Learn how to make pasta at home! This 4-ingredient homemade pasta recipe is easy to make, and it yields chewy, delicious noodles every time.
This homemade pasta recipe is our new favorite cooking project! Lately, Jack and I have been spending even more time than usual in the kitchen, experimenting with bread, baked goods, and even okonomiyaki. But we keep coming back to homemade pasta. It’s super fun to make together, and it only requires a handful of basic ingredients. Of course, the fact that it’s absolutely delicious doesn’t hurt either. 🙂
My homemade pasta recipe refers to the pasta maker attachment for the KitchenAid Stand Mixer, which is how we roll out our fresh pasta at home. If you don’t have a KitchenAid, don’t worry! You could also roll out this pasta dough according to the instructions on a regular pasta maker. However you make it, I hope you try this recipe. It’s an easy, fun way to spend an hour in the kitchen with someone you love, and at the end, you get to eat a big plate of chewy noodles with a perfect al dente bite.
Homemade Pasta Recipe Ingredients
You only need 4 ingredients to make delicious fresh pasta at home, and there’s a good chance you have all of them on hand already:
- All-purpose flour – In the past, I thought you needed 00 flour or semolina flour to make great fresh pasta, but this homemade pasta recipe proved me wrong. In it, regular all-purpose flour yields chewy, bouncy noodles every time.
- Eggs – The key ingredient for adding richness and moisture to the dough!
- Olive oil – Along with the eggs, a splash of olive oil moistens the dough and helps it come together.
- Salt – Add it to the dough and the pasta water for the best flavor.
Find the complete recipe with measurements below.
How to Make Pasta
Ready to learn how to make pasta? Check out this step-by-step guide first, and then find the full recipe at the bottom of this post!
First, make a nest with the flour on a clean work surface. Add the remaining ingredients to the center and use a fork to gently break up the eggs. Try to keep the flour walls intact as best as you can!
Next, use your hands to gently mix in the flour. Continue working the dough to bring it together into a shaggy ball.
Then, knead! At the beginning, the dough should feel pretty dry, but stick with it! It might not feel like it’s going to come together, but after 8-10 minutes of kneading, it should become cohesive and smooth:
If the dough still seems too dry, sprinkle your fingers with water and continue kneading to incorporate it into the dough. If the dough becomes too sticky, dust more flour onto your work surface.
When the dough comes together, shape it into a ball and wrap it in plastic wrap. Let the dough rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.
After the dough rests, slice it into 4 pieces.
Use a rolling pin or your hands to gently flatten one into an oval disk.
Then, run it through the widest setting of your pasta maker (level 1 on the KitchenAid attachment). I run the dough through the pasta maker 3 times on this setting before proceeding to the next step. If you don’t have the KitchenAid attachment, roll out the dough according to your pasta maker’s instructions.
Next, fold the dough… if you want to. This step is somewhat optional, but it will make your final pasta sheet more rectangular, which will yield more long strands of pasta. Plus, it’s super simple! Just lay the dough flat and fold both short ends in to meet in the center.
Then, fold it in half lengthwise to form a rectangle.
Once you’ve folded the dough, roll it out to your desired thickness. On my KitchenAid attachment, I run it through the pasta roller three times on level 2, three times on level 3, and one time each on levels 4, 5, and 6.
Repeat these steps with the remaining dough pieces. Each time you finish with a piece of dough, lay one half of it on a lightly floured baking sheet. Sprinkle the dough with flour, and fold the other half on top. Sprinkle the top with flour, too!
Finally, cut and cook the pasta. Run the pasta sheets through your desired pasta cutter attachment. Cook the noodles in a pot of boiling salted water for 1 minute, and enjoy!
Homemade Pasta Serving Suggestions
If you’ve never had fresh pasta before, you’re in for a treat! Its chewy, bouncy texture and rich flavor make it so much better than the dried pasta at the store. In fact, these noodles are so good that we usually serve them really simply. They’re fantastic with marinara sauce, pesto, homemade Alfredo sauce, or olive oil and vegan Parmesan or Parmesan cheese.
Of course, they’re delicious in larger pasta dishes, too. Use them instead of dried pasta in any of these recipes:
- Tagliatelle with Asparagus & Peas
- Spaghetti Aglio e Olio
- Fettuccine Alfredo
- Easy Pesto Pasta
- Roasted Vegetable Pasta
- Linguine with Lemon and Tomatoes
- Garlic Herb Mushroom Pasta
Find more of my favorite pasta recipes here!
Homemade Pasta
Equipment
- KitchenAid Mixer (the stand mixer to use the pasta attachment)
- Pasta Attachment (my favorite KitchenAid attachment!)
- Baking Sheets (I use these nonstick ones from Nordic Ware)
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour, spooned & leveled
- 3 large eggs
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- ½ tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
Instructions
- Place the flour on a clean work surface and make a nest. Add the eggs, olive oil, and salt to the center and use a fork to gently break up the eggs, keeping the flour walls intact as best as you can. Use your hands to gently bring the flour inward to incorporate. Continue working the dough with your hands to bring it together into a shaggy ball.
- Knead the dough for 8 to 10 minutes. At the beginning, the dough should feel pretty dry, but stick with it! It might not feel like it’s going to come together, but after 8-10 minutes of kneading, it should become cohesive and smooth. If the dough still seems too dry, sprinkle your fingers with a tiny bit of water to incorporate. If it’s too sticky, dust more flour onto your work surface. Shape the dough into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap, and let rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.
- Dust 2 large baking sheets with flour and set aside.
- Slice the dough into four pieces. Gently flatten one into an oval disk. Run the dough through the Pasta Roller Attachment or a pasta maker three times on level 1 (the widest setting).
