17 August 2017

Homemade Handmade Pasta - A Tutorial

Homemade Handmade Pasta - No machines, just 3 simple ingredients / www.delightfulrepast.com

Homemade Pasta is something I hadn't made in years - it just sort of slipped off my radar. But over the weekend I got in the mood to make something fun. There are all sorts of "formulas" for making it, but I remembered the one I'd settled on years ago: 1 large egg, 1/2 cup (2.5 ounces/71 grams) flour, 1/8 teaspoon salt for about 4 ounces of pasta.

Even if you're just cooking for one or two, you might want to stir up more than that while you're at it. You can refrigerate the kneaded dough for a few days or freeze it for a few months. Of course, you can mix and knead the dough in a food processor or stand mixer, but my arms can really use the exercise these days!

I never made homemade pasta frequently enough or in such huge quantities that I felt the need for a pasta machine. And I'm not crazy about cleaning a pasta machine! So, handmade it is. All you really need is a bowl, fork, rolling pin, bench scraper, knife or pizza wheel and a cutting board.

The same dough is perfect for any shape. The photo below shows it in the form of wide egg noodles in chicken soup. Mr Delightful doesn't like long pasta, so I made just a little batch of fettuccine for myself (shown in the final photo).

I should also mention that you don't need to track down any special flour. Some cooks swear by semolina or Italian 00 flour, but I used my usual organic unbleached all-purpose flour and did not find it lacking in any way. Eventually I'd like to get out all my gluten-free flours and starches and come up with a version for my GF friends.


How to Make Homemade Handmade Pasta - No machines and just 3 simple ingredients / www.delightfulrepast.com
Don't forget to Pin it!

Homemade Handmade Pasta


(Makes about 8 ounces)

2 large eggs
1 cup (5 ounces/142 grams) unbleached all-purpose flour*
1/4 teaspoon salt


* Plus more, perhaps about 1/4 to 1/3 cup, for kneading and rolling


Homemade Handmade Pasta - No machines and just 3 simple ingredients / www.delightfulrepast.com


1 In 2- to 2.5-quart mixing bowl, with a dinner fork, stir together flour and salt. Add eggs, break the yolks and slowly incorporate the eggs into the flour to form a sticky, not too stiff dough.


Homemade Handmade Pasta - No machines, just 3 simple ingredients / www.delightfulrepast.com


2 Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface (keep the bowl handy, you'll need it again) and knead the dough until it is satiny and very stretchy, about 10 minutes. Use enough flour to keep the dough from sticking horribly to your hands and surface. And this step is where the bench scraper comes in handy. The finished product should be tacky but not sticky.


Homemade Handmade Pasta - No machines, just 3 simple ingredients / www.delightfulrepast.com


3 Divide the dough into 2 equal pieces. Cover the dough with the inverted mixing bowl, and let it rest for an hour before rolling it out. (I love my big Weck jars for flour.)


4 Working with 1 piece of dough at a time, roll it (I prefer a maple French rolling pin) into about a 12x6-inch rectangle and stretch and fold it in half. Repeat 3 times. Then roll it out to roughly a 15-inch square about 1/32 inch thick, so thin you can sort of see through it. I could see the pattern of my quartz countertop through it.


Homemade Handmade Pasta - No machines, just 3 simple ingredients / www.delightfulrepast.com


5 You will be lifting and turning the dough throughout the rolling process so that it does not get stuck to the counter. By the time you have your thin square rolled out, the dough will be extremely thin but quite sturdy. Let it rest, uncovered, about 20 minutes, just to dry a bit without getting crusty.


6 To cut shorter shapes, use a plastic pizza wheel and a straight edge (my straight edge is half of an aluminum yardstick, cut years ago for cake decorating purposes). I cut this batch, for chicken noodle soup, into 1/3-inch wide strips, then into 1 1/2-inch lengths.


Homemade Handmade Pasta - No machines, just 3 simple ingredients / www.delightfulrepast.com


To cut long noodles, fold or roll the sheet of dough into a loose spiral, place it on a cutting board and cut crosswise into strips with a sharp knife.


Homemade Handmade Pasta - No machines, just 3 simple ingredients / www.delightfulrepast.com


7 Let the cut pasta rest, uncovered, for 20 to 60 minutes before cooking.


8 Cooking times vary but are very short, so watch closely and test frequently. I cooked the short noodles in hot, not boiling, soup and they were done in 2 minutes. Cooking time could be even shorter in boiling water. The long noodles took a minute or so longer, having dried out for a longer period of time. 

