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
I just love it thankyou so much ..
Really love the recipe. But i have question. Im planning to cook lasagna pasta tomorrow. Do i need to pre cook the homemade lasagna sheets for 30sec-1min, and store it in the freezer?
Thank you very much for sharing your idea on making pasta noodles?
Hope to try this also.. Soon
Thank you. ❤️
Try laying it out on a baking sheet, then cover with plastic wrap and freeze for a few hours then you can take it and place it in a freezer bag. 🙂
Can you freeze this pasta?
Hi Tony, I’m not sure, I haven’t tried freezing it.
freezing didn’t work for us but I’m going to try cooking it and then freezing
Try laying it out on a baking sheet, then cover with plastic wrap and freeze for a few hours then you can take it and place it in a freezer bag. 🙂
This recipe turned out great! Easy and delicious. Will definitely be my go-to pasta recipe.
My daughter and I used this recipe tonight & it was delicious! We made fettuccine noodles and made carbonara. Everyone cleaned their plates.
How could you convert this to a whole wheat pasta? We have a local mills that makes the best flours.
Hi Lesha, your amount of liquid would be different – the dough will probably start out more dry, so you could just try adding more water until the dough is workable. I find whole wheat doughs just harder to work with in general, I might start out with a % mixed in rather than 100%
This recipe was perfect! Will use this again for sure! I had to wet my hands a little throughout kneading and the end result was a firm but not dry dough ball. After the 30 minute rest it rolled out so smooth! Made it into fettuccine and served with a creamy mushroom wine sauce as well as a roasted garden tomato sauce. I wanted whether a red sauce or a cream sauce worked better for homemade pasta. And both complimented the pasta perfectly!
Hi Missy, I’m so glad you loved it!
Hi there, can you freeze this recipe after making the dough ?. Want to make this tonight
Great recipe and excellent instructions! What’s your advice on how to keep/pack the noodles fresh in the fridge for a couple days and how to store them in freezer?
My 13 year old made this and added Shrimp to his Alfredo. It was amazing
I am 13 it took me 8 hours
What is oo type flour? and where do you get it ? thanks
It’s very fine flour that’s traditional for making pasta. You can find it at some gourmet grocery stores or online. I use regular all purpose flour here in my recipe since it’s easy to find.
Can you used this recipe in a electric pasta maker?
Hi Sallie, yes, it should work with any pasta maker but I’ve only used it with the KitchenAid pasta attachment.
If you use the whole 2 cups of flour you are gonna need to use an extra egg, or use 1.5 cups of flour & 3 eggs.
I used 1.5 cups of flour type 00
3 eggs
Oil oil & salt
Great results
This is super good! The dough was easy to handle, appreciated the step by step direction, taste was glorious! With god as ma witness, we’ll never eat store bought noodles again! ?
This was an excellent recipe that I would for sure reccomend to anyone. It was 100 times better than any store bought dried pasta I could get! Thanks so much!
Sorry. I forgot to rate it.
Great recipe! My 14 year son wanted to make a homemade meal and perfect it each week. Pasta and meatballs was his choice. He found your recipe and has made it twice (with a bit of my help). We used the KitchenAide pasta attachment and the hand cranked version. Both with great success. It is dry and that is what you want. The key for us was to let it rest. Make the pasta, then sauce, then meatballs. When the waters is boiling, roll your pasta. And have fun! Great job guys!
Super dry. It kept cracking and breaking. Would not recommend.
You probably didn’t roll it long enough it starts out that way but be patient. You can always wet your hands to incorporate more moisture. I’ve tried twice with no issues.
Some people just can’t cook. This recipe is fool proof.