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pasta dough

breaking down the basics

Picking the right dough

Deciding if you want to make egg-based pasta or water-based pasta depends on the tools that you have on hand and the shapes you like. Here is my synopsis on the differences you will find between the two doughs:

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Opt for Egg-Pasta Dough when you're cooking for more people, it's a lot easier to make 100 noodles using a machine vs. the hand shaping you'll typically find with water-semola dough. You'll need a rolling pin or a pasta machine.

Opt for Semola-Pasta Dough if you love working with your hands and have no tools in sight. An extruder would be ideal, but my guess is that if you're coming to my site for pasta tips you probably don't have one of those.

Egg Pasta Recipe & TipsSemola-Water Recipe & Tips
FULL RECIPE & TIPS

EGG PASTA

Lasagna drawing

Opt for Egg-Pasta Dough when you're cooking for more people, it's a lot easier to make 100 noodles using a machine vs. the hand shaping you'll typically find with water-semola dough.

TOOLS

Best case scenario for Egg-Pasta would be a Pasta Machine. Don’t have that? A rolling pin works too!

Extras: Digital scale, bench scraper, ziploc, wide-bowl or food processor

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SHAPES

Ribbon-Pasta: Pappardelle, Tagliatelle, Lasagna, Tagliolini

Filled-Pasta: Ravioli, Tortellini, Caramelle, Fagottini, Cannelloni, Agnolotti, Cappelletti, Garganelli, Farfalle, Gigli

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RECIPE

Grams
Convert to cups


Serves 4 people

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275 g Tipo '00' Flour

75 g Semola Flour

185 g Liquid (~ 3 eggs + a splash of water)

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Serves 4 people

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2 cups Tipo '00' Flour

2/3 cup Semola Flour

3 eggs

2 tbs water

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Try to avoid making making pasta using cup measurements if you can! It's much harder to determine the proper hydration ratio.

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PROCESS

  1. Prepare your work station. You can use a food processor, a wide-based bowl or your countertop. My personal preference is to use a food scale and a bowl. This means I don't have to measure anything ahead of time. I put the bowl right on the scale, hit tare/zero, and add each ingredient one at a time. Don't have a scale? Select "Convert to cups" above.
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  2. ‍Create the well. Add both types of flour to the bowl. Find a smaller bowl to leave a deep indent in the flour mound. I like the well to be wide and deep so I know the liquid will stay. Add the eggs one at a time, noting the weight. I find that most eggs are around 50g each so I am adding very little water to get the liquid content up to 185g.
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  3. Dry the wets. Whisk the eggs with a fork and slowly start to incorporate flour from the sides. I use a fork until most of the egg mixture is covered in flour and progressively move to a bench scraper and then to my hands.
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  4. Kneading. It might feel sticky or dry at first. Don't add anything until after the first minute of kneading. Use tiny rotations and knead for 8-10 minutes. If you cut your dough in half, you can tell if you kneaded properly by finding lots of little holes in the cross-section.
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  5. Cover completely & rest. I prefer a reusable ziploc to cover my dough but plastic wrap works too. Allow dough to rest for 30 minutes at room temperature. After resting, your dough is ready to become a shape!

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‍Check out my shape gallery for ideas.

FULL RECIPE & TIPS

SEMOLA & WATER PASTA

capunti hand made drawing pasta
capunti shape drawing pasta

Opt for Semola-Pasta Dough if you love shorter pasta and working with your hands.

TOOLS

Best case scenario for semola-dough would be an extruder. But those are expensive and you can just use your hands. Be prepared for this to take longer than rolling out noodles.

Extras: Butter knife, digital scale, bench scraper, garganelli board, ziploc, wide-bowl or food processor

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SHAPES

Pici, Orecchiette, Gnocchetti Sardi, Trofie, Capunti, Busiate, Cavatelli

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RECIPE

Grams
Convert to cups


Serves 4 people‍

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300 g Semola Flour

185 g Hot Water

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Serves 4 people

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2 + 2/3 cup Semola Flour

3/4 cup water

‍

Try to avoid making making pasta using cup measurements if you can! It's much harder to determine the proper hydration ratio.

‍

PROCESS

  1. Prepare your work station. You can use a food processor, a wide-based bowl or your countertop. My personal preference is to use a food scale and a bowl. This means I don't have to measure anything ahead of time. I put the bowl right on the scale, hit tare/zero, and add each ingredient one at a time. Don't have a scale? Select "Convert to cups" above.
    ‍
  2. Create the well. Add semola flour to the bowl. Find a smaller bowl to leave a deep indent in the flour mound. I like the well to be wide and deep so I know the liquid will stay. Add hot water. I boil mine in a kettle and pour right into the well.
    ‍
  3. Wet the dry. Using a fork, slowly start to incorporate flour from the sides. I use a fork until most of the water is lost in the flour and progressively move to a bench scraper and then to my hands.
    ‍
  4. Kneading. It might feel sticky or dry at first. Don't add anything until after the first minute of kneading. Use tiny rotations and knead for 8-10 minutes.
    ‍
  5. Cover completely & rest. I prefer a reusable ziploc to cover my dough but plastic wrap works too. Allow dough to rest for 30 minutes at room temperature. After resting, your dough is ready to become a shape!

‍

‍Check out my shape gallery for ideas.

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