How To Make Fresh, Homemade Pasta

Nothing beats extremely fresh food. From jams to bread, everything tastes a little better when it’s made with a little extra love in the home, including pasta. Making homemade pasta isn’t nearly as daunting as it sounds. You don’t need to have Italian roots or a fancy culinary background to impress your family and guests with fresh pasta. Using bread flour will give the ideal al dente pasta texture. After you combine all the ingredients – egg, flour, olive oil and salt – in the food processor, the pasta dough is ready when it clumps in a ball in the blender. Knead the dough for four or five minutes until gluten has developed. Let the pasta sit for at least 30 minutes then let the dough reach room temperature before you roll it out. If you have a pasta machine, use that to make your noodles, but you can also roll and cut the pasta by hand. In this video, Chef Mark will show you how to make homemade pasta noodles that will delight and impress everyone at the table. For more great cooking demonstration videos, subscribe to the LearnToCookOnline YouTube channel.

Homemade Pasta Dough Recipe

Ingredients:
1 lb bread flour
4-5 xlarge eggs (use 4 firs – hold back 5th egg to use as necessary)
1 tablespoon EV olive oil
2 pinches sea salt

Method:
1. Place flour in the bowl, add 4 eggs, and pulse until it comes together in a ball. If the dough feels dry and does not come together, add another egg to form a ball. Remove from the bowl and knead 5-8 minutes until the dough feels smooth, with just enough dough to prevent sticking.
2. Cover the dough and let it rest for at least 30 minutes.

Pasta dough can also be made on the table by forming a well and incorporating the eggs gradually using a fork.

Rolling the Pasta:
1. Cut the dough into 4 pieces and flatten them with your hand. The dough can be rolled by hand with a rolling pin but it is more practical to use a pasta machine. To use a pasta machine, open the rollers to the widest position (setting 0) and lightly dust the dough before passing it through
2. Fold the ends of the dough towards the center to form three layers. Lightly dust with flour. Turn the dough 90º to produce a rectangular shape and pass through the machine again. Repeat this step 4-5 times until the dough feels smooth
3. Decrease the gap between the rollers one notch at a time and pass the pasta through with each reduction. Lightly dust the pasta with flour to prevent it from sticking to the rollers
4. Cut pasta into desired shapes, for this session we made wide ribbons, parpadelle

Traditionally fresh pastas are paired with lighter sauces that have the least assertive flavors. Like sauces based on cream and egg yolks, marinated tomatoes, or primavera. Dry pasta is usually sturdy enough to stand up to stronger sauces like carbonara, garlicky pesto, or steamed clams with white wine. Make sure the sauce is prepared in advance so when the pasta is cooked it can be tossed with the sauce and eaten immediately (the water that was used to cook the pasta can be used to thin the sauce if it becomes too thick)

Cooking Pasta:
1. Use 1 gallon of boiling water and 2-3 tablespoons of salt for each pound of pasta and cook until almost tender. The cooking time for fresh pasta will approximately 3-5 minutes, depending on the thickness

If you like this post, please be sure to check out the following!

Choosing The Right Pasta Sauce
Pasta Alfredo Recipe
Choosing The Right Type Of Pasta For Your Sauce

If you have questions or comments about this video or recipe please leave them below.