- Set the dough piece onto a countertop or work surface. Fold both short ends in to meet in the center, then fold the dough in half to form a rectangle (see photo above).
- Run the dough through the pasta roller three times on level 2, three times on level 3, and one time each on levels 4, 5, and 6.
- Lay half of the pasta sheet onto the floured baking sheet and sprinkle with flour before folding the other half on top. Sprinkle more flour on top of the second half. Every side should be floured so that your final pasta noodles won't stick together.
- Repeat with remaining dough.
- Run the pasta sheets through the Pasta Cutter Attachment (pictured is the fettuccine cutter). Repeat with remaining dough. Cook the pasta in a pot of salted boiling water for 1 to 2 minutes.
Notes
adapted from Serious Eats
Great and delicious
Great
Your photos are beautiful!!
I don’t have a stand mixer, I used a manual crank machine. It’s been decades since I made pasta, gave my old machine to my son so I recently purchased a new one with a few attachments. Looking for recipes using AP flour, I stumbled on your spaghetti one, perfect for my attachment. I used your recipe, weighing my flour as suggested. I thought it was going to be too dry but after working it for 10 minutes it was perfect. Let it rest 30 minutes, used the machine and air dried for 30 minutes on a hanger. I didn’t think it would make enough pasta but after taking it off the drying rack, piled and separated it all I was surprised how much it really was. I cheated and used organic sauce in a jar and added ground beef, it was a nice pasta/sauce ratio. I really enjoyed this pasta and will keep this recipe to use often. Well done!
I’m so glad your pasta came out perfectly!
Talk about drying snd storing. Going to try this tomorrow. Haven’t made pasta since I sold my old house in 2021. May try freezing. How to do you store it (refrigerator or freezing). How long can it be frozen?
Would this recipe be easy to double?
YES! Me and my hubby went down to my daughters house for one of her kids birthday and I made pasta using this recipe and because there’s about nine of us I had to double it and it was so easy plus delicious!
I literally never leave comments for anything but feel compelled to here. After a rare full dad day watching all 3 of my kids (ages 1-5), I thought it would be a good idea to throw homemade pasta in the mix 🙂 This recipe was not only easy, but had simple ingredients, and stellar guidelines. Luckily my wife had the connections for the mixer. I was prepared to do the hand crank but that was a million times easier. I accompanied the noodles with fresh rosemary garlic bone in skin on chicken thighs (oven baked), steamed green beans, and oven baked zucchini and summer squash. I pared everything with Far Niente Chardonnay and had Godiva white chocolate truffles for dessert. It’s safe to say this pasta made our dinner and evening special. The kids had fun helping with the process and equil enjoyment eating it. Thank you very much for the recipe and fantastic instructions! Greatly appreciated!!
Hi, I’m so glad you and your family loved the recipe! Sounds like an amazing meal all around 😊
Made this tonight, delish! I had an issue with my sheets sticking together on the prepared baking sheets despite using flour. We just proceeded with the doubled up pasta sheets and it still turned out great! Thank you!
I just threw all the ingredients in the thermo mix on dough setting for 8 mins and it turned out perfectly. Pasta was delicious
Hi Josie, great tip! Glad that worked well and that you enjoyed the pasta.
Can you make this ahead of time? If so should I freeze or refrigerate or air dry etc?
Hi Amanda, I recommend freezing the fresh pasta after you cut the noodles. You can boil them straight from frozen!
These are super light and bouncy.Super rich and thick plus they go Well with a lot of recipes.Definitely approved 👍👍👍👍
Yummy easy recipe! Followed instructions exactly (my first time making pasta) using my new KitchenAid and it worked great.
Do I have to knead by hand or use my mixer?
by hand – I find the dough too stiff for a mixer.
1 year anniversary of making pasta with my kitchen aid attachment. I come back to this recipe every single time I make a batch of pasta, it turns out amazing every time. Thank you for sharing.
Newbie to pasta and bread.
This recipe was so easy to follow, I’ve made it three times now for fettucine and spaghetti, making carbonara tonight and so excited to make these noodles again!
Also, I always measure my flour (120g for one cup) which has been very helpful while I learn to make pasta and bread 🙂
I’m so glad it’s worked out for you again and again!
I doubled this recipe (4 cups flour and 6 eggs and tblsp olive oil). It was very dry couldn’t get it to mix without adding another egg. Is doubling the ingredients incorrect? I usually need to make this for 14-20 people so I need to make 4 to 6 times this size. Thoughts?
Hi, did you use the spoon and level method to measure your flour? Your scoops could have been too full: https://www.loveandlemons.com/how-to-measure-flour/
The dough also starts out dry so that you can add water a little at a time without adding too much water.
Fantastic & simple recipe from a 1st time pasta maker! I would like to try again though but this time w 00 flour as I didn’t taste that homemade Italian flavor. I wonder if the flavor will taste more homemade Italian 00 flour? Please let me know. And would I use your same white flour recipe or do you have another one specific to this flour?
Wonderful recipe and I can’t wait to eat it with your wonderful cauliflower fettuccini recipe which is also awesome. Thank yu for all your great recipes.
I’ve made other recipes and had trouble getting them to go through the machine without sticking or breaking apart. This one was perfect in my KitchenAid attachment. It made the perfect amount for 3 adults but honestly, I wish we had a little more to stuff ourselves on. 🙂 Very easy and great, just as written and I’m in high altitude. No adjustments at all. This is a keeper.
Will fresh pasta last in the fridge precooked for 2 days, or once it’s cooked? Wanting to gift some homemade noodles to friends