Homemade Pasta Dough

Like all good things, it takes time to make pasta from scratch. But the results are so worth it, and I guarantee you’ll be hooked. Once shaped, it also freezes very well, so impress your friends with homemade pasta that you made the night before or even a month ago, and they’ll be hooked too!

This recipe is from Samin Nosrat. She’s such an inspiration to me, and has definitely made me into the home cook I am today. If you haven’t already, check out her book “Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat”. I haven’t changed anything except for writing the procedure in my own words.

Recipe Resource: Samin Nosrat

Procedure adapted by Tierney Larson

Ingredients:

2 cups (300g) of All-Purpose or 00-Flour

2 large eggs

3 egg yolks

Some semolina flour for dusting

Ok so…

Pour the flour out onto the middle of a large clean work surface. Make a large well in the center of the flour, enough to fit the eggs without them spilling over. Tip the eggs into the well and using a fork, start whisking the eggs until they’re combined. Then start pulling flour in a bit at a time and stirring it into the egg mixture.

When the mixture is getting thick and hard to stir with a fork, switch to your hands or a bench scraper also works well here. Start incorporating more flour by either starting to fold it into the eggs with your hands or using the scraper to fold the flour over and into the eggs. When the dough is formed enough, just start kneading it with your hands.

If there’s a lot of flour still left, add some water 1 tsp at a time until you can get it all incorporated. Scrape any dried bits off your work surface and start kneading the dough. Knead the dough for 8-10 minutes or until it’s smooth and feels kind of leathery. You may even see some bubbles on the surface, that’s good.

Cover the dough with plastic wrap and let it rest for 30 minutes. While it’s resting prepare for whatever shape you want to make. Dust 2 sheet trays with Semolina flour.

Divide the dough into 4 pieces and work with one piece at a time, covering the rest while you work. Press the piece of dough out gently into a rough rectangular shape. Feed it through your pasta machine at its widest setting once. Then fold the dough into thirds and feed it through the machine again at the widest setting. Do this 3-4 more times to further knead the dough. You want to aim the dough to be about the width of the pasta machine.

For the kitchenaide attachment I have, the setting for linguine is 5, but check with what yours says and follow the guide for whatever shape you want to make. Feed the dough 2 times on each of the settings before you move to the next, and cut the dough in half if it gets too long to handle. Then using a knife or a pasta cutter, cut it into linguine strands. Gently pull apart the dough and toss in the semolina flour on the sheet tray, then make a little nest and repeat until you’ve used all the dough.

Boil in a large and generously salted pot of water for 2-3 minutes, tasting for doneness.

*I know it can be intimidating to use a pasta roller attachment. Here’s a video of how I knead the dough in the roller and roll it out for the shape I want. Hope you enjoy and please let me know if you have any questions!