Easy Fresh Homemade Pasta (by Hand or using a Food Processor)

Making your own Fresh Homemade Pasta may sound fancy but it’s really simple. An easy to make dough you just roll out and boil!

Fresh pasta is available at the grocery store in the refrigerator section. It is fresh so it cooks quickly and it is absolutely delicious, but it can be kind of expensive.

Homemade pasta is made up of literally four ingredients. Four. It is not that hard to commit to trying something new – like making pasta – when there’s so few ingredients and you already have everything in the house.

With two super easy methods to make it, either by hand or using a food processor, this is something definitely worth trying!

Why Make Fresh Homemade Pasta from Scratch?

• Making pasta is a very satisfying experience. It is really fun to have everything come together and to design whatever kind of pasta that you want to.

• It’s even more fun making pasta with a friend (or even with your better half).

• A rolling pin is really all you need, but manual pasta rolling machines don’t cost that much if you decide that you want one. KitchenAid even makes a power attachment for their mixer if you have one.

• Homemade pasta is better for you. The ingredients are fresh and you can choose the flour that you want to use, like gluten free, organic, special or everyday all purpose flour.

• Fresh homemade pasta cooks in half the time of dried pasta and is so delicious that you might not even need sauce – just toss in a little butter and some fresh herbs and dinner is ready!

Do You Have To knead Homemade Pasta By Hand?

No, you do not have to knead homemade pasta by hand!

Making homemade pasta is definitely a hands on activity, but while you can choose to knead this dough by hand, you can also choose to put the dough together and let a stand mixer do the kneading with a dough hook.

Pasta is very forgiving!

What You’ll Need to Make Fresh Homemade Pasta

• Eggs – We use large white or brown eggs for this recipe. Eggs adds flavor, protein and fat, which makes the dough easier to work and enriches the taste.

• Olive Oil – Olive oil adds fat and flavor to the pasta and makes the pasta dough more supple and easier to roll. We use extra virgin olive oil because the oil that you choose makes a difference in the final flavor of the pasta.

• Flour – We typically use all purpose flour but there is real value in trying other kinds of flour. Changing the flour changes the pasta consistency, 00 flour resulting in silkier noodles and Semolina flour results in heartier, rougher pasta noodles.

“Life is a combination of magic and pasta.”

– Federico Fellini

How to make Fresh Homemade Pasta – By Hand

The first time we made homemade pasta we wanted the full experience of making the dough by hand. After watching some You Tube videos and cooking shows, it didn’t seem that hard to do and surprisingly, it wasn’t.

There is a degree of satisfaction in making Fresh Homemade Pasta by hand the traditional way!

In a small bowl, add the olive oil to the eggs and quickly blend together with a fork.

Pour the flour in a mound on a large cutting board. Top with a generous pinch of salt. Create a large well in the middle of the mound. Add the egg mixture into the center of the well.

Using a fork, begin whisking the flour into the egg mixture. Slowly work in the surrounding flour into the egg mixture. The mixture will become thicker as the flour is worked in.

Once the majority of the flour has been worked in and the dough begins to come together, set the fork aside and use your hands to fold in the rest of the dough until it forms a loose ball.

Knead the dough for 8 – 10 minutes or until the dough is smooth and elastic. Sprinkle with additional flour if the dough appears to be too sticky, add water a tablespoon at a time if the dough appears to be too dry.

Form into a ball and wrap in plastic wrap. Allow to rest at room temperature for 30 minutes to an hour. Divide the dough into portions, keeping the unused portions wrapped in plastic until ready to use.

Roll out the pasta dough with a rolling pin on a lightly floured surface, or alternately by using a pasta rolling machine, creating whichever kind of pasta you like.

How to make Fresh Homemade Pasta – Using a Food Processor

Now that we have explained the traditional method, we’d like to introduce you to our favorite (and the fastest) way of making Fresh Homemade Pasta – using your food processor.

It is amazing how fast this comes together and how much time and energy is saved. This is how we usually make Fresh Homemade Pasta.

Add flour, salt, olive oil and eggs to the bowl of a 5 cup food processor fitted with the blade attachment.

Pulse for 10-15 seconds until all ingredients are incorporated and the mixture becomes crumbly.

Remove the crumbly mixture from the food processor onto a large cutting board and using your hands, gather into a ball.

Knead the dough for 1-2 minutes until it is soft and supple. Not even kidding here – 1-2 minutes. That’s all.

Form into a ball and wrap in plastic wrap. Allow to rest at room temperature for 30 minutes to an hour. Divide the dough into portions, keeping the unused portions wrapped in plastic until ready to use.

Roll out the pasta dough with a rolling pin on a lightly floured surface, or alternately by using a pasta rolling machine, creating whichever kind of pasta you like.

What do you do After you Make Fresh Homemade Pasta?

The first time we made Fresh Homemade Pasta we quickly realized that we had made a lot of it and that we were not ready to use it right away.

We knew that it would be different than dried pasta but had to do some research on different kinds of pasta that we could make, as well as storage and cooking times.

Using a Pasta Roller

You can use a rolling pin to roll the pasta and cut it with a knife but we use a small manual pasta roller that makes rolling the Fresh Homemade Pasta super easy.

Relatively inexpensive (less than $25 new) this is a good place to start if you are just beginning to explore making your own pasta. There’s a bit of a learning curve. The fancy ones can be confusing and you don’t want to commit a lot of $$$ to something that you aren’t sure how often you are going to use it!

After Rolling the Pasta

Rolling the pasta until it’s thin enough for noodles and then rolling it through to cut them is so satisfying!

Once you have created noodles, you will need to decide on next steps.

• You can use the pasta right away
• You can dry and refrigerate the pasta
• You can dry and freeze the pasta

TO USE RIGHT AWAY: Cook the pasta in a large salted pot of boiling water until al dente, typically 1-7 minutes depending on the thickness of your pasta.

Drain and use immediately.

DRY THE PASTA AND REFRIGERATE OR FREEZE: If not using right away, let the pasta dry on a drying rack or on a baking sheet for 30 minutes to 2 hours.

We literally found the least expensive drying rack we could for our noodles because we thought it would be fun to hang them but you don’t have to! They will dry on a cooling rack or a baking sheet just as easily!

Dried fresh pasta can be stored in the fridge, in an airtight container, for up to 2 days or frozen for up to 2 weeks.

TO COOK DRIED REFRIGERATED OR FROZEN HOMEMADE PASTA: To use frozen fresh pasta, thaw first then cook the pasta in a large salted pot of boiling water until al dente, typically 1-7 minutes depending on the thickness of your pasta.

Drain and use immediately. Enjoy!

Other Pasta Sauce and Pasta Recipes You May Enjoy

One Pan Pantry Marinara Sauce – Homemade sauce using just pantry ingredients that is big on flavors and compliments any pasta – especially Fresh Homemade Pasta!

Four Ingredient Alfredo Sauce – So delicious and so simple – restaurant quality at home!

Penne Pasta with Creamy Vodka Sauce – Nobody says you have to use Penne Pasta – this sauce is amazing on homemade pasta noodles!

Simple Garlic Basil Pesto – Zesty and vibrant with fresh basil, toasted pine nuts, nutty Parmesan, and just the right hint of garlic!

Creamy Chicken Linguine with Brie – Chicken and creamy pasta with hints of fennel and lemon.