, filled pasta uses the same dough and rewards the rolling practice you have just done.