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
If you find the dough is too dry, your flour measuring technique might be the issue. Please weigh your flour. Typically 1 Cup of AP flour weighs 120 grams.
I have found this to resolve many baking issues for ingredients that are subject to compaction.
Made it tonight. Served with butter and garlic. Awesome. Hand kneading worked perfectly. My wife kept asking where I got it. I told her I made it she said, “no seriously “.
Why do you not use your kitchen aid mixer to knead the dough?
Hi Kathy, it’s a stiff dough and I find it not enough to properly wrap around the hook so I prefer to do it by hand. It’s worked well for others on this thread, so you can give it a try.
I worked my dough for 8-10 minutes but it just wanted to fall apart. I moistened my fingers and kneaded some more just to incorporate the water. Still falling apart. I finally just rolled it out with a rolling pin and gave up
KEEP KNEADING!!! it took me like 20 whole minutes to get it nice and smooth
The thing with pasta is that there is typically a little bit of recipe adjustment that is necessary based on the “feel” of the dough. In this particular case, I found that with this recipe, somewhere between 1 and 2 tablespoons of water with help you create a smooth dough. Should it get too sticky, because you added a bit too much, you can always add a small amount of flour to balance it back. A little at a time, and some patience is key.
Oh, yeah, and a kitchen aid mixer with a kneading hook can help you spare your hands from cramping.
Can I do it with non-gluten flour?
Thanks!
I love this recipe! I’ve made it many times without issues. I always use AP flour. The pasta has always had a lovely texture & makes a great canvas for whatever sauce you desire. For those who have struggled with this recipe, my advice is… trust the process & be patient when trying to get the dough to come together. Also, it’s worth noting the tip in the article about wetting your fingertips if the dough is too dry.
This is my favorite recipe. Thanks.
We tried twice to make this dough yesterday using aLL purpose and gave up. We went and picked up some semolina (used the recipe on the package) and it turned out perfectly! Sad to have wasted so many eggs!
I really want to like this recipe. I do. I have tried this well over 5 times hoping it will come out different but it is very dry (as stated that it would be). But this does not 100% come together. You definitely need to add another egg, water or olive oil to this.
You probably just put too much flour on it when you were rolling out because I did this multiple times and it makes the most amazing pasta and it tastes amazing and it is not dry at all
Hi Autumn, we suggest adding water in the recipe, a little at a time as necessary until it’s workable. It’s easier to start with less and add more than risking starting with too much. I hope that helps!
Very bad recipe. Ratios are all wrong. Did not come together. Turned out terribly. Pasta dough should be tight but soft this was not. Sorry would not make this again.
Hi Karla, did you knead it for the full 8 to 10 minutes. It’ll feel dry at first.
Thank you for this recipe. Its amazing. I used 4 eggs though, coz my eggs are small. No pun intended. This is the bery first time that i tried making fresh pasta, i dont have any machine used. I used my hands and rolling pin. And now i know what real pasta taste like. just simple marinara sauce and thats it! Yum.
Would it be possible to make the dough using my KitchenAid Mixer? I have arthritis so I always use my KitchenAid to make sourdough bread.
I tried this recipe today using the dough hook, did not work well but my dough was a bit try. Still had to knead it a bit to get it all smooth but the hook helped mix well
Made this a few times now and perfect glorious pasta everytime. Yes it can be quite dry to begin with but it all comes right. If I have medium size eggs I just wet my hands a little at the end.
Hi Marion, I’m glad your pasta turned out well!
2 cups of flour needs at least 5 eggs. How many ingredients do I have to waste to make this recipe work? I ruined a dough ball against my better judgment, turned out like a brick! I couldn’t knead even half of the flour into the egg and oil mixture, much less all of it! It was literally an entire mess that even more oil couldn’t fix. Eggs are way too expensive for this…
That’s so weird because I use this recipe every time and it’s perfect. Are you using large eggs? Try adding half a tsp of water
I just made this with no issues whatsoever. If the recipe called for 5 eggs, this would have been a goopy mess. The error is on your part because this recipe is spot on.
Hi Catherine, I’m glad your pasta worked out well!
I just made this. It was dry after first and I wondered if I’d be able to work in all the flour. But I kept on kneading. And then all of a sudden it came together and was beautifully smooth and elastic. The nicest pasta dough I’ve ever made.
Hi Sarah, I’m so glad you loved it!
Hmmm… seemed to work for everyone else who commented ….
Hi Cobbleratti, I’m sorry this didn’t work for you – it is a stiff dough, I wonder if you set a timer to knead it for the full 8 to 10 minutes?
I made the recipe today with my 12 year old son who wanted to try homemade pasta as his first dish to ever make. Thought we might be out of our league, but it was so easy. Turned out beautiful for us. So flavorful! Made a homemade Alfredo sauce to go with it. We will definitely make this again. Just enough for 4 servings.
Aww, I’m so glad you and your son enjoyed it!
It’s always important to remember cooking in general is about tweaking, if you find your dough is to dry and stiff, my solution was to add an additional whole egg plus two egg yolks… problem solved…I also incorporated the very dry dough from the first batch into the new while I was kneading so there was no wastage…keep in mind if you still feel the END result of dough is too stiff then add an additional whole egg plus knead the dough with wet hands…for making lasagna I never go thinner than #2 on my kitchen aid pasta roller…you want a strong sturdy pasta for lasagna…
good!!
Thank you so much for this amazing recipe! It was so simple and easy to follow, and it turned out perfectly on my very first try. I bought the KitchenAid pasta attachment six months ago but had been dreading using it—I’m so glad I came across your website. You’ve given me the confidence to finally put it to use!
Hi Fatima, I’m so glad you loved the recipe!
Hi, can you make the pasta, assemble lasagna & freeze it, without cooking the pasta first?
As a retired chef who specialized in southern Italian cuisine, I never recommend freezing lasagna, yes you can however you lose so much flavor, I keep my lasagna wrapped in the refrigerator for a maximum 3 days after cooking… actually 3 days should always be your maximum for left overs and never reheat more than once…so if you cook lasagna and refrigerate it, only heat what you will eat at that time ..you can always hear more but the food can become dangerous if you then refrigerate after reheating…
Can you leave it to dry and freeze them?
Hi Tiffany, I freeze it right after it’s cut, without drying. You can boil it straight from frozen!
My daughter loves pasta and my wife and I took a pasta making class many many moons ago. I’m looking to for a go to pasta recipe. I’m going to try this one. Question though.. and apologies if this was addressed in another comment… if you have the KitchenAid mixer… Could you not put the ingredients into the bowl and let the mixer do the work with a dough hook?
Hi, I’ve personally never tried making the dough in the stand mixer, but other readers have done it successfully!
Hi! I’ve made this recipe 2x now with the dough hook. I let it go for the 8 to 10 mins. Balled it up and rapped it in plastic to rest. It worked fine for me. I’m all about short cuts 😉
It is an amazing recipe. I tried several other without success, but this one really made entire family happy
Yay, I’m so glad you had success!