Homemade Pasta Recipes

Making homemade pasta is a simple, fun way to experiment with a basic dough recipe. Base homemade pasta recipes can be adjusted to your fit your tastes. Making homemade pasta is often cheaper than buying fresh pasta and many chefs and home cooks believe it tastes better.

Basic Pasta Recipe
Yields 1 ½ pounds

Ingredients

• 1 pound semolina flour
• 5 or 6 eggs
• Pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1 to 2 teaspoons water

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl of a food processor and process with the blade attachment until the mixture forms large crumbs. Bring the crumbs together into a ball. Alternatively, you can mix the dough by hand. Mound the flour, salt and dry ingredients onto a large cutting board or work surface make a well in the center. Place beaten eggs and any wet ingredients into the well. Using a fork, pull the flour into the egg mixture to form a ball of dough. Knead the dough until it is smooth.

Let pasta rest at least 30 minutes before rolling it out.

Add olive oil or water if dough appears too dry or crumbly. If too moist, add flour until consistently feels correct.

Additions
Once you have the basic recipe mastered, experiment by using any of these additions to the basic pasta recipe.

Herb Pasta
Add ½ cup fresh chopped herbs.

Pepper Pasta
Add 3 teaspoons coarsely cracked black peppercorns or 2/3 cup roasted red pepper, cooked first to remove moisture and cooled.

Pesto Pasta
Add ¼ cup fresh or purchased pesto sauce, very well drained.

Spinach Pasta
Add ¾ cup of raw, pureed spinach.

Sun Dried Tomato Pasta
Add ½ cup drained sun-dried tomatoes in oil.

Tomato Pasta
Add 8 oz. of tomato paste.

Add any extras to the egg mixture. Depending on the moisture content, you may need additional flour.

Rolling Homemade Pasta

• By Hand: Separate the roll of dough into manageable pieces. Flatten the dough. Roll out pasta with a rolling pin until desired thinness or thickness. Make sure it is evenly thick or thin or your homemade pasta will cook unevenly. Let the dough dry before cutting into sheets or noodles. Hand rolling is preferred by many cooks who don't want the expense of a roller or pasta machine.
• Hand-Cranked Pasta Machine: These stainless-steel machines usually attach to your counter or work surface and may offer a more consistent product than rolling by hand. Break off a piece of dough and flatten before feeding it into the machine. Start with the widest opening and roll the dough through the machine. Fold the dough into thirds, rolling it into the machine repeatedly until desired thickness is achieved.
• Pasta Roller Attachment: These attach to your food processor, creating thick or thin sheets of pasta that can than be hand cut, pressed into ravioli molds or used as sheets. Follow the directions for your particular food processor. Dough is fed through similar to the hand-cranked machine until the desired thickness is achieved. Additional attachments are available to cut noodles and different shapes of pastas.
• Pasta Maker Machine: Does all of the mixing and kneading of homemade pasta. Advantages are placing ingredients in and walking away.

Cooking Homemade Pasta
Homemade pasta cooks a lot quicker than dried pasta. As with cooking dried pasta, use a large stockpot with plenty of water and salt to taste. Make sure the water is at a rolling boil before you add your pasta. Stir often to prevent sticking. Cook until al dente. Don't put oil in the water; this prevents pasta sauces from sticking to the pasta.

Holding Homemade Pasta
Drain immediately after cooking and sauce according to your recipe. If you are using it at a later time, drain and rinse with ice-cold water to stop the cooking process. Pasta may be lightly oiled to prevent sticking.