Fresh egg pasta

Making fresh pasta is simple and fun! Depending on where you go in Italy, the "pasta fresca" can be made in many different ways, from fresh egg pasta to durum wheat semolina. It depends how you want to shape your fresh pasta - so depending on the shape you want, you can make a particular pasta dough.

So, today we're making egg pasta, Pappardelle and Tagliatelle!

​If you want to make fresh egg pasta, this is because you are looking for shapes like pappardelle, garganelli, tagliatelle, tortellini, agnolotti... all the pasta more traditionally used in Northern Italy. ​

​All you need is:

• 100g of 00" flour 
• 1 fresh medium egg at room temperature 
• Some semolina for dusting

This amount is perfect for one person, so depending on how much pasta you want to make, you will have to increase the same amount of flour with the same amount of egg every time, for example for 4 people, you need 400g of flour and 4 eggs. 

The process:

1. Add your flour to the bowl and crack the egg into the middle.
2. With a fork, scramble the egg. 
3. Start to mix together the flour and egg. Slowly slowly incorporate all the  flour into the egg mixture.
4. As soon as you have a kind of crumbly dough, start to use your hands to bring it all together. Brush your hands with some flour and transfer the dough to your work table. 
5. Using both hands, start kneading the dough, stretching it and folding it back. 
6. If the dough is a little sticky do not add any extra flour. Instead, put a good amount of flour into your hand and continue kneading. (If you add too much flour to the dough it will become very dry and impossible to roll).
7. You know your dough is ready when it's nice and smooth and bounces back when you poke it.  
8. At this point, cover the dough  with cling film and let it rest for at least 30 minutes in the fridge. (You can keep it in the fridge for up to 2 days if you want to make your pasta later). 
9. If you are in a hurry, you can leave the dough to rest outside of the fridge but always cover it in cling film for at least 5 minutes. However, if you do have time to leave it in the fridge for 30 minutes, it will be easier to stretch.
10. Once your dough has rested, it's is ready for you to shape it!
11. Unwrap the dough and flatten it with a wooden rolling pin. Roll out the dough into thin pasta sheets, around 1mm thick so that your dough is very thin (to do this you need to make some space on your work table). 
12. If the dough ends up in a weird circle shape, then trim the edges with a knife to make it into a square/rectangle shape.
13. Once your pasta dough has been trimmed, it is ready for shaping.
14. To make tagliatelle, sprinkle some flour over the dough, so that the flour is covering all of the surface of the dough.
15. Now fold the pasta along the longest edge from the top into the middle to make a fold. Then take your pasta from the bottom and also fold this into the middle so that both sides of the pasta meet in the middle. Fold each fold of pasta again to leave you with layers of pasta. (Check out the photos to see how this should look!).
16. Then with a sharp knife start to cut the layers into ribbons, about 1/2 centimetre large (not less or you will end up with taglierini, a smaller version of tagliatelle).
17. Uncurl the tagliatelle and then sprinkle with some semolina to avoid the ribbons sticking to each other.   
18. To make pappardelle, follow the same process:
19. Sprinkle flour on top of the dough so that the flour is covering all of the surface of the dough.
20. Now fold the pasta along the longest edge from the top into the middle to make a fold. Then take your pasta from the bottom and also fold this into the middle so that both sides of the pasta meet in the middle. Fold each fold of pasta again to leave you with layers of pasta. (As before, check out the photos to see how this should look!).
21. Then with a sharp knife start to cut the layers into ribbons, about 3 centimetres large.
22. Uncurl the pappardelle and then sprinkle with some semolina to avoid the ribbons sticking each other.   ​

Now, how should you store fresh pasta? If you are not going to cook your pasta right away, then take a wooden board, sprinkle it with semolina and let the pasta dry on the board for around 15 minutes. After this, loosely fold the pasta or form them into small nests. Let the pasta dry again for another 15 minutes, before wrapping it and keeping it refrigerated for up to 48 hours.

Now that you have your pasta, you're ready to add a beautiful Italian sauce. Head to our recipes for the perfect sauces to combine with your fresh pasta! ​