Homemade Pasta:
Homemade pasta turns an ordinary dinner into a special occasion. Served with a favorite sauce this pasta recipe is easy to impress.
Growing up I didn’t know what homemade pasta was. We were of German heritage and pasta was unheard of in our household. My mom made something similar, but we called it egg noodles.  She would serve them with butter and fried bread cubes. If there was any leftover noodles, which was rare, she would add a few eggs and scramble them together for breakfast the next morning.  That, for me, was comfort food.Â
When I moved to New York, I discovered how wonderful fresh homemade pasta is. Now, an authentic pasta recipe should have it’s origins in Italy. So, straight from the old country, this recipe is from the grandma of my Italian friend, Vinny. Â
What Are The Ingredients In Pasta ?
Pasta has 3 simple ingredients. Flour, eggs, and salt. The salt is optional as some like to omit it and add it to the water the pasta is cooked in.  That’s it!  Vinny’s grandma made this recipe the old fashioned way. The old way is to mix the eggs into the flour by hand and roll out the dough with a rolling pin. I tried it once. Oh no, not for me! As farmer Fred is fond of saying, “Doctor Jo loves her kitchen gizzy’s.” I promptly bought me a pasta roller and cutter attachment for my KitchenAid mixer. Â
Flour:
A finely milled flour 00 Italian makes the best pasta. However, unbleached all-purpose is ok. Add 2 tablespoons of water to the dough when using all-purpose flour.Â
Eggs:Â
Whole eggs vs egg yolks only. Whole eggs add more moisture to the dough. This makes the gluten strands more pliable and easier to roll out.  Egg yolks create a richer dough, as the egg yolks add fat and less moisture to the dough. Dough made with only egg yolks needs a longer rest period.Â
Once the pasta dough is mixed let it rest for about 30 to 60 minutes before rolling it out. This rest period gives the flour a chance to fully absorb the moisture. The result is the gluten strands in the flour relax, and the dough is more pliable and easier to roll out. Â
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 How To Roll Out The Dough.
The dough can be rolled out by hand. However, I use the roller attachment for my KitchenAid. I roll out a piece of the dough starting with the thickest setting of zero. Repeating the process and gradually decreasing the thickness until the desired thickness is achieved. I start at number one on pasta roller, and stop a 5 or 6. If your pasta is a little sticky, it’s good to be generous with the flour. Semolina flour works great for flouring the pasta during rolling and cutting. All-purpose flour will also work
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Cutting The Pasta Dough.Â
Rolled dough can then be cut into the desired width. The KitchenAid pasta roller attachments comes with a cutter that is perfect for spaghetti or fettuccini. Cut wider lengths by hand. Â
If you want to make macaroni, penne, corkscrews, or rigatoni, KitchenAid makes an attachment that will make round pasta shapes.Â
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How to Cook Pasta.
Cook the freshly cut pasta by dropping it into 4 quarts of boiling water. Desired softness is usually achieved in about 4 minutes. Wider pasta may need up to 6 minutes to achieve desired softness. Drain the cooked pasta into a colander and rinse with cool water to stop the cooking process. Serve my Pasta Sauce With Meatballs over your homemade pasta.  If you are Vegetarian my Classic Marinara Sauce or Sage Browned Butter is perfect.
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How to Store Pasta.
Store the fresh pasta in a ziplock, airtight bag in the refrigerator for 3 to 4 days. Dry the pasta on a drying rack and store in an airtight container for 6 – 8 months or longer. Double wrap and freeze the pasta in a ziplock bag. The pasta can be frozen for 4-5 months or vacuum pack after freezing and store for over a year.  Do not thaw the frozen pasta prior to cooking. Place the frozen pasta directly into the boiling water and increase the cooking time by about a minute.Â
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Equipment
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- pasta roller and cutter (optional but very helpful)
- Pasta Drying Rack
Ingredients
- 2 cups flour unbleached all-purpose 8.5-ounces or Italian 00 (240g)
- 3 eggs large
- ½ tsp salt
- 2 Tbsp water optional (see notes)
Instructions
- Mix all the ingredients together in the bowl of the stand mixer. Knead the dough on medium-low until you have a firm, smooth dough. About 2 minutes.
- Let the dough rest for 60 minutes. Divide the dough into 8 pieces and cover to keep from drying out. Then roll out each piece of dough using the pasta roller attachment until the desired thickness is achieved. Add flour as needed if the dough is a little sticky. You can also roll the dough by hand.
- Cut the rolled dough into the desired width with either the spaghetti or fettuccini attachment. Alternately cut the dough by hand with a knife.
- Cook the pasta in 4 quarts of boiling water until desired doneness (about 4 minutes).
- Drain into a colander and run under cool water briefly to stop the cooking process.
- Serve with your favorite sauce or my Sage Browned Butter Sauce.
- You can store the pasta fresh in the refrigerator for three to four days. Dry the pasta on a drying rack and store for 6 to 8 months in a container with an airtight lid,
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Wow… you even have the Nutritional information. Impressive. How do you get that?
I have a program that calculates the nutrition information based on the ingredients and their amounts.
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