How to Make Pasta Dough

You can quickly and easily make fresh pasta dough in your home. With a few ingredients and simple steps, you'll be on your way to beautiful handmade pasta. Practice your technique to consistently make good dough, and you will never want to shop for dry pasta again. You can eat like you have an Italian grandmother, even if you don't.

Things You'll Need

• 3 1/2 cups soft wheat flour
• 4 extra-large eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil
• Large wooden cutting board
• Fork
• Plastic wrap

Instructions

1. Pile the flour in the middle of your large wooden cutting board. Pasta making can be messy, so the large cutting can help you to contain the loose flour.

2. Use the fork to create a well in the center of the flour mound. The well should be about four inches wide and three inches deep. Your finished pile should look like a volcano.

3. Crack all four eggs into the center of the well. Be careful to not allow any bits of shell to make it into your dough.

4. Pour the extra virgin olive oil into the well with the eggs.

5. Using the fork, stir the mixture inside the well, slowly incorporating the flour at the sides.

6. Knead your newly formed dough mass with clean, dry hands for six minutes. This starts the process of setting up glutens in the dough.

7. Allow your pasta dough to rest for 30 minutes wrapped in plastic wrap at room temperature or around 70 degrees before using.

Tips & Warnings

• When you buy the flour, look for something ground from soft wheat. Check the nutritional information panel to see how many grams of protein per pound are in your prospective flour choice. Fresh pasta is best with wheat flour that has between eight and eleven grams of protein per pound. Semolina flour, made from ground Durum wheat, has the high gluten content that will give your pasta elasticity. Due to variations in egg size and humidity, adjustments may need to be made to have a correct dough consistency. After combining all the ingredients, if the dough is still very sticky, you may need to add more flour. If your dough is falling to pieces and is too dry, add an additional half an egg at a time until your dough reaches a firm ball.

• Flavorings like spinach or tomato can be added to your basic recipe to add another taste dimension to the final product. You must remove as much of the water as possible from the flavoring vegetable. Any additional water in the recipe can cause the dough to fall apart when cooked.

References

• Basic Pasta Dough
• Kneading Pasta Dough