Hey, I’m John Kanell, and today on Preppy Kitchen, I’m sharing my tips and tricks for making the best fresh pasta dough. So let’s get started. First, I need 2 cups (240 grams) of flour. What kind of flour might you be wondering about? So this is all-purpose flour. This is double-zero flour. And a lot of times, you might be hearing, ‘double zero flour is the way to go.’ Why? And what is double-zero flour? Double-zero flour has a very fine grind. I’m sorry. Thank you. This is great for giving you really loose, silky pasta. By the way, you want to dump the flour right onto your clean counter. Grab a measuring cup. We’re going to make a little well in the middle.
Actually, a nice-sized well. It should have some good walls. And… look like a pasta volcano. If you’re making pasta dough, you can scale this recipe up almost as much as you want. You can have like a giant mountain of flour and a mountain of eggs. It just takes more skill to mix it all. Altogether, divide it, and everything else. So feel free to double, triple, or even quadruple this recipe. Later in the video, we’ll talk about storage. Into my well, I’m adding three eggs. If you wanted to, you could beat them up a little bit beforehand, but we’re gonna do all the mixing on the counter today. Half a teaspoon of salt goes right over the eggs. I’m also adding a… tablespoon of olive oil.
There are various traditional pasta types you could make. Some have flour and water. Some have tons of egg yolks mixed in. And then you go to the fancy places with all the different flavorings. I used to like squid-ink pasta because it looks so dramatic. Now, we’re gonna do the fun part, and this is where it could get messy. You really should have a nice well in the middle of your flour mound. Grab a fork and start beating it up. As you mix the eggs, you’re drawing in some of the flour. You can also start scraping in some of the flour, just like this. And mix, mix, mix. Eventually, you’re gonna add more and more flour to the eggs, and it’ll become a delicious dough.
Fresh pasta dough is so good. You can use it to make any noodle. You can make sheets for your lasagna or homemade ravioli. I’m actually doing this video by popular request. Some of you really wanted a video tutorial on making pasta dough, so I’m here for that. At a certain point, there’s no way to maintain your well. So I have a bench scraper here. This is gonna be really handy for mixing things up, but you can also use your hands. Now, even though my well is destroyed, the dough is so thick it’s not oozing out. And at this point, I’m going to switch to my bench scraper. So fold it in, just like that. And by the way, this is not gonna look amazing right away.
It’s gonna take some time and patience. All that gluten we’ve developed from the kneading really needs to rest. So it’ll take at least half an hour of rest time for it to become pliable and silky. If you’re making your pasta and it looks a little bit wet right now, it’s too sticky, you can add up to a quarter cup of flour. Just knead it in with like a tablespoon at a time. These eggs are large, but I swear, whoever is categorizing egg sizes is just straight tripping sometimes. I’ll buy extra-large eggs, and they look like little quail eggs. Like what’s going on? My point is that if the eggs are a little larger, you’ll need to add more liquid and more flour.
So, in this recipe, I’m saying two cups to two and a quarter—it depends on your eggs. I’ve switched to hand kneading, and because I use the bench scraper, my hands are fairly clean. If you did this by hand, it’d be like a wreck. If you’re wondering why some recipes call for semolina, also like why they say ‘bronze cut’ on a lot of these packages. Bronze cutters will give you a rougher cut, and it’s my understanding that that gives you more craggy pla-for the sauce to rest. The same goes for the semolina flour. It’s gonna give you a coarser pasta that really holds its shape well and has all those nooks and crannies where your sauce can really find a place to rest.
So I’m kneading this right now, and you can see the pasta dough breaking as I knead. The gluten hasn’t developed yet, so it’s pulling away. Once the gluten has developed, it’ll have a stretchy, elastic, silkier texture. You’re gonna be kneading this for 10 to 15 minutes. It might sound like a long time, but really think of it as your kitchen meditation. It’s actually really relaxing. Back and forth. I like to fold the dough over slightly and press forward. Slight, forward, slight. Press forward, and you keep doing that, you’ll notice the change in the dough. If it looks even a little wet, remember you can add up to a quarter cup of flour a little at a time.
And if it looks dry, you might have mismeasured your flour. As the liquid is absorbed into the flour, it should become nice and silky. If it doesn’t, you might have added too much flour. In that case, I would add, like, a teaspoon of olive oil to soften it up, then knead it in. And yes, all these things have happened to me in the past. So I’m telling you from personal experience. I’m getting closer to my need, you can see. This looks nice and smooth, and let’s see how it pulls. It’s stretchier. It’s not really gonna be like bread dough, with that wonderful pull, because that’s a much softer, looser dough.
Pasta is firm, but it’s smooth; it’ll bounce and stretch a bit. My internal timer has gone off. This has been kneaded enough. It looks nice and smooth. And if I use my finger, give it a poke, it bounces back. So it has some elasticity, but it’s too active right now. It needs to relax and just… Just chill out. So we need one to three hours on the countertop. You can wrap it in plastic, or I have these Melly wraps. They’re pieces of fabric coated with beeswax. They’re reusable, and they’re great. You could also refrigerate this overnight if you wanted to come back to it the next day. What’s up? Rest time, and we are back.
