My favorite homemade pasta recipe

I know, we have a ton of pasta recipes and pizza dough recipes. The fact is, the ingredients are similar and simple to find. However, we’ve found it’s the proportion of these ingredients that can make it easier or harder to make it turn out well. After playing around for a while, I’ve found that this recipe is pretty reliable without needing to add extra flour or extra moisture while making the pasta.

Let’s talk about flour

Going to the grocery store, there are a ton of flour options out there. When I started out, I stayed with the regular All Purpose Flour. It’s an economical option and a safe bet to work in almost all of your recipes. However, we were watching an episode of Michael Symon and he mentioned about staying away from bleached and enriched flours. Since then, we’ve tried to stay away from those flours, but we do still keep All Purpose Flour in our pantry for a backup. Four our pasta, we try to find Italian 00 flour that hasn’t been altered.

Let’s talk about equipment

Pasta should be easy to make. There are pieces of equipment that make it easier to prepare, but all you really need is the ingredients and your hands. Making the pasta in a food processor is really easy and speeds up the process, but I don’t get the same satisfaction as when I make it by hand. There is something relaxing about doing it by hand.

On the other hand, making it with the traditional method of a pile of flour on the counter and making a well in the center to start mixing the ingredients together can get really messy. To be honest, I’m only mess averse because I don’t like cleaning up after it. So, a simple solution is to use a bowl to mix the ingredients and then move to the counter when you’re ready to start kneading the dough.

Obviously, pasta can be a choose your own adventure, so proceed with whatever method makes you happy!

What do you do with the pasta once it’s made?

OK, this is one of the questions that kept me from ever making pasta in the first place. If you don’t have any tools to cut the pasta, it can be a little intimidating. You can find videos on line showing how to cut the past and the options are endless.

One simple option is to roll it as flat as you can. Then cut the pasta into thin strips with a knife and use it like fettuccine or tagliatelle. You could also make simple ravioli, and if you’re adventurous, agnolotti or tortellini.

If you want a fun pasta cutter that doesn’t cost a lot, look at the Chitarra Pasta Cutter that is a traditional tool from the Abruzzo region of Italy. It usually has a thin side and a think side. Kind of like Angel Hair pasta on one side and the other is a little larger than spaghetti and a little smaller than fettuccini.

One thing to remember is that homemade pasta cooks a lot faster than store bought dried pasta.

OK, now that that’s out of the way, let’s start making Pasta!

Recipe

I also want to add that this recipe was inspired by a post by Love and Lemons.