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Homemade Pasta

I used to think making handmade pasta was ridiculous. High quality boxed pasta is so good, so quick, and so easy. Then I tried making the homemade stuff, failed many times, and when I finally succeeded, I saw the light. Homemade pasta is on another level. completely worth it. Once you get the process down, it's foolproof every time.

INGREDIENTS

300 grams 00 flour
1 tsp diamond kosher salt
2 eggs
3 egg yolks
Small cup of water

 

RESERVE FOR LATER

40 grams diamond kosher salt for boiling water

Optional - Semolina flour (for storing pasta in the fridge for later if not cooking immediately)

TOOLS

MY RECOMMENDATIONS IN LINKS BELOW

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Add dry ingredients to food processor. Then add the eggs and egg whites. Mix for a minute or so until combined. It may be starting to come together as a mass, or look like crumbs. With the food processor running, slowly add in small amounts of water. I recommend using a small cup to slowly pour in small amounts of water until it comes to the right texture (about 1/2 tsp of water at a time). While the food processor is running, add a little bit of water, watch it spin in the food processor for 30 seconds to see what happens, then add a bit more. Stop adding water once the crumbs come together and you have a rough ball of dough spinning around the food processor. There will still be crumbs of dough in the bottom of the food processor and sticking to the sides. Remove from food processor, and get all the little scraps.

  2. Hand-knead the dough for 8–10 minutes. When kneading, be sure to not tear the dough. Kneading pasta is not like kneading bread. The dough conistency is much different, and the technique is also different. Press the bottom of your palm into the dough and press away from you, while keeping your fingers away from the top of the dough (grabbing the top of the dough with your fingers during this step will cause tearing). Fold the stretched dough in half towards you, then rotate a quarter turn. Then repeat. This folding and turning process will build up air bubbles in the dough. This is important since there is no rising agent in this dough, unlike standard bread. Kneading works best on an unoiled butcher block surface. If dough is too dry to do this comfortably, add small amounts of water with a spray bottle or just run your hands under the faucet and resume kneeding. The dough should eventually form a nice, soft, smooth and "tall" ball. When you press the dough with a finger, the indentation should stay and there should be some tension. If the ball doesn't hold its perky shape or becomes flat as it sits, the dough is likely too wet. (This isn't a big deal; you'll still be able to make delicious pasta. Just keep in mind that you may need to add semolina flour as your roll it in later steps or it will stick.) Once kneeded sufficiently, wrap in plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature (on the counter is fine) for 30 mins.

  3. After the dough sits for 30 mins, remove the dough from the plastic wrap and cut into quarters (like a pie) with a large knife. You can also do this with a dough scraper, but usually this squishes the dough, and with the knife you can see the air bubbles and texture of the dough better. When you cut it into quarters, you'll see nice small air bubbles in the dough - this means your kneading was successful! 

  4.  Smush each piece of dough into a flat oval. Using a pasta maker (I use the pasta roller and cutter attachments from Kitchen Aid), feed the dough through the roller, start on the largest setting (1) and progressively roll thinner until you’re at your desired thickness (usually 6 or 7). For the lower numbers (1 and 2), you may want to run it through twice. Cut the dough in half with the dough scraper or a knife once it gets too long to handle (usually around level 5). As you feed the dough through the machine, slightly pull on the bottom of the dough coming out of the roller, so that it is constantly taught (but don’t stretch too much!). This will prevent it from wrinkling and keep it a more consistent shape. Some people recommend sprinkling flour on the sheets as you go, but I haven’t needed to do this, and you'd only need to do this if your dough is too wet. Hang each sheet on the pasta drying rack. 

  5.  Switch attachment to the paster cutter for your desired pasta style. So far, lasagnette has worked the best for me. This is the fun part. Check the instructions to see the speed setting for each cutter. Feed the dough through the cutter and hang on a pasta drying rack. I recommend letting the pasta dry on the rack for about 15 mins before boiling. You want it to be cold to the touch, with a leathery texture. The edges will start to turn white.

  6. Boil water with salt in it (at least 40 grams diamond kosher salt), and cook the pasta. It will float when it is done, and should only take a few minutes. This is not like dried pasta! Simply strain the pasta over the sink and then plate. Toss any leftover pasta with olive oil so it doesn't stick together.

Notes:
If you don’t want to cook it immediately, dust pasta with semolina flour before swirling into birds nests and storing for later. Fresh pasta can be stored in a tupperware in the fridge for 2–3 days, or let it dry out completely and it will keep for 6 months. Make sure the pasta is VERY dry or otherwise it will mold in your containers. You may think it is dry, but it is likely not. If you add extra semolina flour to the pasta before boiling, then do not dump the pot over a strainer but rather remove it with tongs or spider spoon. Think about all the semolina flour that is now in the water at the bottom of the pot - You don’t want to pour that on your beautiful pasta and eat that!

If you want to experiment with making handmade pasta shapes, I recommend rolling the dough out to level 8 on the pasta roller attachment. For handmade pasta shapes, your dough needs to be really good and on the dryer side, otherwise the shapes will stick together badly. However, cutting pasta noodles with the cutter attachment into strips is more forgiving; the dough can be wetter/not perfectly kneaded.

Helpful videos

How to Make Egg Pasta (an in-depth guide)
When I began my attempt to make pasta, I tried tons of different recipes and methods from various websites and books, all failing miserably. I tried all kinds of flour, proportions of wet to dry, adding olive oil, etc. Four trips to Whole Foods and a few dozen eggs later, I finally found this video. I find the insight/explanations in this video to be helpful, and following her methods was the first time I was able to successfully make pasta properly. However, as I became more experienced, I realized that the dough in this case almost always comes out too wet, especially for making pasta shapes. I used this video as the starting point for making this recipe, but adjusted so the water is added in during the food processor step. In my experience, because of the weather and humidity shifts, you unfortuantely can't always use the exact same amount of liquid. 

How to Make 29 Handmade Pasta Shapes With 4 Types of Dough
This is GOALS. Luca is a zen master, and this video is downright inspirational. This is especially helpful in showing what your ball of dough SHOULD look like - in the beginning of the video, when he cuts into it with the knife, it doesn't compress at all. You can see the little air bubbles in the dough too. 


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