How to make fresh pasta at home

What tools do you need to make pasta?

Pasta has been made for hundreds, if not thousands of years. To make it in the traditional way without a machine, you’ll need strong arms, a rolling pin and a knife.

However, if you’d like helping hand with all that mixing, kneading, rolling and cutting, it can be done quickly and neatly with a KitchenAid stand mixer and its pasta mixer attachments. With quality pasta tools at the ready, you’ll get consistent results and dishes to make on repeat.

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What’s homemade pasta made from? 

Fresh pasta is typically made from flour and eggs. Dried pasta often contains semolina flour and misses out the eggs. There are little touches you can do to personalise it. A little olive oil, a dash of salt. Perhaps some herbs or spices. But the basics are incredibly simple. 

After the pasta dough is kneaded, rolled and shaped or cut, it’s cooked quickly in salted, boiling water and finished with a delectable sauce of your choice — spinach, artichokes, olives, basil, rich tomato sauce and so on. But before we get too hungry, let’s make pasta!

Ingredients for homemade pasta 

Every pasta dish starts with the pasta essentials. You need:

• Eggs

• Flour

• Salt

• Water

Quantities vary by recipe. Try KitchenAid’s spaghetti pasta recipe for a family favourite.

Tools for homemade pasta 

• KitchenAid stand mixer – with flat beater and dough hook included

• KitchenAid Pasta Cutters and Roller 3-piece Set – for lasagna, spaghetti and fettuccine

• KitchenAid Pasta Press 6 shapes - for fresh pasta from fusilli to macaroni 

QUANTITY TIP: The amount per person will depend on the type of pasta, as well as the meal — main course vs. starter, lunch vs. dinner. As a rule of thumb, 90 grams of fresh pasta per person is enough for a starter. For a lunch with salad, 110 grams of fresh pasta per person is enough. For dinner, plan 115-150 grams per person.  

FLOUR TIP:  There are lots of type of flours. All-purpose, semolina or 00 flour are all popular choices. Double zero (00) flour is a super-fine flour with a low protein level that produces a silky pasta. Semolina flour is made from hard durum wheat and is often used for larger, heartier pastas. All-purpose flour may need a little extra kneading time to activate the gluten. 

How to make homemade pasta

You can make fresh pasta in about an hour. Yes, really! This includes: 

• 5 minutes to mix and knead the pasta dough

• 30 minutes to let it ‘rest’ in a ball covered in plastic wrap

• 25 minutes to roll, cut and dry the pasta ready to cook.

Making fresh pasta with a stand mixer

Step 1: Mix pasta dough

Add flour to your stand mixer bowl and create a well in the middle. Crack eggs into the well and add salt. Mix with the flat beater until it’s fully combined. If the dough is too wet, add a little more flour until a dough consistency is formed. If it’s too dry, add a dash of water or another egg. You’ll soon get to know the right consistency — springy and slightly tacky. 

Step 2: Knead pasta dough

Remove the flat beater and attach the dough hook. Mix briefly (for about 2 minutes) until the dough forms a ball. Put the ball in plastic wrap and let it rest for about 30 minutes at room temperature - or overnight in the fridge if you want to use it in the coming day.

Step 3: Roll pasta dough

Divide the dough into 4 equal pieces. Attach the pasta roller to the stand mixer. Turn the mixer to speed 2 and flatten a section of dough with your hands, feeding the dough through the roller at least 3 times, folding it in half between each roll.

Dust the dough with a little flour between each roll to prevent sticking. Repeat until the dough is smooth and pliable. Gradually increase the setting of your pasta roller until the dough is as thin as you want.

Step 4: Cut pasta and dry 

When rolling is done, swap the roller attachment for the cutter attachment of your choice to create pasta noodles. Place them on a tray of baking paper or drying rack to dry while you bring a large pot of water to a boil. Make sure you add plenty of salt to the water to taste.

What about gluten-free flour? You can make a gluten-free pasta with gluten-free flour, eggs and xanthan gum. The gum replaces the gluten to make it flexible.

How to cook your fresh pasta 

You’ll want a firm and yet tender bite to your pasta: ‘al dente’. This will take no more than 4 minutes, depending on the thickness, so be careful not to overcook it. Pop the pasta strands or pasta shapes in water that’s come to a rolling boil and stir it every now and again to prevent sticking. Start checking how it’s doing after 60-90 seconds so as not to overcook. That would ruin all your wonderful work! 

COOKING TIP: Keep in mind that homemade pasta tends to cook much faster than dried pasta, so be ready to sauce in a matter of minutes.

Pasta recipes ideas for dinner

Your creativity with pasta can stretch from the pasta dough itself to the sauces and more complex dishes. Try fresh homemade spinach pasta dough for some fantastic green-coloured pasta. Top off your pile of pasta with a hearty veggie sauce like the butternut pasta sauce. Or be adventurous with more unusual pasta recipes like cocoa fettuccine with bacon, chili and marjoram that really give your taste buds a night out.   

Got pasta left over? Take a look at how to store pasta here.

From rustic and robust, to elegant and refined, there’s a homemade pasta meal for every craving. Making pasta from scratch is all the more rewarding as you’re making something authentic and delicious. With a KitchenAid mixer and its KitchenAid pasta attachments, you can achieve results you’ll want to show off to everyone. Now, where’s that phone to take a picture?