While my all-purpose dough rests, I’m gonna make my batch of double-zero pasta dough. We’ll see if we can tell the difference. This needs up just like before, but ooh, it feels much silkier. Nice. This feels so much nicer. I’ve never made them back-to-back before, and I appreciated just how much more supple it is. Ooh. Wrap it up, give it a rest, and then I’ll show you how to roll it out. My pasta dough has rested. I’m grabbing my rolling attachment from my KitchenAid mixer. You can definitely use a hand-crank pasta maker, too, and… even a rolling pin to do this. Screw that on nice and tight. I’m cutting my pasta dough into four pieces to make it more manageable. And I have some flour at hand.
You can use the flour you used to make the pasta, or semolina flour. I’m gonna pat this, just into a square shape. The pasta has to be thin enough that I can pass it through my very first setting, which is a one. On low, we’re gonna pass this through once. Twice. And even a third time. If you have one of those big hand-crankers, you can turn the pasta each time, but this only has like 8 inches of opening. Okay, take your pasta, and I’m gonna fold it in thirds. And now we’re going to pass it through a couple more times. There we go. This will give your pasta more structure. Folding is an optional step.
I’ve definitely made pasta with no folds. It turns out just fine. Now I am reducing the thickness of the pasta, so go one number at a time and pass it through at least twice. I’m gonna add just the slightest sprinkle of flour. It’s really minimal, so nothing catches in the rollers. If it starts catching or you turn the dial too far and you jump a few numbers, it’s gonna have these stretch marks and just not be as silky and supple as you see right here. And it’s also important to evenly support your pasta. So don’t pull at it from one point; give it the support of the back of your hand, and don’t tug at it, just let it go through.
And at this point, when you get to numbers six, seven, and eight. You do not want any wrinkles. So if your pasta starts wrinkling… Don’t. Don’t let it do that. If this feels unmanageable and super long, it’s because it is. It doesn’t have to be this long. You can cut it into lengths of your choosing. It’s however long you want your pasta to be. I got to number seven. That’s a great thickness for your pasta, so that you can stop there. If you want it ultra thin, go to the last setting, number eight. Okay, just like that, your pasta’s done. These large sheets of pasta are perfect for making ravioli. You can use them for lasagna and several other things. But if you wanna cut them with your machine, slap on a fettuccine attachment.
And you’re just gonna feed it through. It’s a good idea to add some flour to both sides to prevent anything from sticking. But this is so satisfying to watch. It’s like my favorite part. Perfect pasta noodles are ready to cook. But if you don’t have a pasta roller, grab a rolling pin, a little bit of flour for your counter, and get to work. It’s as easy as rolling out any dough. And pasta dough’s forgiving because it’s denser than your normal dough. This time, I am not gonna use the envelope method. What you do wanna see is a floured surface on both sides, so nothing sticks, because the pasta has to move as you spread it.
I’m not cheating per se, but I am using the double-zero pasta dough because it is noticeably silkier and looser, so it rolls out easily. So, if you don’t have a pasta machine but want to make some pasta at home, double-zero flour is gonna make it a little bit easier. I’m going to show you how to cut the pasta, but I’m not cutting on my marble countertops. They’re too delicate. So a little bit more flour and fold this over. So, flour as you go. You can cut your pasta to any width you’d like. I’m gonna go for a slightly thicker noodle. Just give it a cut. One thing is that it’s important to unfold your pasta. Don’t leave it all crinkled up because it will dry and stick together.
If you’re making pasta, chances are you’re not gonna cook it all right now. If you don’t want to, you can freeze it for later. That’s why we’re gonna form a pasta nest. So we’re gonna take some fingers and twirl them into a nest. And now this can get frozen. On a sheet of parchment paper, and then plopped into an airtight container and kept frozen for about a month. Then just put it right into your boiling water and cook from frozen. For fun, I wanted to make a penne-type pasta. None of us has an extruder at home, but some of you might have a gnocchi block. So one square of pasta. Right on the block. A little rolling pin.
And you’re just going to press and roll it together. And it forms a penne-like pasta tube. This is large, but it’s up to you. Nice. And the ridges will help sauce and other delicious things cling to your pasta. So if you wanted to make a penne-style pasta, you can do it with your block. This is called… I did not take Italian, so forgive me. This is a labor of love, but it’s really fun. So if you want a project to keep your kids busy or you have a rainy day, I suggest popping this out and making the most amazing handcrafted meal ever. When you’re ready to cook your pasta, bring a large pot of water to a boil, salt it well, very important, and then cook for three, four, or even five minutes, depending on the thickness, until it is tender and delicious. My pasta’s cooked. I’ve tried both, and I have to tell you, they’re both so good. The 00 flour is ever so slightly silkier. The main difference is that it’s so much easier to work with, especially if you’re rolling it out by hand. I hope you make this recipe. If you like this video, check out my pasta playlist.
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