Hi! Fresh pasta is the absolute best. There’s no debate about that. It’s also not hard to make once you get the hang of it. But before I tell you how, there’s something we need to get out of the way:
As with all recipes, the recipe for fresh egg pasta dough is inherently flawed. There are so many factors to consider: how big are your eggs? What kind of flour are you using? What’s the humidity like in your kitchen? I’m a big believer in cooking through feeling and not measurements. It sounds like a foofy concept but all I’m really saying is, once you make dough 23094823 times, you’ll know how it’s supposed to feel: you’ll know if it’s too dry + you need to add some water, you’ll know if it’s too wet and you need to add more flour. You’ll know if your eggs are slightly too big so you’ll decide to only use only 3 eggs…that kind of thing. And that’s just not something I can provide with a traditional recipe.
But MANY of you guys have asked for a fresh pasta recipe so I’m going to provide a basic guideline recipe for traditional egg dough. As always, if you have any questions you can reach me via my contact page.
So, without further ado…
Fresh Egg Pasta Dough
INGREDIENTS
- 2 cups flour
- 3 large eggs
- Drizzle of olive oil
- Pinch of salt
DIRECTIONS
You can make dough by hand or you can use a stand-mixer. If making by hand:
Add 2 cups of flour to a mixing bowl and make a well in the center. Crack eggs into a separate bowl (so you don’t get any shell bits in the flour). Add olive oil + salt to the eggs, then pour them into the well you created. Using a fork, whisk the eggs. You’ll find that the viscous eggs will natural start picking up/incorporating the flour inside them. Like this:
Eventually, the eggs and flour will turn into a dough ball. At this point you knead your little heart out for 5-8 minutes. This is the most important part of the dough-making process. Dough that is well-kneaded should bounce back up slowly, almost like a tempur-pedic mattress when you poke it.
If you’re using a stand mixer, it’s a similar process. I still like to start the dough by hand but theoretically you can just put the flour, eggs etc. in the mixer and, using the dough hook attachment, let it works its magic!
Once the dough has been properly kneaded, wrap it in plastic and allow it to rest for about 20-30 min. I let is rest on the counter, some people prefer the fridge.
Once the dough has rested, use a bench scraper or a knife to cut it in half. The inside should look something like this:
Now this is where a pasta machine really comes in handy: working with 1/2 or 1/4 of the dough ball at a time, roll it out to a setting 6. This is a fairly straight-forward process but if you have questions this is a good YouTube tutorial.
If you’re rolling the dough out by hand using a rolling pin, work with 1/2 of the dough at a time. Begin the rolling process, using plenty of flour to ensure the dough doesn’t stick to your work surface or rolling pin. Once the sheet of dough is rolled out to about a couple millimeters, fold it in half and start the process over. I do this once or twice - it helps to create elasticity! Keep going until the sheet of dough is almost see-through. And remember: be patient! If you’re doing this by hand, rolling it out properly takes some time and rushing it will result in ripping the dough/creating weird ripples.
At this point you can use your fresh egg dough to make whatever you’d like! It’s perfect for making filled pastas like caramelle but I also love using this dough to make fresh tagliatelle. Enjoy!
*PS: not all pastas require rolling the dough out into a thin - for instance, orecchiette. But a lot do which is why I included this last portion!