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66 comments:

Pom Pom said...

Hi Jean! I need a fancy rolling pin like the one in your photo. I'd like some of that soup, please!

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

Thanks, Karen. Wish I could take some soup over to you! The rolling pin is inexpensive. Just click on the link in Step 4 and order it!

Thomas "Sully" Sullivan said...

Fascinating lineage to the pasta family tree. The endless noodle, to me. Things “bready” just don’t stay in my wheelhouse, and I guess it’s sort of an all-purpose rejection of all-purpose flour (any type of flour). Not that I don’t get plenty of it inadvertently. I do. And occasionally I get some very good spaghetti & meatballs with marinara sauce from a local carry-out. But it’s the accompaniment that registers with anything flour-based, is it not? The endless noodle or other expressions of flour (including bread) are basically bland. It’s why you put “stuff” on bread or add a sauce to pasta. School me.

Angie's Recipes said...

Thumbs up for you handmaking the pasta! It must be particularly delicious and fresh!

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

Sully, good pasta and good bread are not bland, as you imagine. Just the other day, when Mr Delightful came in the door, he smelled the baking bread and commented on it. He has become attuned to the differences between storebought and homemade bread and can no longer tolerate the "phony" taste of most storebought breads. Real egg noodles or pasta definitely have flavor - subtle, yes - but good flavor. I know an Italian woman who often eats her pasta with nothing on it but a little butter. The pasta you get from your local carry-out probably doesn't have much flavor, though, so you better get it sauced up!

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

Thank you, Angie!

Karen said...

Hi Jean,
Wow! I have never made homemade pasta. It does sound like a lot of work but I am sure it has a superb taste. Thank you for sharing. Blessings, Karen

Mrs Shoes said...

I married into a Mennonite background, so my MIL (God Rest her Soul) taught me all the old ways. Making good pasta, from kielke to soup noodles was a must to learn and were staples in our household.
My own mother (of Danish descent) makes turkey noodle soup every Boxing Day -- her noodles always turn out looking like withches' fingers & with a hard core in the middle. We eat it anyway and no complaining. :-)

xinex said...

Your pasta looks yummy, Jean! I think I will be the one you will see around meal time 😃. I have never tried making pasta noodles.... Christine

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

Karen, I'm a little puny, so when I don't do a lot of kneading and rolling on a regular basis, I tend to get some sore upper abs when I make something like this! :D All the more reason to make them regularly, right!

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

Too funny, Mrs Shoes - you "eat it anyway and no complaining." My mother didn't take up pasta until her later years, so I didn't grow up with a homemade pasta tradition. It was just something I taught myself a long time ago. I love that you learned it from your MIL.

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

Christine, thank you. And you'd be welcome at meal time! :D In fact, you can come early and set the table (since you are the queen of tablescapes!).

Kitchen Riffs said...

Love homemade pasta! Great tutorial. I usually use my food processor just to bring everything together, then knead by hand for 10 minutes or a bit less. And although I do have a hand-cranked pasta machine for rolling out the dough, I find I'm doing that with a rolling pin more and more these days. Just seems to go a lot faster, and is less fussy. Good stuff -- thanks.

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

Thank you, John. I love all my machines, but when I'm just making a small amount, it seems easier to just do it all by hand. Just wipe off my rolling pin and put it away, and there you are!

kitty@ Kitty's Kozy Kitchen said...

I love homemade pasta, Jean, and like you, I haven't made any in quite awhile. In fact, I had a pasta machine that was probably 40 years old and I recently ave it to my youngest son. I prefer to just roll it out like you do, and cut it by hand. Thanks for sharing your small batch recipe with us.

The Joy of Home with Martha Ellen said...

Such beautiful handmade pasta, Jean. I love that pasta can be made without any special equipment. Kind of like making bread, so satisfying. Have a great day. ♥

Margie said...

Strega Nona would approve of your pasta recipe!

At Rivercrest Cottage said...

Jean, back in 1966 I went with my boyfriend's family to Iowa. Every day at the noon meal (a banquet compared to the sandwiches I was used to in CA) the women made homemade noodles in a broth. OH MY! I've dreamed of them ever since. I am going to give your recipe a try. Thanks.

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

Kitty, I think the machine only makes sense if you're making pasta for a crowd, and I would never do that. Most "crowds" aren't that discriminating about their pasta - I'll give them the storebought! :D

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

Thank you, Martha. That's exactly right - like making bread, very satisfying.

