Our Homemade Pasta

Ever since I was little, my mom has made homemade pasta.  I remember sitting on the counter and watching her make it.  She did it by hand and sometimes I got to help.  My mom's family is Italian and she remembers watching her paternal Nonnie "grandmother" make homemade ravioli and pasta.  It is easy to make and is perfect with anything you want to put on it.  You can use any kind of flour,  semolina flour is the kind that most professional pasta makers use, but whole wheat flour and unbleached flour works too.  It's fun to make. You can always let it dry and use it later, but you need to make sure it is really dry or else it will go moldy.  I hope you love making pasta as much as I do.

Finished Pasta

How to mix the eggs and flour.

Homemade Pasta(Egg Noodles)
# cups of flour= # eggs + 1 


For example: 3 cups flour + 4 eggs
                       

After kneading

1. You combine the eggs and flour, by making a well in the flour, on any clean surface, and putting the eggs in the well. Beat the eggs with a fork and then slowly work the flour from the edges into the eggs, until you can use your hands to knead the dough together.  We have even done this entire process in our Kitchen Aid mixer and that work well, too. If the dough is too dry, add an extra egg. 
2. You then knead it until it sticks together but is not to sticky and has a nice elastic texture.  Cut off small pieces and then press into the a rectanglar shape. Cover the remaining dough so it doesn't dry out while you are making the pasta.   We just invert a bowl over the dough to keep it from drying out while we are rolling out the dough.  You can then form it into what ever kind of pasta you want. We have a pasta making machine that we use to roll out the dough until it is fairly thin but you can also do this with just a plain rolling pin.  You can then store the dried pasta or cook it immediately.
3. We dry the pasta on drying racks but you can also place the noodles on a dish towel spinkled with flour. We usually have one big pot full with the fresh pasta and they dry the rest out overnight and place in the refrigerator to eat later in the week.