Fresh Pasta Dough
Submitted by ameth
Eggless fresh pasta dough with just semolina, water, and olive oil. Makes silky homemade noodles that cook in 2 minutes by hand, stand mixer, or food processor.
YIELD
4 servingsPREP
28 minCOOK
2 minREADY
60 minThis is the southern Italian-style eggless pasta dough, built on durum semolina, water, and a splash of olive oil. It’s the opposite philosophy from rich egg-yolk dough: leaner, slightly chewier, and naturally dairy-free and vegan. The same approach that traditional Italian grandmothers in Puglia and Sicily have used for centuries.
Pure semolina is what makes the difference. Its high protein content gives the dough strength and elasticity without eggs to bind everything together. Combined with a tablespoon of olive oil, the result rolls into thin sheets that hold their shape under sauce.
The 30-minute rest is non-skippable. Gluten relaxes during the rest, which lets the dough roll thin without springing back. Skip it and you’ll fight the pasta machine all the way to a tear.
The crumbly first pass through the rollers is normal, not a sign of failure. As the directions correctly note, a few extra passes turn that ragged dough smooth and stretchy. Trust the process; don’t add extra water.
Fresh pasta cooks in 2 minutes flat, not the 8 to 10 of dried boxed pasta. Have your sauce ready, your water salted and rolling, and a colander in the sink before the pasta goes in.
Pro Tips
- Use fine durum semolina labeled “semola rimacinata” if you can find it. It hydrates more evenly than coarse semolina.
- Salt the cooking water aggressively. Pasta gets its only seasoning from the water; under-salted water means bland pasta.
- Let the rolled sheets dry slightly (5 to 10 minutes) before cutting. Tacky pasta sticks in the cutter; properly air-dried sheets feed through cleanly.
- Save a cup of pasta water before draining. The starchy liquid loosens and binds pasta sauce better than plain water.
Variations
- Add 1 egg in place of 2 tablespoons of the water for a slightly richer dough that’s still mostly traditional.
- Knead in a tablespoon of tomato paste for a red-tinted pasta dough.
- Use a 50/50 blend of semolina and all-purpose flour for a softer dough that’s easier for beginners to roll.
Ingredients
Directions
Our favorite 3-ingredient homemade fresh pasta recipe that is easy to make by hand, in a stand mixer, or in a food processor.
Combine the above ingredients to make a smooth dough. This takes a bit of elbow grease, or to make it easy using a stand mixer with a dough hook or use a food processor.
Wrap in a towel and set aside for 30 minutes to relax.
[Meanwhile, create or heat up your pasta sauce]
After the 30 minutes, [start the water boiling] divide the dough in half and roll out each half, allowing the first sheet of pasta to sit while rolling out the second.
When the sheets are dryish, cut according to how you like your pasta.
The pasta machine we have instructions recommends rolling and folding in half before rerolling.
After rolling, you are supposed to sprinkle some flour between the two halves.
If you create a dry enough dough, then you do not need to do this.
In fact, the first time through the rollers, my dough is pretty crumbly at the edges, but a few more passes makes the dough much more workable, and it quickly becomes smooth and stretchy, resulting in perfect noodles.
Cook for about 2 minutes in salted boiling water or until your desired doneness. Fresh pasta cooks much more quickly than dried pasta.
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