How to make homemade pasta dough

For me, my ideal night in consists of three things; a bowl of homemade pasta, a bottle of wine and a Netflix series with 3 seasons loaded already that I can binge and then fall asleep on the couch to. Ah, bliss.  

To get started on such a dreamy night in, you will have to get into the kitchen a couple of hours before you want to eat. Trust me, it’s worth it. Good news though, you don’t need a pasta machine or a mixer - just a bit of time, some elbow grease, and a rolling pin! 

This recipe comes from sunny Southern Italy - where the wheat is naturally higher in protein. Because of this, we don’t need to add eggs, making this recipe naturally vegan!

INGREDIENTS (2-3 people)

200g 00 Flour or Semolina Flour

100ml Water

3 table spoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Pinch of Tumeric for colour

METHOD

Start by mixing your flour, water and olive oil in a large mixing bowl with your hands. When it starts to combine, add a pinch of turmeric for colour. Traditionally, Italians would have used saffron, but turmeric works perfectly too!

Once it can hold its shape, transfer the dough onto a smooth kitchen surface with lots of flour to stop it from sticking. From there, begin to knead the dough for around 10-12 minutes until it’s smooth. You can knead the dough easily by pushing and stretching the dough away from you with the palm of your hand.

After 10-12 minutes of kneading your dough, it should be looking smooth! You can then form it into a ball, pop it in some cling film or zip lock bag with more flour and set aside in the fridge for 30 minutes. 

Have a glass of wine. You’re halfway to pasta heaven.

Before you get your pasta dough out of the fridge, sprinkle a generous amount of flour on your kitchen surface and onto your rolling pin. Then bring out your pasta dough and start to stretch it out with your rolling pin. It’s important to keep turning the dough and adding more flour underneath. This ensures the pasta will have an even thickness and won’t stick to the surface. For this recipe, I’m going to keep rolling the dough out until it’s as thick as a 50 pence piece all the way across. 

Once you’re happy with the thickness, trim the edges by cutting the dough into a rectangle- we just want clean straight edges. From there, cut long straight lines about 1 cm wide, starting at the top of the dough and gliding the knife down towards you, carefully! Once you’ve cut around 10 strands, cover them in flour and wrap them into nests. 

When you have all your beautiful nests ready and waiting, boil a large pot of water and salt heavily- you want the water to taste like the ocean! Don’t be scared to add more salt than usual- the pasta only boils for a short period of time, so we want as much flavour in the water as possible!

Once your water is ready, carefully drop your nests in one by one- make sure the strands separate so that they don’t stick and cook together (I learnt that the hard way!). Boil your pasta for approximately 1 minute 30 seconds and then add directly to your chosen sauce. 

Very gently, coat your pasta in the sauce- I like to add a splash of pasta water as well, as this will help the sauce stick to the pasta. 

Now you’re finally ready to plate up and enjoy!