Homemade pasta
This basic recipe for homemade pasta is a great way of getting kids in the kitchen. It’s really easy and only has 2 ingredients – perfect for little chefs!
Homemade pasta is a fantastic thing to make with your kids. It’s not the sort of thing to do if you want to get dinner on the table quickly, but if you’ve got an hour or so to kill at the weekend it’s perfect.
I first made pasta from scratch with my kids as I wanted to show them what goes into it. Up until then, they thought it was just something that comes in a packet from the supermarket. There’s something really satisfying about turning only a few ingredients into something tasty that we eat all the time.
What is the best flour for pasta?
Most recipes for homemade pasta use grade ’00’ flour but we couldn’t find any so just used the plain flour we always have in the house. So while I know 00 flour is perfect for making pasta, ours was still really tender and delicious so I wouldn’t worry if your local supermarket doesn’t stock 00 flour either.
We used a pasta a machine to machine to roll our pasta, but if you don’t have one you can just use a rolling pin. Divide the pasta dough so you’re not doing too much at one time and just roll it as thinly as you can.
How can kids help make homemade pasta?
Pasta is actually pretty easy to make and a great recipe for kids to try. Making the pasta dough is very simple – you just need to mix together the eggs and flour, so kids of any age can help with that.
Kneading the pasta is similar to kneading bread so if your kids enjoy getting their hands messy, this is a fun job for them.
Finally, if you have a pasta machine your kids will love helping you to feed the pasta through and see it come out the other side. It’s a slightly more unusual kitchen job which my kids really enjoyed.
Other pasta recipes for kids
If your children enjoy making this pasta, they might enjoy making and eating some of these pasta recipes:
Creamy Italian sausage pasta
Chicken and red pesto pasta
Roasted red pepper pasta
Creamy lemon chicken pasta
Sausage pasta
Slow cooker bolognese
Bacon mac and cheese
Chicken and chorizo pasta
Difficulty: A wee bit harder
Serves: 4 people
Time: 1 hour
Ingredients
300g plain flour plus extra for dusting
3 eggs
How to make fresh pasta
Make the pasta dough
Get your kids to weigh the flour into a bowl. You can add a pinch of salt for flavour if you like.
Make a well in the middle of the flour and crack your eggs into it.
If your kids are young and still practising cracking eggs get them to do it in a small bowl first and then add them to your flour, to make sure no shell goes in.
Use a fork to beat the eggs until they are smooth. Keep mixing, add a little flour at a time. Keep going until everything is mixed in. If you need to, use your hands to bring it together.
Knead the pasta dough
Once your dough has come together you need to knead it to develop the gluten and make it nice and springy, like an Italian Nonna would make it.
My kids love getting to knead anything so this is a fun step. Simply get your kids to pull at the dough, bash it, stretch it, and squash it. If it’s too sticky add a little flour and keep kneading until the dough starts to feel smooth and silky. It will take a while (5-10) minutes but it’s worth the effort to get the best pasta.
When it’s ready, wrap it in cling-film and pop it in the fridge to rest for half and hour or so.
Make the homemade pasta
We have a pasta machine which makes life a lot easier when you’re making pasta. If you don’t you can still make pasta – just roll it out as thinly as possible with a rolling pin. Whether you are using a rolling pin or pasta machine, it’s easiest if you start with a small piece of your dough, so take a portion and re-wrap the rest with your cling film so it doesn’t dry up.
If you are using a pasta machine, clamp it on to a clean work surface. Make sure it’s a long one without any clutter as you’ll need the space. Give your work surface a sprinkle of flour to stop the dough sticking later.
Start with a small piece of dough and flatten it with your hands. Set your pasta machine to its widest setting and roll the pasta through it. If it sticks, sprinkle the dough with a little flour. Fold the dough in half and feed it through again. It should go through a bit easier the second time around. Repeat this step a few more times – once you’ve done it five or six times it will feel different. It’ll be smooth and silky just the way pasta should be.
Now you can keep rolling the pasta through the machine starting with the widest setting and going down through each setting until you get to the narrowest – or if you are making something like tagliatelle stop one or two up from the narrowest. Keep dusting it with flour if you need to to stop it sticking.
Making pasta with a pasta machine is easier with more than one pair of hands so it’s a great way of getting kids busy in the kitchen.
If you’ve got more than one child helping, get one to turn the machine’s handle while the other feeds the pasta in the top and catches it as it comes out the bottom and then spreads it gently along your work surface. You may need to help a little to make sure the pasta goes through smoothly.
We wanted to make tagliatelle so once we had our sheet of pasta used a separate tagliatelle setting on our pasta machine. We simply, fed the pasta sheet through and it cut it into strips for us.
Once the pasta is ready hang it up to dry while you roll the rest. You can get special drying racks but we just put ours over our (clean) clothes drying rack! If you want to make it easier to dry and save for later, allow it to dry a little (not fully) hanging up, then carefully roll it around your hand into bundles and leave to dry fully. You an store it in a airtight container for a day or so.
Cook the fresh pasta
To cook the pasta, add it to a pot of simmering water. It doesn’t take long to cook in comparison with dried pasta from the supermarket. Just a few minutes will do.
Serve with a tasty home-made pasta sauce, like this roasted red pepper sauce or our hidden veg sauce.
Homemade pasta
in the kitchen. It’s really easy and only has 2 ingredients – perfect
for little chefs!
Ingredients
- 300 g plain flour plus extra for dusting
- 3 eggs
Instructions
Make the pasta dough
- Wthe flour into a bowl. You can add a pinch of salt for flavour if you like.
- Make a well in the middle of the flour and crack your eggs into it.
- Use a fork to beat the eggs until they are smooth. Keep mixing, add a little flour at a time. Keep going until everything is mixed in. If you need to, use your hands to bring it together.
Knead your pasta dough
- Once your dough has come together you need to knead it to develop the gluten and make it nice and springy, like an Italian Nonna would make it. Knead it for 5-10 minutes until it is smooth.
Make the homemade pasta
- We have a pasta machine which makes life a lot easier when you're making pasta. If you don't you can still make pasta – just roll it out as thinly as possible with a rolling pin. Whether you are using a rolling pin or pasta machine, it's easiest if you start with a small piece of your dough, so take a portion and re-wrap the rest with your cling film so it doesn't dry up.
- If you are using a pasta machine, clamp it on to a clean work surface. Make sure it's a long one without any clutter as you'll need the space. Give your work surface a sprinkle of flour to stop the dough sticking later.
- Start with a small piece of dough and flatten it with your hands. Set your pasta machine to its widest setting and roll the pasta through it. If it sticks, sprinkle the dough with a little flour. Fold the dough in half and feed it through again. It should go through a bit easier the second time around. Repeat this step a few more times – once you've done it five or six times it will feel different. It'll be smooth and silky just the way pasta should be.
- Now you can keep rolling the pasta through the machine starting with the widest setting and going down through each setting until you get to the narrowest – or if you are making something like tagliatelle stop one or two up from the narrowest. Keep dusting it with flour if you need to to stop it sticking.
- We wanted to make tagliatelle so once we had our sheet of pasta used a separate tagliatelle setting on our pasta machine. We simply, fed the pasta sheet through and it cut it into strips for us.
- Once the pasta is ready hang it up to dry while you roll the rest. You can get special drying racks but we just put ours over our (clean) clothes drying rack!
Cook the fresh pasta
- To cook the pasta, add it to a pot of simmering water. It doesn't take long to cook in comparison with dried pasta from the supermarket. Just a few minutes will do.
- Serve with a tasty home-made pasta sauce, like this roasted red pepper sauce or our hidden veg sauce.
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