I realized recently that From Scratch Club had never had a post about making fresh pasta and wondered why.  I then realized that I had never made fresh pasta and wondered why.

While making fresh pasta this weekend for the first time there were moments when I thought it was kind of a hassle and figured that was why.  During those moments I was planning to write a post about how it’s better to just buy fresh pasta from the grocery store.  In the end the fresh pasta I made was so good, however, that I decided it was worth it. So, I still don’t know why I never made my own pasta before.

Of course there are a ton of resources out there with instructions on making your own pasta, but I chose Alana Chernila’s The Homemade Pantry: 101 Foods You Can Stop Buying & Start Making to guide me.  Her instructions are simple and made it sound fun.  In addition, I also asked for suggestions and advice from friends on Facebook and was surprised by how many people had already made their own pasta.

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If you are making fresh pasta for the first time I would encourage you to consider two factors before you start:

1) You can totally do it without a pasta roller, but make sure you have a large, clean counter surface and a nice, clean sponge handy to clean it again when you’re in the midst of dough rolling.

2) Consider where you will hang your pasta to dry.  We have a clothes drying rack that probably could have been used, but it’s kind of gross so I chose to hang a long piece of clean twine across my kitchen instead.

Other than that, it’s really not that tough to make pasta.  I became a little discouraged when my twine fell and about a third of the pasta I had just worked hard on fell to the floor (don’t tell my husband I followed the three second rule). Below is my interpretation of Chernila’s recipe.

RECIPE: PASTA DOUGH
Alexis’ interpretation of Alana Chernila’s recipe in The Homemade Pantry

INGREDIENTS
2 cups all-purpose flour
3 large eggs (room temperature)

METHODS
Chernila says to make a volcano out of your 2 cups of flour and to crack the three eggs directly in to the emptied out middle.  I did this and then realized that the emptied out middle of the flour needs to be pretty big, more like a crater, to hold all three eggs.  Now I know for next time.

Despite the mess in the photo above, I got the eggs beaten, with a fork, and mixed in to the flour evenly.  I kneaded the dough until it was smooth and divided it in to six balls.  I then covered the balls with plastic wrap and left them for a half hour, like Chernila says to.

I do not have a pasta roller, so I used a rolling pin to roll out each ball to about one sixteenth of an inch thick.  I thought I’d be able to make perfectly even strips of fettuccini, but that did not happen.  They were good enough though.

I hung them on the twine, which I thought made my kitchen look like contemporary installation art.  Chernila suggests letting the pasta dry for anywhere between 5 minutes to 2 hours.  Mine hung for an hour and then I tossed it in boiling water, with some olive oil.  She said it would need to cook for only a couple minutes, but mine needed more like 8-10 minutes.  Maybe it was a little thicker than it was supposed to be, or maybe I didn’t have enough water.  Anyway, my family and I really enjoyed the fresh pasta.  We ate it with a little red sauce, some gorgonzola cheese and sauteed kale and chicken.

Editor’s Note:
We will be hosting a giveaway for one signed copy of Alana’s book next week- keep a look out for it!