Wednesday, October 26, 2011

{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

13 comments:

  1. I made homemade egg noodles last weekend for the first time, and they were amazing! The reminded me of the noodles my grandma made when I was little. :)

    This is a great post that I'll definitely be referencing. After my success last weekend, I'm eager to try more versions of homemade pasta!

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  2. I would LOVE to try my hand at homemade pasta. This might just be the inspiration I need! Thanks for sharing these tips friend, and for making it look so easy! :)

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  3. You make it look so easy--I always thought it was more complicated than this! Store-bought noodles are so convenient, but I'll have to try some of your ideas for a special occasion :)

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  4. Oh gosh, these all look so delicious. Homemade pasta is definitely a treat. I really want to try making my own ravioli sometime soon.

    So happy to find out that you are also a State grad! I bleed green too!

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  5. I have the pasta maker attachment for my kitchen aid stand mixer and it works great!!! Love homemade pasta!

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  6. I made Gnocchi last week. I usually make fettuccine, cannelloni or ravioli/dumplings.... the gnocchi were much easier...lol

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  7. I recently made homemade pasta..I rolled it out as thin as I could get it. It definetely swelled up when cooked so I suppose because it came a little bit thick needed to make it thinner it was some work but much fun to me..and well worth it. I'm going to try yours I can't remember if it is the same ingredients..thank you for posting this and explaining more than the other place..like the pasta swelling while cooking. Have a great day...hugs Janice

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  8. You make this look so easy! Will be trying this soon :)

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  9. this is the same recipe i use. its so easy and really is the best pasta recipe out there. I've tried others and they are not as good as this one

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    1. Isn't it the best?! So easy and works great every time.

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  10. Can you soak the flour first when making this pasta?

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    1. I've never tried soaking the flour first, so I am not sure how it would turn out in this recipe. Sorry!

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Thanks for stopping by! I'd love to hear from you; especially how you're finding JOY in your kitchen.

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