Homemade Pasta Dough

 This pasta machine is one that I started out on. Amazon sells them for $30.00. They work great!!! Pasta rolls out on one side and then on the other it cuts. Perfect!!

Now this is what I have graduated to. We found we loved the homemade pasta so much that we upgraded since it was something we were going to be using often. Hello!? My middle name is carbs! These attachments come in  Lasagna, Spaghetti, Fettuccine  Thick Egg Noodles, Angel Hair Pasta, and you can do ravioli with the lasagna noodles. 

I mean you think it would this tricky, hard, lots of work with a long list of ingredients right? Wrong. It's so super easy and cheaper than the store bought box. 

First of all. Gather up all of the ingredients. 

3 eggs
2 cups flour

Your hands are full aren't they....I told you this was going to be simple!

Slightly beat all three eggs. Add flour. 
Now stir this together or put in your mixer works too. The dough will be crumbly and slightly sticky.
Once its pretty mixed, turn off the mixer and bring the dough out onto the pre floured counter. Kneed the dough with your hands until it forms a nice ball and its no longer crumbly.
Cover with plastic wrap or place a bowl over the top for a couple of minutes.

*you can do this dough up to 24 hours ahead of time and keep it wrapped in the fridge until your ready!

Now, lets get ta gettin....

Unwrap your dough, divide down circle into 4 wedges. Cover three of them up and work with the one remaining.

Using a pasta machine.... ( you can do this by hand as well. With a rolling pin.. just roll it out to about a card stock paper thin) 

Lasagna Noodles: 
Flatten the one quartered dough with your hands Dust the disk and the roller attachment. With the roller on the widest setting (on mine its 1), pass the pasta through the machine's rollers once. Sometimes I push it through and it tears all up. Its ok. Fold it in half and re insert the opposite side as before. See?! It came back together! Now put through once more. 
Move to setting number 2. your done folding the dough.. your just going to run it through twice.  Put through and then go again. You will go through settings 2 - 5 twice each time. Once you are done with the 5th time, lay the long long sheet of dough on the floured counter and leave it. 
Do this with the remaining three chunks of dough. 
Once these are all done, use a pizza cutter or knife and cut each long sheet down the length wise in half. then cut width wise into strips you want. 
Making ramekins? Use a round cookie cutter! 

Spaghetti Noodles? We do 1-3 for the settings working the same way. When the long sheets are pressed, change the attachments and send it through one last time this will create and cut your noodles for you. 

Alfredo Noodles? Same as spaghetti

Now you have your noodles!
Place in small batches in boiling water for 3 minutes. Yes.. three minutes stirring occasionally to prevent sticking. BOOYA! Your noodles are ready to be assembled into your lasagna or tossed in your sauce!



Sounds like a lot of work huh. Well the time it takes you to put boxed noodles into the boiling water to cook? Your dough is cut and ready. And with homemade pasta your cook time is 3 minutes only! So time wise, your talking equal if not a little less and your family will have pasta from scratch!

Our guests ask me all the time, can you really tell the difference  We just hand them a plate piled high with carb loving pasta and then that take that first bite. Because really there is no reason for us to answer them! They can taste it!