Fresh egg pasta – basic dough

The dough should not be soft, but rather hard and compact, so pay attention to the amount of flour you use, you may need more if using large eggs. The higher the protein content of the flour, the more liquid it will absorb.

Do not be afraid to knead the dough too much: you need at least 15 minutes so that the ingredients are well mixed together and the consistency is right.

Do not use the dough straight away: the dough needs at least 1 hour to rest, so that the ingredients blend better, and the dough has the right elasticity.

Do not let the dough dry out during kneading: always cover the part of the dough you are not kneading with a cloth.

If you need to store it before rolling out:

Fresh pasta dough can be stored in the fridge for 2 or 3 days, placing it in an airtight container or food packaging bag.

You can also freeze it, always protected in a food packaging bag.

If you need to store the dough already rolled out:

After cutting the dough into the desired shape, let it rest and dry for a couple of minutes on a floured cloth, then put it in the fridge, and store it up to a couple of days.

You can also freeze it: place the obtained pasta – whether noodles, tagliolini or other shapes – on a tray, well-spaced out, for about 1 hour; then place in food packaging bags in the desired quantities and put them in the freezer. When using your pasta, dip into boiling salted water without defrosting.

This recipe indicates the ingredients of the most classic recipe, the Emilian pasta dough with the classic proportion of 1 egg for every 100 g of flour.

Quantities may vary according to the absorption capacity of the flour and the size of the eggs.

Always keep a little flour on hand in case the dough is too soft: the result should be a rather hard and compact dough.

If you want to make green sheets to use to make green Bologna-style lasagne for example, boil the spinach for 1 minute, squeeze it and chop it. Decrease the number of eggs so that the dough is not too soft.

Fresh egg pasta is mainly used in northern Italy, and the ingredients may vary slightly depending on the region you are in and on the pasta shapes you want to make. You can also find fresh egg pasta containing re-milled durum wheat semolina flour in addition to 00 flour, especially when a more rustic result is desired. The proportion can vary to your taste, but the amount of 00 flour should not be less than that of the semolina one.

It is quicker to make the dough with a kneading machine, however, finish by hand to obtain a more even result.

A pasta machine to roll out the dough will also help a lot, speeding up the process considerably.

If you want to roll out the sheets by hand, pay attention to applying a constant force to the rolling pin and turn the sheets by 90 degrees every time it is fed through the machine to obtain an even final thickness.