Pasta from Scratch: Making the Dough

Introduction

Before you can learn all the pasta recipes you are eager to try on your own, you must know how to make the dough. All it takes is four steps, but your dough will not come out properly if you don’t make sure you are doing the steps correctly. In this post, I will share how to prepare the dough with a step-by-step recipe that takes only 45 minutes.

Step 1: Measuring your ingredients

Manuela Zangara’s recipe requires only flour and eggs like a traditional egg pasta dough. She uses 14 ounces (1¾ cups) of all-purpose or 00 flour and 4 large eggs. To change the measurements for however many people you are planning to feed, Manuela says, “The proportion is 3½ ounces of flour and one large egg per person,” (Zangara, 14). If you plan to use durum wheat to make the pasta dough, switch the 4 eggs for ¾ cup (about 7 ounces) lukewarm water and follow the same steps. The proportions are 3½ ounces of durum wheat flour and 1¾ ounces water per person. If you are vegan, durum wheat pasta is a great option.

Step 2: Making a well

After measuring your ingredients, find a large and clean work surface in your kitchen. Pour the flour onto the work surface, then make a hole in the middle using your fingers that will be big enough to fit the eggs. To ensure you do not have eggshells in your dough and the eggs are fresh, break the eggs in a bowl before placing them into the hole, which is called the well. Finally, use a fork to beat the eggs and place any additional ingredients (food coloring, salt, etc.) you wish to add in the well.

Well in mixing bowl

Step 3: Mixing the ingredients

Press the flour into the eggs with your fingers until your dough is formed. It will be sticky, so fold in a little more flour until all the ingredients are well combined. Zangara’s advice for beginners is to use a bowl, stand mixer, or food processor to mix the dough. I will be using a stand mixer for my dough so I will put the ingredients in the mixer with the paddle attachment, them mix on a low speed until combined.

Beating the eggs

Mixing the ingredients

Step 4: Kneading the dough

The dough should be firm and no longer sticky to be ready for kneading. Place it on your work surface, pushing forward and down into the dough with the palm of your hand. Rotate the dough then repeat until it is smooth and elastic, which should take 5-10 minutes. If you knead longer than 10 minutes, the pasta texture will be hard to roll and chewy when cooked because the gluten will be overdeveloped. When using a stand mixer, simply replace the paddle attachment with a hook attachment after mixing and knead for 5 minutes on a medium-high speed.

I chose not to use the stand mixer for my kneading to get a feel for what the dough should look and feel like, so I knew  I was preparing the dough properly. Also, I put wax paper down so the dough would not stick to the counter and I would not dust with too much flour.

Dusting the dough with flour

Kneading the dough

Step 5: resting the dough

Wrapping the dough tightly in plastic wrap and letting it rest is a very important step in the process. “When you knead it, you help develop the gluten in the flour. Gluten makes your dough springy and elastic. If you try to roll the dough immediately after kneading it, you’ll find it to be very difficult, as the dough will simply spring back on itself. The resting time allows the flour to continue to hydrate, and the gluten network to relax, thus making the rolling step much easier,” (Zangara, 15). Rest the dough for 30 minutes. 

I recommend taking the 30 minutes to clean up your workspace for the next step, which is to shape the dough.

Letting the dough rest

Resource: 

Zangara, Manuela. “Chapter 2: The Dough.” Homemade Pasta Made Simple: a Pasta Cookbook with Easy Recipes & Lessons to Make Fresh Pasta Any Night, Rockridge Press, 2017, pp. 11–18.