Learning to make pasta at home will change your world, and how you feel about Italian food heritage. It’s not expensive to make (it’s mainly flour and egg after all) and gives onlookers a chance to get involved in the cooking action.
You can use this pasta dough recipe for every type of pasta you can possibly imagine – spaghetti, tagliatelle, lasagne… the list goes on. It works wonders with ravioli (learn how to make ravioli), and once you’ve mastered it you are a pasta machine or ravioli stamp away from professional Italian cuisine.

Dough ingredients:
600g doppio zero flour*
6 large eggs

TIP: Most Italian pasta recipes insist on using 00 flour, or doppio zero. This is a finely-milled flour (almost like powder) but not always easy to find here in SA and it can be pricey. As an alternative, use a combination of cake flour and semolina (600g doppio zero flour = 450g cake flour and 150g semolina)*.

Method:
If you have a food processor, making pasta dough is easy – just put all the dough ingredients in the bowl and mix using the dough hook attachment. Mix until your mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. If you don’t have a processor, make a mound with the flour, create a well in the middle and crack your eggs into it. With clean hands, work the egg and flour together until course breadcrumbs form.

Knead and work the dough on a lightly-floured surface – this develops the gluten so your pasta ends up al dente rather than springy. Hit the dough with your fists, stretch it until it feels like your arms are bidding their sockets farewell, and keep at it until the dough is beautifully smooth and elastic. Cover in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least half an hour before using.
And there you have it, a simple pasta dough in minutes (before you know it your family will be calling you Luigi).

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