Martha's Chefs: Homemade Pasta 101

Homemade Pasta 101

There is nothing like the taste of your own homemade pasta. The pasta is more delicate in flavor and seems to almost melt in your mouth. The recipe that follows is light and uses both the egg yolks and whites keeping the pasta delicate and light in color. For a more robust pasta many cooks will add additional egg yokes. In Italy, quite some time ago, a family serving a pasta dinner was judged by the color of their pasta, the yellower the pasta, the more egg yokes used, indicating a wealthy household because of the cost of eggs.
The homemade pasta recipe that follows is suitable for a variety of dishes. We use it for everything from a side dish of Fettuccine Alfredo to a main dish of Smoked Salmon Fettuccine. You will be surprised how easy it is to make and how wonderful the homemade pasta tastes.

Serves 6 to 8 (depending on if used as a main course or side dish)

Makes approximately 1 1/2 pounds of pasta

2 cups flour
3 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 to 2 tablespoons water

In the Cuisinart add the flour, eggs and salt plus 1 tablespoon of water. Mix all ingredients in the Cuisinart until the dough forms a ball. If the dough does not form a ball after a minute or so add a bit more water until it does form a ball.
The pasta dough may need a bit more water if the temperature is lower and your kitchen is drier. The dough should be slightly sticky to the touch.

Remove the dough to a lightly floured cutting board and with your hands form into a large ball.
Do not over knead the dough. Once in a large ball separate the ball into two equal sections as seen in the photo below. Wrap the dough sections in plastic wrap and let sit for 30 minutes.

Note: we use a kitchen aid electric mixture attachment but you can also create the pasta with a manual pasta roller, see below.

Remove the dough from the plastic and sightly flatten to approximately 1/2 inch thick. Place in the top of the pasta maker and roll through at setting 1. The setting applies to both an electric and manual pasta roller.

Once through the first roll in the pasta machine, place the pasta back on the cutting board and fold the pasta as seen below. Repeat the process, two or if needed three times, to remove all the air bubbles from the pasta. If the pasta feels very sticky rub a bit of flour on the pasta with your hands after laying on the cutting board.

Step One: lay pasta across a lightly floured cutting board

Step Two: Fold in one third of the pasta

Step Three: Fold in the last third of the pasta and run again through the machine

Step Four: After one or two times of folding the pasta and running through the machine to remove the air bubbles move to flattening out the pasta. Keep moving the dial on your electric or manual pasta machine thinner (dial 2 through 6) to roll out the pasta.

We use a pasta tree as seen, to house the pasta, it is not necessary, but extremely helpful when working with pasta.

Next, change the attachment to a cutting attachment for the finished noodles. Please note we are featuring fettuccine for this demonstration but you can also use this homemade pasta recipe for spaghetti, ravioli and many other pasta recipes.

Once you have cut the pasta into the desired shape you are ready to cook the pasta.

Note: both electric and manual pasta machines have settings to create flat pasta for ravioli, lasagna and most of the cut noodles for spaghetti and fettuccine.