Homemade Pasta Is Easier Than You Think—So Long As You Follow These Simple Steps

Start with simple AP flour or 00 flour.

Many pasta recipes call for semolina flour. This coarser flour has roots in Southern Italy and is very well suited to some pasta shapes, like orecchiette. But when you’re starting out, stick to AP flour or fine Italian 00 flour. These are more pliable when mixed with water and egg into dough, far easier to turn into finished pasta.

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Use an egg.

In another pasta difference stemming primarily from geography, some pasta dough recipes call for egg, some don’t. Using egg yields a more elastic dough with a wider margin for error. When beginning down the fresh pasta road, be sure to use dough recipes with egg.

Knead dough—and rest it before shaping.

Once you’ve mixed your dough ingredients into a smooth, uniform mass, you’ll want to knead for another seven to 10 minutes. This may take some wrist stamina as the minutes tick by, but your efforts will be rewarded. Kneading massages gluten, producing deeper pasta tenderness in the end. After kneading, the general wisdom is to rest dough, covered in plastic wrap, for about 20 minutes or longer. Once this time has elapsed, you can start to shape your pasta.

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Work with dough at the right temperature.

Warm pasta dough tears easily when thinned into noodles. Another set of problems arises when dough is too cold. Unwanted coldness might stem from pulling dough right from the fridge, or from using chilled flour. But it could also arise from your work surface. Countertops made of slab-like materials in the family of quartz and granite have a coolness that make dough harder to shape. If possible, avoid these surfaces. Better still, you can invest in a wooden pasta board (which makes for easier clean up). Don’t turn dough into pasta until it’s close to room temperature.

Avoid thick noodles at all costs.

The main pitfall of homemade pasta is thickness. Thick pasta has an overly raw doughy bite that can’t be defeated by expert cooking or saucing or any magic trick of wine. Roll your flat-strand noodles as thin as printer paper. If using a hand-crank machine, try to progress at least to the "6" setting. Held close to your eyes, pasta sheets should be transparent. If you can see through, time to cut some noodles!

Dust to prevent sticking.

The sinking feeling that comes when luxurious nests of spaghetti glue together is agonizing. To keep finished noodles from clinging to one another, dust them with flour, even the more granular semolina flour. There are also pasta drying racks designed to keep noodles separate. These can be emulated by something like a well-placed (clean) broom.

Use plenty of salt.

Pasta demands heavily salted water. The wisdom is that this water, while boiling, imbues its salinity into the pasta, providing most of the salt it needs. Fresh pasta, however, cooks far faster than boxed, meaning fresh pasta has far less time to absorb salt from its boiling water. So when making fresh pasta, you’ll want to compensate for that lost salt through another source. Consider adding more salt to your sauce, or salt to taste before eating.