Homemade Pasta

I first learned to make homemade pasta in culinary school over 25 years ago, and it quickly became a bit of an obsession. For weeks, I took over my parents’ kitchen, hanging pasta sheets from hangers to dry and covering every inch of counter space with homemade ravioli. My parents were a little baffled by my pasta-making phase, but they were more than happy to serve as my official taste-testers.

Making homemade pasta might seem intimidating, but it’s easier than you’d think—and so rewarding. With just a few pantry staples, you can create fresh pasta with a texture and quality that’s impossible to get from dried pasta.

When it comes to kneading the dough, you can use a stand mixer to make things easier or go the traditional route and do it by hand. As for rolling and cutting, there are plenty of options. A hand-crank pasta machine is my go-to—it’s easy to use and produces consistently even sheets. If you want to speed things up, an electric pasta machine, like the KitchenAid pasta attachment, makes the process even simpler. And if you’re feeling traditional, rolling the dough out with a rolling pin and cutting it by hand with a knife or pizza cutter gives you a more rustic feel.

“I’ve always wanted to make homemade pasta, but felt intimidated…it’s so much simpler than I thought!”

What You’ll Need To Make Homemade Pasta

• All-Purpose Flour or Tipo “00” Flour: Provides the base for the dough. All-purpose flour yields a slightly heartier texture, while tipo “00” flour—milled extra fine—creates a smoother, more tender pasta. Semolina flour is another option if you want a firmer, more toothsome bite, closer to dried pasta texture, though it’s a bit trickier to roll thin. For the noodles in this recipe, all-purpose or 00 both work perfectly well, so use whatever you have on hand.
• Eggs: The key ingredient that binds the dough, adding richness and color while ensuring a smooth, pliable consistency.
• Extra-Virgin Olive Oil: Adds a touch of richness and helps to keep the dough supple during kneading.
• Salt: Enhances the flavor of the dough, ensuring the pasta is well-seasoned before it’s cooked.
• Jump to the printable recipe for precise measurements

Step-by-Step Instructions

Step 1: Make the dough. Toss the flour, eggs, oil, and salt into the stand mixer and let the paddle attachment do the work. Don’t be alarmed by what you see in the first minute or so; it’ll look like wet sand, not dough, and it’s tempting to think something’s gone wrong. Just let it keep going. Within a few minutes it pulls itself into a rough, cohesive ball, and that’s your cue to switch gears.

Step 2: Knead it smooth. Swap in the dough hook and let it knead. You’re looking for a specific transformation here: the dough goes from rough and matte to smooth and almost satiny, and it should clear the sides of the bowl on its own. If it’s clinging to the bottom instead, that’s your dough telling you it wants a bit more flour. Add it gradually rather than all at once, since it’s much easier to add flour than take it away.

No stand mixer? No problem. Make a well in a mound of flour and salt, crack the eggs and oil into the center, and start whisking with a fork right in that well—resist pulling in flour too fast, or you’ll end up with lumpy pockets instead of a smooth batter. Once it gets too thick for the fork, your hands take over. This is genuinely a workout; if your arms are tired, you’re doing it right.

Step 3: Let it rest. This is the step people are most tempted to skip, and the one that matters most. Fresh dough is stubborn and springs back the moment you try to roll it—resting relaxes the gluten so it’ll cooperate later. Wrap it up and walk away. It’s a good moment to clean your workspace or get your pasta machine set up.

Step 4: Divide and flatten. Cut the rested dough into quarters; working with smaller pieces keeps things manageable and stops the rest of the dough from drying out while you work. Flatten each piece into a rough rectangle by hand before it ever touches the machine; this saves you from feeding an awkward blob through the widest setting and having it squirt out sideways.

Step 5: Start rolling. Start wide and run it through. The first couple of passes are less about thinning it out and more about training the dough into an even, cooperative sheet. Folding it letter-style and running it through again smooths out any weak spots or air pockets.

Step 6: Work down to your final thickness. From here, work your way down through the settings gradually rather than jumping straight to thin. The dough needs to adjust in stages, or it tends to tear. Keep a light dusting of flour nearby; you want just enough that nothing sticks, not so much that the sheets turn dry and cracked. You’ll feel it shift from doughy and thick to silky and thin as you go.

Step 7: Cut and shape. Once you’ve hit the thickness you’re after, cut it into whatever shape you’re making. The machine attachment, a knife, or a pizza cutter all work.

Toss the cut noodles with a bit more flour so they don’t fuse into one mass, and if you’re making longer strands, twisting them into loose nests keeps them organized and easy to grab later.

Fresh pasta is at its best soon after it’s cut, so plan your sauce around it rather than the other way around. If it needs to wait, it holds up fine in the fridge or freezer. Don’t be alarmed if refrigerated pasta takes on a faint greenish cast after a day; that’s just oxidation, not spoilage.

Step 8: Cook it. Fresh pasta cooks fast enough that it’s easy to blink and miss the window; start tasting early rather than trusting the clock. Once it’s got a slight bite left, pull it, and save a splash of the starchy cooking water before you drain; it’s the secret to getting sauce to cling instead of pool at the bottom of the bowl.