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

Margie, thank you for introducing me to a new book! I was not familiar with Strega Nona, so had to look it up!

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

Sugar, what a fun memory! I hope you'll give it a try soon and let me know how it worked for you!

Pauline Wiles said...

My nose would grow as long as Pinocchio's if I pretended I would ever make my own pasta. But that didn't get in the way of my enjoyment in reading about it, Jean. The kneading looks like a fair bit of work but the end results must be extremely satisfying.

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

Pauline, that's hilarious! :D But I know what you mean; I read a good deal about things I would never do for one reason or another.

Unknown said...

I've always fancied making my own pasta but thought I'd need to have a pasta machine to try it? This looks really simple! I love your posts Jean. Have you thought of a book? I would buy it! X

Marisa Franca @ Allourway said...

Ahhhh!! Homemade pasta! Nothing in the world like it. When Honey and I were first married and raising a family I would toss one of those boxes of pasta in the cart and off I'd go to check out. In my later years, I looked at the ingredients and practically dropped the box. The ingredients were practically as long as the box. Pasta, for the most part, is flour and water, egg if you choose. So I've become a pasta snob. I stand in the aisle and read the ingredients. We do have a pasta machine and we've worn one out. And as far as Mr. Delightful goes -- I agree with him and his length. Nothing worse than getting slapped in the face with a wet noodle. 🤣Have a great day!!

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

Dawn, thank you. I'd love to do a book, but it's quite difficult these days to get a cookbook off the ground, what with every celeb in the world, from actresses to country singers, doing them. I hope you'll try the pasta soon!

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

Mr Delightful will love it that you agree with him, Marisa! Glad to find another label reader; it's so important.

LifenotesEncouragement said...

Well, I found you via the traffic jam weekend linkup and I'm now inspired to make my own pasta!
Thank you!!!

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

Thanks, Nylse! I hope you'll try it soon and let me know how it went!

Cocoa and Lavender said...

This is exactly my recipe for pasta, although I do use a hand cranked pasta cutter. However, when I making something that requires a big sheet, nothing beats a rolling pen!

Richard Sheppard said...

I have the Kitchen Aide attachments to make homemade pasta but only make it a couple of times a year on special occasions. You're right, it's not that hard to make though and I should do it more often. That chicken soup you put the pasta in sure looks tasty!

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

I agree, David. I'm going to roll out some big sheets of it for lasagna next.

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

Thanks, Richard. I like my machines, but I really like how quiet the kitchen is when I'm not using a machine! :-)

Gerlinde de Broekert said...

I remember my German grandmother making noodles in her large country kitchen. She would hang them over something like a broomstick handle to dry. What a great post, I will make your noodles soon.

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

Gerlinde, what a wonderful memory to have! Yes, you can hang long noodles on a broomstick (hopefully a clean one expressly for that purpose!) suspended between two chairbacks or countertops. Or you can even hang them on those plastic tubular clothes hangers. I just sort of spread my fettuccine carelessly around on a cutting board, but if I were really trying to dry it I'd probably spread it around on a wire cooling rack. Let me know how your noodle making goes!

Shelbee on the Edge said...

Jean, I have always wanted to attempt making homemade pasta! My godmother always made it for us growing up and I loved to watch her in action. The only "pasta" I have ever made myself has been traditional Slovak drop noodles. But they are heavy in the belly so I don't make them very often! Thanks so much for sharing your recipe. I will have to keep it in mind next time I get inspired to make homemade pasta!

Shelbee
www.shelbeeontheedgec.com

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

Shelbee, thanks! I think you'll have fun with this. I'll have to check out these Slovak drop noodles.

Sippity Sup said...

Kudos to you for making your own pasta and hand rolling it too. That's cooking at its most satisfying. GREG

Lauren @ My Wonderfully Made said...

This is something I've never tried but you make it look fairly simple. I love soup in the winter -- especially my mom's homemade chicken soup recipe. I can imagine how much this ups the game on any soup! I'm pinning and will give it a try!

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

Thank you, Greg. Well said!

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

Lauren, I'm so glad you're going to try it! Let me know how it goes. And thank you for pinning - much appreciated.

Susan J Meyerott, M.S. said...

I love making homemade pasta even though I don't make it often. I have two hand-cranked pasta makers--one for making pasta and one for clay art projects. Here's the thing, Jean--you don't have to clean these pasta makers--and there is no noise! You just need to make sure the dough isn't sticky.

