Simple Homemade Pasta Dough

As we all know, the world is a little crazy right now, but one of the silver linings is that lots of us have more time to learn new skills, try new recipes, and cook to our heart’s content! Over on Instagram I have been getting lots of requests for some of my basic, go-to recipes that are both delicious and easy to make! Some of these more simple recipes I haven’t popped on the blog because I tend to add to them to make them a bit more fun- meaning that instead of posting a Simple Homemade Pasta Dough recipe I’ve posted things like my pumpkin pasta or spinach pasta recipes! So, we’re going back to basics.

Pasta is one of those dishes that is so easy to just grab a $1 box off the shelf and be done with, and honestly, I do that often. Making homemade pasta is time consuming, but when you actually *have* the time it is so, completely worth it! Its tasty, the texture is amazing, it holds sauce so much better, and it is so incredibly fun to make! So grab your three ingredients and let’s get to cooking! Also, there are what feels like an infinite number of different pasta recipes, and none of them are either right or wrong! This is the one that I always use and love, but when it comes to flours, you are more than welcome to substitute what you’d like (though I’m not sure about gluten free!)

Simple Homemade Pasta Dough Ingredients

2 Cups Flour (I Use 1 Cup Semolina and 1 Cup Unbleached All Purpose)
3 Room Temperature Large Eggs
1.5 Teaspoons Salt

Simple Homemade Pasta Dough Instructions

There are two different ways that you can make this, by hand or by food processor! I prefer the by-hand options, but you can follow the same steps using the processor as well.

1 Mix your flours and salt together on a clean, dry work surface. Form into a mound and then create a well in the flour for your eggs to sit with the back of your hand.

2 Crack your three room temperature (this is important for mixing!) eggs into the well you made in the flour and use a fork to start mixing the eggs together, slowly incorporating the flour into your egg mixture.

3 Using your hands, incorporate all of the flour into your eggs! This takes quite a bit of time, but it should slowly form a shaggy dough and then a ball. If at any time your dough doesn’t want to pick up more flour, you can wet your hands and then use the moisture on your hands to wet the ball to pick up more. DON’T add water to the dough- just use the moisture from your hands a little at a time!

4 Continue to knead your dough until it becomes smooth to the touch. You’ll feel the difference as the dough changes from the shaggy dough at the beginning to the rough dough in the middle to the smooth dough you need. (If you’d like to see this explained in video, be sure to watch the YouTube video at the end of this post!)

5 After your dough is satin-smooth wrap in a cover (I use beeswax, but you can use whatever you have on hand) and set aside for 30-45 minutes to allow the gluten to develop. You’ll know your dough is ready once it becomes hard to stretch without breaking!

6 Using a rolling pin, roll out your dough. You have to options here, either to cut pasta by hand or use a machine. I have an on-counter pasta machine that I love but there are also KitchenAid pasta attachments as well!

7 If you are cutting your pasta by hand, roll out your dough to as thin as you can without it breaking! Fresh pasta plumps up A LOT when you cook it and you don’t want to be eating a super thick noodle! If you are using a machine roll your dough out into sheets that can fit into the machine on the thickest setting, then use your pasta machine to slowly thin out your homemade pasta dough until you land at the thinnest setting!

8 When you get to the thinnest possible pasta sheets, use a knife or your noodle attachment to create noodles! You can either use these right away or you can use a pasta drying rack to dry your noodles and use them at a later date!

The noodles will stay fresh for about three days in the fridge in an airtight container or 4-5 days if you dry them. Prolong their life by freezing them! Also, pasta dough freezes incredibly well! When I make a double batch, I freeze the second half in a Stasher Bag and save it for later. Fresh noodles (pre-drying) will only take about 3-4 minutes to cook in salted, boiling water. The dried pasta will take 6-8 minutes- so it is a very quick meal once the pasta has been made!

I can’t wait for you to try this fun homemade pasta dough recipe! Make sure that if you do and post on social media, tag me (@ModHippieHabits) I would LOVE to see how yours comes out! Stay healthy, eat well, and have fun!