Fresh Pasta Dough
Making fresh pasta dough is worth every single step.
Author: Delish/Photo credit to delish.com
Ingredients
- 2¼ c. all-purpose flour, plus more for surface
- ½ tsp. kosher salt
- 4 large eggs
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour and salt. Pour flour mixture out onto a clean surface. Using your hands, make a well in center of flour. Crack eggs into well and use a fork to slowly whisk flour into eggs until a shaggy dough forms.
- Use your hands to knead dough until smooth and no longer sticky, about 5 minutes. Add flour to surface as necessary to keep dough from sticking. Wrap dough tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
- When ready to roll pasta, cut dough into quarters. Wrap all but 1 back in plastic wrap and place back in refrigerator.
- On a lightly floured surface, roll uncovered dough into a long rectangle that’s a little less wide than the width of your pasta roller. Set pasta roller to widest setting and pass the rolled out dough through 3 times. Fold short ends of dough to meet in center of rectangle, then fold in half so that the dough is in quarters. Roll pasta dough out so the dough is once again only slightly less wide than the width of your pasta roller. If your dough is springing back too much, cover it with a kitchen towel and let rest 10 minutes. Repeat the rolling and folding process until the dough is very smooth, 3 to 4 more times.
- Reduce setting by one degree and run pasta dough through once, then reduce setting by one degree after each run through until you’ve reached the desired thickness of pasta. About 1/16 of an inch thick for regular pasta and 1/32 for filled pasta. (On a Kitchenaid attachment we stopped on setting 5 for regular pasta.) Run the pasta dough through twice on the last desired setting. If your pasta sheet becomes too long to work with, cut it in half. Repeat with remaining dough in refrigerator. Keep rolled out dough covered with a clean kitchen towel.
- Lightly flour 2 large baking sheets. Trim edges of dough to make a clean rectangle and cut pasta into desired shape. (We like 11” long and ¼" wide for fettuccine-like pasta.) Place pasta on floured baking sheets and cover with a clean kitchen towel. Let dry out for about 30 minutes.
- To cook: Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook until al dente, 7 to 9 minutes. Drain and toss with desired sauce.
