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homemade pasta dough

Homemade pasta dough with semolina flour and without eggs. By hand or with the pasta machine.
 
green homemade pasta on a wood cutter
homemade green pasta nests on a wooden cutter

Making homemade pasta dough is quick and easy. You’ll find yourself asking: why do I buy it when I can make pasta from scratch? Oh yes, because it’s a little bit messy too: flour everywhere, tools to wash, yourself to clean as well…

But, on a Sunday rainy day, or on a Friday, end-of-the-week night, making homemade pasta is fun.

Semolina pasta ingredients are just a few: semolina flour, 00 flour – plus a bit more to sprinkle the working surface and the dough -, water, and salt.

Pasta with semolina is eggless: semolina flour is richer in proteins, which help the dough stay together and better hold the heat of boiling water.

You can make this homemade pasta by hand – on a wooden working surface – or with a mixer with the kneading hook on.

When you make pasta at home, you can also flavor it: it won’t have a strong flavor, more a delicate aroma.

For this recipe, I milled fresh basil leaves with the flour. Note that when you add fresh ingredients, you also add humidity to the dough, so you’ll probably need less water.

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An easy basil homemade pasta dough recipe, by hand or with the pasta machine.
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semolina pasta recipe

Course pasta
Cuisine Italian
Servings 2
Author Claudia Rinaldi | Gourmet Project

Ingredients

  • 1.5 cups semolina flour
  • 1/2 cup 00 flour
  • 1 big handful basil leaves optional
  • 1 pinch salt
  • water

Instructions

  1. If you are making basil flavored green pasta, grind the basil leaves - cleaned and dried - together with the flours.

  2. Place the flours in the mixer bowl with the kneading hook on, or on a working surface, if you are going to work the dough with your hands.

    Believe me: it is healing.

    Add salt and water - one tiny tablespoon at the time.

  3. Work the dough and add water until you get a smooth and elastic ball, it could take you up to 10 minutes (of manual work).

    If you are using the mixer, after the dough gets together and a ball forms around the hook, you will need at least a few minutes of extra handwork.

  4. Wrap the dough ball in plastic or a kitchen cloth, and let it rest for at least 30 minutes.

  5. Divide the dough into 2-4 equal parts. Flour the working surface and sprinkle some more flour over the dough.

  6. Roll out each piece, working from the center outwards, as thin as you can, to get a rectangular shape.

    If you are using a pasta machine, start with the wider aperture, if the dough brakes, fold it and pass it through the machine again. 

    Gradually decrease the width, I usually stop at 7, consider that my machine has 9 sizes.

  7. Use a pasta cutter or a pasta machine to cut out long strings of pasta - these are fettuccine/tagliatelle.

  8. Place the strings of pasta on a floured sheet until ready to cook.

  9. Bring a big pot of water (4 cups of water for every serving of pasta) to a boil and add 1 teaspoons of salt every 4 cups of water, more or less. 

  10. Homemade pasta cooking time is variable, around 4 minutes, but stay there and wait: when it comes to the surface, it should be ready.

    Anyway, taste it and cook it to your taste.

Recipe Notes

To dry homemade pasta, place the shaped pasta on a rack for at least 24 hours. You don't need a pasta drying rack: any rack, as far as it is perforated, should do the work.

You can store it in plastic bags in your pantry up to six months, but be sure it is completely dry.

Enjoy your semolina pasta!

Claudia