Last Christmas both of my kids tried to pry my pasta maker out of my hands. I ended up buying each a machine of their own and keeping mine (both of them).

I love knowing the ingredients I put in homemade pasta.

It really isn't a lot of work to knead the dough or to make the noodles. It will come as no surprise to you that I am more cavalier than you about how I mix and knead the dough. I error on the side of making a non-sticky dough that will easily go through the roller and cutter of the pasta maker.

As always, you make everything look so perfectly balanced and beautiful! I strive for 'homemade and chewy'....a bit more crude.

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

Sue, I'm so glad you enjoy making pasta (and clay art projects!). If I ever decide to get a pasta machine it will definitely be the noise-free hand-cranked kind. That was the kind my mother had, too. For now, I'm enjoying the "therapeutic" aspect of making it by hand - I find kneading bread dough therapeutic as well! Good to know the machines don't have to be a cleaning nightmare.

Louca por porcelana said...

Love pasta but I've never made it at home ...now I am thinking about...Your soup looks yummy!

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

Thank you, Maristella. I hope you will try it soon and let me know how it turns out for you.

TONY said...

I like the concept of giving tutorials, Jean. You are a great tutor.
In reply to something I read in one of the earlier comments.
Food is not just about smell, and taste.
Food, is about history, locality, a relationship with the land, community, sociability, relationships, and when it comes to the actual putting in the mouth, it is about texture, , nutrients, and the biological reaction with our bodies. Taste and smell are good, but not entirely necessary. But yes, pasta with a delicious sauce is very nice.
Good one, Jean. More tutorials please.

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

Tony, thank you so much. I like to do tutorials because if someone hasn't made something (like pasta, pastry or bread) before, they need extra information. What you said about food is so true; I couldn't have said it better myself. I'll never understand the "food is just fuel" philosophy!

All That I'm Eating said...

I have never made my own pasta, I really should. It doesn't look as complicated as I thought.

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

No, Caroline, it isn't complicated at all. Just plain flour, eggs and salt stirred together, then kneaded, rolled out and cut. Do let me know if you make it!

Miz Helen said...

Hi Jean,
There is something so special about homemade pasta. Your recipe looks amazing! Hope you are having a great week and thanks so much for sharing with Full Plate Thursday.
Come Back Soon!
Miz Helen

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

Miz Helen, thank you so much! See you Thursday!

Anonymous said...

Hello Jean,
I've made pasta before but it was decades ago, too. So it is time to try your recipe! I will let you know how I do with it. Thank you again for sharing your knowledge with us in much needed detail and the inspiration you provide!
Love,
Lily

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

Dear Lily, thank you so much. I know there are some recipes people are just not going to make if they don't have enough details and a little inspiration! Glad you were inspired. DO let me know how you do with it.

April J Harris said...

Jean, this is such a wonderful post! Your homemade pasta looks so good, and I love how you have de-mystified the process and made it so do-able. Thank you so much for sharing, and for being a part of The Hearth and Soul Link Party!

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

Thank you, April! That's just what I was aiming for, so thank you for letting me know.

Jeanie said...

This reminds me of our time with my next door neighbor, Rosie, who did the same process. Fresh pasta is infinitely better than the dry and boy, your instructions are just so clear and well illustrated. Love all you do here! I'm bookmarking, just to remember it all!

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

Jeanie, thank you so much. I think you'll have fun with this, especially on a rainy afternoon at the lake!

Unknown said...

Just popping back again through #DreamTeam Jean. Thanks so much for linking x

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

You can pop back anytime, Dawn! You're always welcome. Wish I could give you a nice cuppa tea and a bit of cake!

Christina(ArtDecorationCrafting) said...

Homemade pasta! Great idea and tutorial! Thank you for sharing at Sweet Inspiration Link Party :)

www.artdecorationcrafting.gr

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

Christina, thank you! And thank you for hosting the link party.

Jaki said...

Looks fabulous. I'm so not good in the kitchen! 😄 #dreamteam

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

Thanks, Jaki! I can help you in the kitchen - put the kettle on, I'll be right over!

Carlee said...

Homemade pasta really is the best. I am terrible at cutting it evenly though, I am impressed with your patience cutting yours. My Little Dude loves cranking the pasta machine, so we tend to go that route. Now you have me wanting to make some soon!

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

Thanks, Carlee. I love the workout my arms and midsection get when I'm rolling the dough super thin with my long rolling pin! :D