{31 Days} Cooking from Scratch: Homemade Pasta

Pasta is one of those things I typically buy from the store – just out of sheer convenience.  Although I LOVE homemade pasta, it’s more of a treat at our place, than a staple. 

That said, homemade pasta is really simple to make & today we’re going to talk how to do it. You don’t need a pasta maker to do this! 

Tips for Making Homemade Pasta

(1) Clear a large, clean workspace – we use our counter top or a large cutting board.
(2) Use a pizza cutter to slice the pasta into pieces
(3) As tempting as it might be, don’t lay cut pasta on top of each other, keep pieces separate.  They will stick together!!
(4) Be sure to salt the water that you use for boiling. 
(5) Add a drop of olive oil to the water to prevent the pasta from sticking.

Basic Pasta Recipe

This pasta recipe can be adapted – figure that 2 eggs/1 C flour generously serves 2-3 people.  Swap in whole wheat flour for all purpose, or use white whole wheat!  To serve more, maintain the egg to flour ratio.  For example; to add another serving, add 1 egg & 1/2 C flour. 

Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• 1 C flour
• salt & pepper, to taste

Directions

Place flour into a large bowl & make a well in the center.  Crack the eggs into this well. 

Using a fork, begin mixing the dough together.  At some point, finish up the kneading by hand.  If you have a stand mixer, you can alternatively use the stand mixer to do the kneading.  Knead until dough is smooth – note: you’ll likely need to add additional flour to do so. 

Shape the dough into a ball.  Cover and allow the dough to rest for 10 minutes. 

Divide the dough into small sections and roll each out as thin & as flat as you can manage. 

Using a pizza cutter, cut the dough into strips.  Try to cut these as thin as possible since the dough will expand when boiled.  I usually lay my cut noodles over the edge of a bowl or rolling pin. 

This is about a good thickness for linguine. 

Bring a pot of water to a boil.  Salt the water and add a drop or two of olive oil.  Toss the noodles in & cook for ~5 minutes.  The noodles cook really quickly – so don’t leave them in much longer than 5 minutes.  Taste one for doneness. 

Drain the pasta, toss with additional olive oil, if desired.  Serve warm!

Types of Pasta You Can Make at Home

In addition to linguine-type noodles (both whole wheat pasta & white pasta), you can also use this same recipe for dough to make excellent homemade noodles for soup & for ravioli! 

Of course, if you do make your own pasta noodles, you must complete the process by making your own sauce!  Our homemade spaghetti sauce is a crockpot variety & freezes (and cans) well.  It’s a combination of my mom’s recipe with our own an d we love it.  But, we also love some of these other delicious sauces:

Enjoy – can’t wait to hear about your experiences making homemade pasta.

Linked to: works for me wednesday, what’s on your plate