belle forêt
et le petit cottage

growing, baking, and making

Homemade Pasta

Homemade Pasta

Servings: 4 people

Ingredients

  • 3 Eggs - large
  • 2 cups AP flour - Or: 1/2 c Semolina, 1 1/2 c AP flour
  • Salt
  • Olive Oil

Instructions

  • Stir together flour and salt. Form into a bowl shape on a clean work surface or in a medium mixing bowl.
  • Crack eggs into the center of the "bowl".
  • Whisk eggs with a fork until well combined. Begin stirring in flour as well.
  • When egg mixture is thick enough to not eggscape, begin to collapse the "bowl" in. Drizzle in a little oil. At this point, you can use the bench knife to begin folding over and cutting in any loose flour to speed the mixing process.
  • Fold and knead and roll until a smooth and springy dough forms. The dough will self-clean the countertop. Add flour little by little if dough is still sticky.
  • Wrap dough in plastic and rest 30 minutes at room temperature.
  • Flour a work surface and set up a pasta roller.
  • Open plastic and cut off 1/4 of the dough ball. Cover the remaining dough with an overturned bowl to keep moist.
  • Roll the piece of dough in your hands until generally round, then press flat on the work surface. The dough should be around 1/4 inch thick or thinner and should be well dusted on both sides.
  • Feed the dough through the pasta roller twice on each level, starting from 0 and going to 6 (for fettuccine-type noodles). Remember that the dough will puff a bit when cooked. No need to dust the dough again until after level 6 unless it is sticky. It should be a strong but supple dough sheet.
  • Flour both sides of the dough sheet well, dusting off any excess but making sure no spots are missed. Cut long sheet into ~8 inch lengths if desired.
  • Feed dough through cutting blades of the pasta roller or cut to the desired width by hand.
  • Hang pasta on a rack to rest.
  • Repeat rolling and cutting for remainder of dough.

Notes

Pasta dough is best cooked fresh (boil in well salted water for a few minutes until al dente) and cooks fastest that way, but can also be fully dried and stored or frozen.