Traditional Egg Pasta Dough

I’ve been dying to take my pasta maker out for its inaugural spin since my husband gave it to me for my birthday in July!  Last week, I finally gave homemade pasta-making a whirl.   If you haven’t made your own pasta before, I would recommend doing so when you have ample time to spare.  Don’t follow my lead and start making the dough at 7:30 on Monday evening when you’re already exhausted and hungry!

Amateur issues aside, the whole process was pretty straightforward and yielded fantastic results.  I selected a basic pasta dough recipe from Mark Bittman’s  to How To Cook Everything.  Following his detailed dough-making and pasta-rolling instructions, I made 1 pound of fresh, beautiful fettuccine.

This was an enjoyable exercise that yielded a delicious, simple dinner.  I look forward to making pasta again and leveraging the lessons learned during my first attempt.

Traditional Egg Pasta Dough

2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more as needed
1 tsp salt
3 eggs
A few drops of water, if needed

1. Combine flour and salt in food processor work bowl and pulse a few times to combine.
2. Add eggs all at once and turn processor on, Process just until a ball begins to form, about 30 seconds. (Mine never formed a ball. Once the dough was uniform, I proceeded to the next step.)
3. If the dough is dry and grainy, add a few drops of water. If the dough sticks to the side of the work bowl, add a tablespoon of flour.
4. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth – about 1-2 minutes. Add a small amount of water if the dough is dry or flour if the dough is sticky.
5. Cut dough into 6 pieces and wrap in plastic.
6. Working one piece at a time, proceed with your method of pasta rolling. Lisa has an excellent tutorial here.

Tagged as: 30 While 30 - Beth