Easy 2-Ingredient Homemade Fresh Pasta
Start making pasta at home with this simple recipe. Pretty soon, it’ll replace store-bought dried pasta! You don’t even need a pasta maker, just a rolling pin and a sharp knife.
Making pasta at home is easier than you realize! I kept thinking if those guys on Top Chef can make fresh pasta for a 30-minute quick-fire challenge, it can’t be too hard of a process, right? It turns out my hunch was right. Making pasta at home is simple, delicious, and well worth it.
The amazing thing about making pasta at home is there aren’t really any rules. Sure, you need the right flour-to-liquid ratio. But the flour you use and the liquid you use can really be your choice. You can mix your flours to create any mixture of wheat, gluten-free, nut, bean, or grass seed flour (like rye) and then mix it with any liquid you prefer, water, beet juice, spinach juice, carrot juice, or even pumpkin puree. The secret is achieving that near-perfect ratio of 3 parts flour to 1 part liquid.
Why Make Pasta at Home?
The pasta you can buy at the store is perfectly fine. The fresh pasta I can buy at my local grocery store is not fine. It’s overpriced, and it doesn’t taste good. Sure, you can buy the dry stuff for $1.39 a box and just throw it in boiling water. Simple! But there is something about homemade, fresh pasta, made artisanal and with your fingerprint on it. It’s comforting, fills you with pride, and absolutely delicious.
The Basic Steps for Making Easy 2-Ingredient Homemade Fresh Pasta
The steps for developing fresh pasta are as follows:
Step 1: Mixing
Step 2: Kneading
Step 3: Resting
Step 4: Rolling out and cutting
Step 5: Cooking
It really is that simple. After mixing, kneading, and resting, rolling out and cutting or shaping your pasta can be done simply. Rustic and informal pasta is a beautiful thing. It’s just as delicious, and it has your fingerprint on it. Made by you and is entirely unique to you. After you’ve rested your dough, you can roll the pasta out into sheets, dust it with some flour, and roll it up to cut it into strips to make fettuccine or pappardelle. Or, you can take the sheets and make them into lasagna or stuffed pasta like ravioli. Alternatively, you can handroll your pasta into logs, cut small pieces, and then use your hands to create small imprinted pasta shapes. You can do anything!
Resting
Rolling
Shaping
The Perfect Sauce for Homemade Pasta
Guess what, there is no perfect sauce! There are so many possibilities for homemade fresh pasta. Use your favorite marinara if you like. My favorite part about making fresh pasta is that it allows you to utilize ingredients you already have to make a unique topping to your pasta. Sauté some mushrooms and garlic, then throw in some parsley and red pepper flake. Use up capers, sundried tomatoes, dried herbs and olives and make a lovely puttanesca. There are no rules! Make your pasta your own and make it delicious!
Easy 2-Ingredient Homemade Pasta
Ingredients
- 2 Cups Semolina Flour or All-purpose Flour, or flour of your choice
- 1/2 Cup Water
Instructions
- Add the flour to a large bowl. Make a well in the center of the flour and pour in the water.
- Gently work the flour into the water to combine into a shaggy but homogenous dough. Move the dough to a work surface and knead the dough for 8-10 minutes. If the dough is too dry, add a little more water, a tablespoon at a time, until a smooth dough forms.
- Place the dough back into a bowl, cover it with a tea towel or reusable food wrap, and let it rest for 30 minutes.
- When the dough is done resting, sprinkle some flour or semolina onto a clean, dry surface. Cut the lump of dough in half, and using a rolling pin, roll out one of the pieces of dough as thin as you can, or to 1/8 inch.
- Use a sharp knife to cut the pasta into any shape you like. For fettuccine or pappardelle, roll the sheet into a log and cut strips to your preferred thickness.
- Repeat with the other piece of dough.
- After you've cut out all your pasta, cook the noodles in a large pot of boiling salted water. Cook them for 2-3 minutes, and then drain. Serve with the sauce of your choice.