How to make fresh pasta from scratch

One of my favourite cuisines has got to be Italian – I simply love pizza, pasta, risotto and their beautiful seafood. I was lucky to visit Sorrento a couple of years ago and took part in a cooking course and one of the things I learned was how to make pasta from scratch.

Today it is super easy and convenient to buy pasta from the shops and it is pretty affordable too. However, if you have the time then making pasta from scratch is worthwhile and it gives your arms a work out at the same time! You simply cannot beat homemade pasta and it tastes amazing!

Making pasta from scratch is dead simple and you don’t need a recipe. All you need is durum flour (00 flour) and eggs (one egg per 100g of flour). When making lasagne I usually need 200g, but remember to always make more than you think you will need – there’s nothing worse than not having enough dough! Plus you can always keep it in the fridge and use it for something else!

Ingredients for 200g of fresh pasta

  • Two eggs
  • 200g durum flour
  • Pinch of salt
  • Teaspoon olive oil

Method

  1. Measure out 200g of durum flour
  2. Empty the flour onto your workbench and make a well in the centre
  3. Break two eggs into the well and add a pinch of salt and olive oil
  4. Using a fork, mix the flour in with the egg until you get a crumble

Crumble type mixture

Flour well with two eggs

  1. Push this crumble together to form one piece of dough
  2. If there is too much flour add a drop of water to help it come together

Dough

00 Durum Flour

  1. Split the dough into two pieces to make it easier to handle
  2. Roll one piece of dough up into a ball
  3. Holding the ball with your left hand on the table surface, push the dough down and forward with your right hand. Fold over the dough and then turn the dough a quarter turn clockwise and repeat the process.

Step 9 - Fold dough in half

Step 9 - push dough forward

Finished dough

Step 9 - Rotate dough by a quarter

  1. Continue this process until the dough becomes harder, usually takes about 10-15 minutes. The harder the dough, the higher quality pasta it will make.
  2. Once you think the dough is ready roll it into a sausage and pull. If it is ready you should hear a loud snap. If it’s not ready, continue the above process.
  3. Add the two pieces back together and wrap in cling film and leave in the fridge for at least one hour.
  4. Repeat the process for your other piece of dough.
  5. Once ready, take the pasta out of the fridge and add the pasta into the pasta machine starting at number one and feed the pasta through. Change the dial to number two and repeat, then move the dial to number 3, 4, 5 and then finally 5 again until the pasta is nice and thin.
  6. Put the sheet of pasta onto a floured surface and repeat until you have enough sheets for your lasagne (this will depend on the size of your dish and how many layers you want).

And voila, you have homemade pasta!

If you want to make tagliatelle then fold the long sheets over into a square and then slice. Don’t forget to dust each of the strands to avoid them sticking before adding to a pan of salted boiling water.