Handcrafted Egg Pasta

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I’ve been experimenting with this one for a while now. But like anything else, I love to do my research. There are so many variations of homemade egg pasta recipes. Some add more yolks and less whites, some are just whites, just yolks, etc. There are different flours you can use, add oil or don’t add oil. You get the point.

If you’re interested in learning more, then check this article out. It contains way more knowledge about the subject than I can offer you right now. I learned quite a bit reading it myself.

This recipe has hooked me up some amazing dishes every time, tortellini, fettucine, mezzelune, and now egg noodles. Lasagna is coming soon.

Mezzelune might also be called Schlutzkrapfen, or Casunziei, depending on the fillings and dish you’re preparing. I say that because of the half moon shape, but they’re all similar to ravioli.

This is a basic recipe, nothing fancy here. It’s all done by hand as well. I don’t really care to get a pasta press. I figure if I’m gonna put in the effort to make pasta, then I’m gonna do it all with my hands. Plus it should score me some brownie points if I hook it up for a chick. Am I right ladies?

This recipe would be really fun to do with a group of friends, and some alcohol. Make it a party experience, especially if there are a lot of people eating. It’s a little labor intensive, but worth every minute once you take that first bite (and food pic).

Okay so let’s get this started now.

In a bowl whisk together 2 1/2 cups flour and 1 tbsp of salt. I used bread flour, but all purpose, 00, or whatever you have on hand will work (except self rising flour). Now go ahead and dump that out into a pile on the counter. You wanna go ahead and dig a nice well in the middle to hold your eggs in a bit. Just make it look like a volcano. Pour 2 tbsp of olive oil in your well, then crack 4 large eggs in there (you can whisk them ahead of time to make it easier). You should be looking like this now.

Take your time with the next steps. Using a fork, start whisking in a little flour at a time from around the edges. Keep going around incorporating more and more flour each time. Don’t worry if your egg spills out, it can get a little messy though. When it’s all just about mixed together, use your hands to finish combining everything. Knead it over, and over, and over. You can’t really overwork this doing it by hand. But you can underwork it. I go about 5-7 minutes, or until your ball is nice and smooth.

*Tip: If you like working with dough by hand, invest in a good bench scraper. It makes life a little easier. Also, you can mix this all together in a bowl to make it easier. But it’s not as cool.

When you get it all together, your pasta ball should look something like this.

Now wrap it up tightly in plastic wrap and let it rest on the kitchen counter for at least 30 minutes (I always give it an hour). Some people say to let it rest in the fridge. I don’t know where that came from. The raw eggs will not go bad in that short amount of time sitting on the counter. The whole point of letting your dough rest is to allow those gluten strands to relax. This gives you a stronger, more pliable dough that is easy to work with.

After the hour timer is up, unwrap your dough and quarter it up into 4 wedges.

Pull one wedge out and wrap the others up tightly. Work with one at a time to keep your pasta dough from drying out. Using a rolling pin, flatten the dough out until it is about 1/8 inch thick. When I can see my fingers through the dough like a nice little silhouette, it’s good to me.

Now the rest is up to you. Depending what type of pasta you wanna make will depend on where you go from here. For my ravioli, mezzelune, and tortellini, I like to make circles. My fettucine I just cut it into about 1/2 inch wide strips. There are so many pasta options out there.

You will need to dry them before cooking. Dry times will vary depending on your kitchen environment (room temperature and humidity).

When I made homemade egg noodles for my beef stroganoff, it was rainy, then sunny, then rainy, etc. I had my windows open to enjoy the breeze. But I didn’t realize the humidity would affect my drying time until after. It took way longer for these to dry than normal. Over the winter I made some egg pasta that dried pretty fast (lower humidity in the air). So keep in mind your environmental conditions. When your noodles feel firm and dry to the touch, they are ready to cook.

Homemade egg pasta cooks a lot faster than box pasta. They usually only take around 3 minutes tops. When they’re floating in your pot of boiling water, they’re cooked.

My egg pasta recipe is pretty solid though, so don’t worry yourself too much. It will get easier every time you make it, just have fun and enjoy!