Pasta Dough

Using a mixer: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, place flour and eggs. Use the mixer to knead it until the dough comes together and forms a ball. If your dough seems too dry add water a teaspoon at a time, being careful not to add too much water.

By hand: Mound the flour on a work surface. Make a well in the center of the mound of flour. Crack the eggs into the well and beat with a fork. Gradually mix the eggs into the flour. Using a bench scraper, mix in the last of the flour until the dough comes together. Add a little water if needed.

Scrape the work surface clean and dust with flour. Knead the dough, dusting it with flour, until firm and smooth, about 8 minutes. Shape into a ball.

Quarter the dough and shape each piece into a disk. Place the disks on the lightly floured board. Place 3 of the pieces in a gallon size Ziplock bag.

Flatten 1 dough piece and lightly dust with flour, brushing off excess flour. Set a pasta machine to the widest setting; run the dough through. Fold the dough into thirds like a letter, then run it through again, short end first. Run it through 2 more times, dusting with flour if it seems sticky. Return the dough sheet to the board, cover with a towel and repeat with the remaining 3 dough disks. (Keep any dough you’re not working with in the bag.)

When you are done rolling all of the pasta, roll all of the dough sheets through the machine again 5 or 6 more times (machines vary), adjusting the machine to the next setting each time. If the sheets become too long to handle cut them in half and proceed. When you see your hand through the pasta sheet, it’s thin enough to cut.

Cut the dough sheets into your desired shapes of cut noodles. You can use a sharp knife (if you can keep it in a straight line), a pizza wheel, or a long pizza/bread cutter to cut the sheets.

To cook the noodles, just boil them in salted water (salting is very important) for two minutes. They cook lightning fast, so don’t let ‘em go too long.

*See blog post for notes.